It goes without saying the outcome of the 2024 general election was less than ideal for the future of America.
Despite a historic nearly 100-day-long campaign, Kamala Harris failed to secure a victory, and on Jan. 20, 2025, the United States will return to where it was nearly eight years ago when Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th president.
Throughout his campaign, Trump was haunted by the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 — a plan crafted by Trump allies and former Trump appointees, laying out every federal government agency and how the next conservative president could do away with Biden administration directives and organize around right wing ideals.
Some of these ideas go way beyond conservatives’ traditional approach of limiting the federal government by cutting federal taxes and slashing federal spending. Instead, the mandate suggests gutting the “administrative state” from within by purging federal employees and initiatives believed to stand in the way of a conservative president’s agenda. From there, the president could replace those pushed out with more “like-minded” officials to help fulfill the mission behind Project 2025.
And that’s already happening, even before Trump puts his right hand on the Bible to be sworn into office in January. Despite disavowing the makeshift manifesto, saying he “had nothing to do with Project 2025,” Trump’s transition team has named multiple people directly tied to the initiative into positions where they could implement those policies proposed in the 920-page document.
It’s clear Trump’s plan for America isn’t just a concept: It was always to implement Project 2025 into every aspect of American governance.
What Is Project 2025?
There are four elements, or “pillars,” that make up Project 2025: policy, personnel, training and playbook. The initiative lays out its plan for policy in a nearly 1,000 page makeshift manifesto called Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise.
The project’s funding arm, the Heritage Foundation, is working to create a database of tens of thousands of folks willing to serve in the next conservative administration. Interested parties fill out a questionnaire, which will be analyzed and reviewed before being added to the Presidential Personnel Database.
The third pillar, training, establishes something called the Presidential Administration Academy. The Heritage Foundation describes the academy as a “one-of-a-kind educational and skill-building program designed to prepare and equip future political appointees now to be ready on day one of the next conservative Administration.”
The last pillar is one of the most crucial for Project 2025: the playbook. Within the Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, conservatives lay out a plan for the first 180 days for the next conservative president. The plan proposed: cracking down intensely on immigration, vanquishing LGBTQ+ and abortion rights, diminishing environmental protections, overhauling financial policy and taking aggressive action against China.
Project 2025’s Vision for LGBTQ+ Americans (or Lack Thereof)
Critics of Project 2025 have called out the Heritage Foundation and other organizations involved in the project for the “dehumanizing” language directed toward LGBTQ+ people within the 920 page roadmap.
Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, set the tone regarding the attitude toward LGBTQ+ Americans in his introduction of the mandate.
“Children suffer the toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries … Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children … is not a political Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation and child welfare. It has no claim to first amendment protection.”
Roberts goes on to suggest various punishments for what he calls “Purveyors of pornography,” writing: “are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”
Progressive political scientist and activist Rachel Bitecofer sounded the alarm on Project 2025, saying it “purges the civil service of all (perceived) political ‘enemies’ [and] advises to ignore checks and balances of the constitution.”
“Clearly, they’re embracing ideology, not what the American public wants or needs,” Buchert said. “This is being driven by a far-right desire to turn America back to the 1920s, or even further back.
“It’s not just about LGBTQ+ people. It’s about women’s rights — It’s about the right to obtain education that reflects your existence as an African-American person in this country. There are so many strands where you can see it clearly being pushed by a small fraction of the country doggedly pursuing their ideology.”
Who Trump Has Hired From Project 2025
Trump has named many individuals affiliated with the Heritage Foundation to serve in his administration, some of which were there the first time around.
Russell Vought: Trump nominated Vought to head the Office of Management and Budget, which Vought served in during the president-elect’s first term. Vought authored Project 2025’s chapter on the Executive Office of the President of the United States and (allegedly) spearheaded the project’s plan for Trump’s first 180 days. Secret camera footage showed Vought expressing Trump had “blessed” the project and is “very supportive of what we do,” according to reporting from Forbes.
Brendan Carr: Already serving the Federal Communications Commission as one of five lower-ranking commissioners, Carr authored Project 2025’s chapter on the FCC. He proposed focusing on national security by making it easier to hold social media companies liable for content on their platforms, as well as banning TikTok (a move Trump doesn’t support).
Michael Anton: Picked to be director of policy planning at the State Department, Anton—who was the spokesperson at the National Security Council—was listed as a contributor to Project 2025’s chapter on the Executive Office of the President.
Tom Homan: Formerly the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Trump’s proposed “border czar” will return to the Trump administration. Homan is listed as a contributor to Project 2025 and a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center and is responsible for many articles written on the topic for the Heritage Foundation.
Monica Crowley: Crowley was assistant secretary of the Treasury during Trump’s first term. She contributed to Project 2025’s section on the Treasury Department, but this time Trump has tagged her in as assistant secretary of state. Her role will include serving as the representative for events like the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
Paul Atkins: Trump’s pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission was named as a contributor to Project 2025’s section on Federal Regulatory Agencies. This section called for broad changes at the SEC that gets rid of regulations believed to be “impediments” to companies’ success, as well as opposing social justice, sustainability, diversity and other similar initiatives in companies and corporations.
Peter Navarro: Trump’s former trade advisor, who has had his own myriad of legal battles as of late, was named as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing. Navarro authored a Project 2025 chapter on “the case for fair trade,” supporting more restrictions on trade such as the tariffs Trump campaigned on.
John Ratcliffe: Ratcliffe previously served as Trump’s director of national intelligence, and he’s credited as a contributor to Project 2025. In fact, the agenda’s chapter on the intelligence community referenced an interview with Ratcliffe about working in the first administration.
Senior Editor’s note: This is quite possibly what half of the country purportedly set in motion when they chose to cast their votes for Trump. However, it’s important to remember those pushing this hard line agenda are representative of what has been reported as approximately just one third of GOP voters, while many were seemingly oblivious to the potential fallout of Project 2025. Regardless, Trump is about to assume office. The potential for what this country may look like after the first “180 days” is particularly unsettling.