Will Trump implement the project in 2025? What is in the “transition plan”?

During the 2024 campaign, Democrats tried to tie former President Donald Trump to an unpopular policy bill called Project 2025, hoping it would scare voters away from him. It clearly didn't work well enough, and with Trump set to return to office next year with a Republican majority in the Senate and possibly the House, he could have wide latitude to impose his preferred policies.

So what is Project 2025 and how might it influence Trump's governing agenda after he takes office next January?

What is Project 2025?

Project 2025 is a “presidential transition project” created by the Heritage Foundation, a staunchly conservative think tank. Since 1981, after Reagan's first victory the previous year, the foundation has published a document called “Mandate for Leadership” every election cycle for nearly 40 years.

According to the Heritage Foundation, Reagan subsequently adopted or attempted to adopt nearly two-thirds of the 2,000 policy recommendations in the first “mandate” document.

Trump reportedly said five of the 11 justices he was considering for nomination to the Supreme Court seat opened by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia were selected by the Heritage Foundation.

The think tank, which advocates traditional conservative policies of “free enterprise, limited government… and strong national defense,” describes Project 2025 as a conservative “action plan.”

The document laying out the plan includes more than 900 pages of right-wing policy recommendations aimed at expanding the president's control over the Justice Department and the FBI, imposing nationwide restrictions on abortion access, rolling back environmental regulations and abolishing entire federal departments.

According to one

Is Trump connected to Project 2025?

The vast majority of writers and editors who worked on Project 2025 — 31 of 38 — have ties to Trump or his previous administration. They include Chris Miller, Trump's former acting defense secretary, Ken Cuccinelli, his acting deputy homeland security secretary, and Peter Navarro, his former White House adviser who was in prison for defying subpoenas from the committee overseeing Trump's attempts to overturn the election to steal, investigated.

Paul Dans, Trump's former chief of staff at the US Office of Personnel Management, was the director of Project 2025. Trump adviser Stephen Miller and his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt appeared in a video for the project's “Presidential Administration Academy.”

Vice President Kamala Harris tried to portray Trump as in step with Project 2025.

“What you will hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 that the former president wants to implement if he is re-elected,” Harris said in her only debate against Trump in September.

Trump has distanced himself from the project, claiming in a July Truth Social post that he “knows nothing about Project 2025.”

Trump campaign officials did not respond to a request for comment. The Heritage Foundation also did not respond to a request for comment.

What does Project 2025 propose?

Liberal think tanks and Democratic politicians have accused Project 2025 of trying to upend government and eliminate separations of powers to support a right-wing agenda. The plan is “the most conservative, unhinged and extreme agenda we have seen in modern times,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a news conference in September. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, it threatens to “undermine our democracy.”

Project 2025's proposals to restrict abortion access have drawn particular attention – the document says the Food and Drug Administration should reverse its approval of mifepristone, the drug used in nearly two-thirds of abortions in the United States, and Planned Ban Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funding.

Trump said in August he wouldn't rule out blocking access to the drug. During the election campaign, he enthusiastically took credit for overturning Roe v. Wade through the Supreme Court, which he paved the way for by appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court. But he also said he would veto a nationwide abortion ban.

Project 2025 calls for a major overhaul of the Justice Department, including a “significant expansion” of policy positions in the Civil Rights Division and the FBI.

Trump has similarly said he would bend the Justice Department to serve him politically – “If I happen to be president and I see someone who is doing well and is doing me very badly, I say, 'Go and sue him.' on,'” he told Univision in an interview last year. John Kelly, his former chief of staff, said Trump often spoke of “constant and obsessive” ideas about using the FBI and Internal Revenue Service to target his enemies.

Project 2025 supports drastic cuts to environmental regulations, from weakening the Clear Air Act to removing grizzly bears and other species from endangered species laws. The National Weather Service and five other offices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration “could be deployed commercially, likely at lower cost and higher quality,” the plan says.

Trump, who has sometimes called climate change a “hoax,” has promised to boost fossil fuel production and reduce pollution regulations. According to a New York Times analysis, he rolled back more than 100 environmental regulations during his previous term.

The plan calls for abolishing the Department of Education – Trump also said at a rally in Wisconsin in September that he would eliminate the department. It would eliminate regulations that require employers to pay workers overtime — under Trump, the Labor Department made millions of workers ineligible for overtime pay.

On immigration, Project 2025 calls for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to implement “expedited removal” of undocumented immigrants — a process typically only used at the border — and for ICE agents to be given the green light to enter “sensitive zones.” ” admit. According to the project, Congress should fund ICE to increase daily available detention center beds to 100,000.

Trump has repeatedly promised to order National Guard troops to help with mass deportations. He said he would activate provisions of the Alien Enemies Act, previously used during World War II to detain people of Japanese, German and Italian descent, and apply other emergency provisions.

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. You can reach her by email at [email protected]. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.

What is Project 2025?

Is Trump connected to Project 2025?

What does Project 2025 propose?

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