“I know nothing about Project 2025,” Donald Trump declared, distancing himself from the Heritage Foundation’s extensive policy agenda for the next Republican president. This statement comes despite the project’s deep connections to his own party platform committee and administration.
On January 21, 2025, imagine waking up in a state where Donald Trump appears on your TV, humorously deflecting blame while dressed in a hot dog suit. This surreal scenario captures the essence of Trump’s recent attempt to disassociate from Project 2025, a comprehensive 887-page policy agenda crafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Trump’s disavowal is surprising, given that he implemented nearly two-thirds of the Heritage Foundation’s policy recommendations during his first year in office. “I have no idea who is behind it,” Trump wrote, despite the fact that his close allies and former administration officials authored multiple chapters of the report. He added, “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”
Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee (RNC) is deeply intertwined with Project 2025. At least seven individuals involved in overhauling the party’s platform for Trump’s potential second term have connections to the project. Russell Vought, who served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s administration, is a key figure. Vought, now the policy director for the RNC’s 2024 platform committee, authored the chapter on the executive office of the president in Project 2025, outlining early policy priorities for the next Republican president.
Vought is also a leading contender for chief of staff in a potential second Trump administration and a former president of the Center for Renewing America, one of the organizations on Project 2025’s advisory board. Other notable figures include Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, and Ed Martin, president of the Eagle Forum, both of whom are involved in the RNC platform committee and connected to Project 2025.
Additionally, members of the RNC platform committee have ties to Turning Point USA, another advisory organization for Project 2025. David Barton and Chad Connelly, platform delegates from Texas and South Carolina respectively, have spoken at Turning Point USA events. Kimberly Guilfoyle, another RNC platform committee member, was paid $60,000 by Turning Point USA for a brief speech introducing her fiancé, Donald Trump Jr., at a rally on January 6, 2021.
Kevin Marino Cabrera, a platform delegate from Florida, has connections to the America First Legal Foundation, which has reportedly been tasked with helping to implement Project 2025. Cabrera, a veteran of the Trump 2020 campaign, worked at the group after Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.
The Project 2025 advisory board includes organizations led by former high-ranking Trump officials. Mark Meadows, former Trump chief of staff, leads the Conservative Partnership Institute, while Stephen Miller, a former Trump White House advisor, is the president of America First Legal. Johnny McEntee, a top Trump aide expected to serve in a potential second Trump administration, is a senior advisor for Project 2025. Troup Hemenway, Project 2025’s associate director, and Roger Severino, a former top Trump administration health care official, are also involved.
Gene Hamilton, who worked in Trump’s Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security, drafted the section on policy proposals for the next Department of Justice. Hamilton now heads America First Legal with Stephen Miller.
Given these extensive connections, Trump’s claim of ignorance about Project 2025 seems implausible. “Project 2025 is the extreme policy and personnel playbook for Trump’s second term that should scare the hell out of the American people,” said Ammar Moussa, rapid response director for President Joe Biden’s campaign. “Project 2025 staff and leadership routinely tout their connections to Trump’s team and are the same people leading the RNC policy platform and Trump’s debate prep, campaign, and inner circle.”
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 aims to institutionalize Trumpism, moving beyond Reaganite conservatism. The project includes a detailed agenda for each major federal department and agency, a secret compilation of executive orders and initiatives for the first 180 days of the administration, a recruitment platform for MAGA operatives, and a Presidential Administration Academy to train them.
Heritage’s new president, Kevin D. Roberts, emphasizes the need to bring the permanent bureaucracy to heel, reviving Trump’s “Schedule F” executive order to turn high-level civil service jobs over to political appointees. Instead of the usual 4,000 presidential political appointments, Roberts suggests aiming for 50,000 or more.
The project also targets “woke Marxism,” aiming to purge federal rules, regulations, and programs of terms like “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” The Department of Defense would be purged of “Marxist indoctrination and divisive critical race theory programs,” and policies allowing transgender individuals to serve would be terminated.
On the issue of abortion, the Department of Health and Human Services would be tasked with outlawing mifepristone, the abortion pill, and the Pentagon would be prohibited from using public money to facilitate abortions for service members.
Climate policies would also be dismantled, with scientific bodies purged and research terminated. The next administration would rescind all climate policies from foreign aid programs and cease collaborating with progressive foundations, corporations, or NGOs advocating for climate action.
On national security, the focus would be on ending “open borders,” confronting China, and extirpating “anti-human environmental extremism.” The project outlines ways to bar millions of undocumented immigrants from the country and use military funds to erect camps for detainees.
Heritage’s Mandate for Leadership also advocates for withdrawing from international organizations like the World Bank and the IMF, and terminating programs related to the Paris climate accord.
Despite Trump’s disavowal, Project 2025 represents a comprehensive and extreme policy agenda for a potential second Trump term, aiming to institutionalize Trumpism and reshape the federal government in a way that should concern all Americans.
Source: The Nation, Rolling Stone
