What is Project 2025? The Right-Wing Agenda Created by the Heritage Foundation
President Donald J. Trump boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020, en route to Erie International Airport in Erie, Pennsylvania (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour).
Will Donald Trump adopt Project 2025 in his next Presidential term? Learn more below about what this 900 page conservative handbook would look like if enforced.
Article by Ella Doda, Senior Political Correspondent
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - It has been two days since America found out that the incumbent, former President Donald Trump, will work in the White House once again. With a 295-226 win over Vice President Kamala Harris, what will policymaking look like for the next four years? Trump has secured the presidency along with the Senate majority. If the GOP wins the House, as they are currently ahead in the polls, President-elect Trump would have full partisan control on Capitol Hill. This allows him to push forth his political agenda, secure his Cabinet, and select justices if an opening in the Supreme Court arises. His agenda on divided issues like healthcare, gun policy, and taxes will be more likely to pass if the GOP takes control of the House. However, there are still dozens of races to be called.
If this does happen, Americans wonder what his agenda will look like. Throughout his campaign, Trump has brushed aside the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a right-wing agenda set now directly for him. Will he adopt this agenda now that he is elected? Many Americans and MAGA allies think so.
Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, Washington’s well-known right-wing think tank, spearheaded Project 2025 half way through President Biden’s term in 2022. The purpose of Project 2025 is to re-establish strong conservative governance with properly trained personnel to implement their policies. Various conservative organizations came together to create a 180-day playbook for the now President-elect Trump with policies, personnel, and training all laid out for his use. Despite its intended use for any conservative president that comes into office, many of the policy ideas are a direct reflection of Trump’s presented policy goals.
Project 2025 follows the “Mandate for Leadership” that the Heritage Foundation has provided for previous presidential administrations going back to the Reagan Administration. The Trump Administration adopted ⅔ of Heritage’s “Mandate for Leadership” in his previous term within the first one year. Allies and advisors, since Trump won the election, have now come onto social media expressing that Project 2025 was the plan all along. Previously, Trump tweeted, “I know nothing about Project 2025.” The extremism behind the plan could have dissuaded Americans from voting for Trump, which explains his avoidance on the topic since the beginning of his campaign. However, many of his close aides have collaborated on the work such as Russel Vought, the former Trump administration official, who wrote an important chapter in the document. The Harris campaign warned the world of the extremist, nationalist policy ideas that would be brought to the table if Trump and Project 2025 were elected, but the message of what exactly Project 2025 is remained unclear for many.
Project 2025 is a 900 page document that spans across the entire federal government from staffers to agencies. The four main goals of Project 2025, according to the Heritage Foundation and information from the BBC, is to 1) restore the family as the centerpiece of American life, 2) dismantle the administrative state, 3) defend the nation’s sovereignty and borders, 4) secure individual rights to live freely. Some of the policies proposed to accomplish these goals are included below.
GOVERNMENT
“Unitary Executive Theory” –placing the Department of Justice and independent agencies under direct presidential control. This allows the president to implement policies as they see fit, while replacing thousand of government employees to be potentially replaced by political representatives.
EDUCATION
Complete elimination of the Department of Education.
Eliminate DEI initiatives in school systems across the US a part of “woke” ideology.
Ban Critical Race Theory in higher education.
Condense Title IX to limit expaned definitions that help protect LGBTQIA+ students.
Repeal Biden’s Student Loan forgiveness programs.
ABORTION AND HEALTHCARE
Revoking FDA approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. Nearly ⅔ of clinicians in the US use this drug for safe medical abortions.
Requests Congress to codify the Hyde and Weldon Amendments, policies that restrict federal funding for abortion care.
Changing the Department of Health and Human Services into the Department of Life with an anti-abortion task force.
Eliminating Planned Parenthood facilities from state Medicaid programs.
Ending subsidies for stem cell or fetal cell research.
Eliminating all terms related to gender, gender equality, reproductive health, reproductive rights, abortion, sexual orientation and gender identity from all legislation and federal rules/regulations.
Recommends replacing sex education with absistence-only currciula.
Limits the health conditions that qualify veteras for disability statsus.
IMMIGRATION
Dismantling the Department of Homeland Security and increased funding for the US-Mexico border.
Allows Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to use “expediated removal” against immigrants anywhere in the county. Enables raids in school, hospital, and religious zones.
Expanding Immigrant “Detention” Centers.
Use of military personnel and wall constructoion to prevent crossing the border.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND ECONOMY
Calls for US to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the global commitment to climate action, and withdraw from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Repeal Biden’s clean energy policies.
Dismantle the Federal Reserve.
Shifting taxes that impact middle class families.
Lowering corporate tax rate to 18%. Last time corporate tax was cut it added $1.3 trillion to the deficit over a decade.
Creating a National Sales Tax, which increases price on goods and services.
Over the span of the 900 page document, these are some of the key policy plans that the Heritage Foundation has outlined for the next president, President-elect Trump. Overall, it aims at concentrating more power to the Executive Branch, which impacts the government’s foundation of checks and balances, while implementing longlasting conservative goals. Project 2025 has yet to be officially adopted by Trump, but many of the goals outlined above directly overlap with his current political ideals. These include, but are not limited to, immigration statutes and increased border patrol, dismantaling DEI and LGBTQ programs, eliminating the Department of Education, ignoring the importance of climate policies, and tax proposals that may benefit larger corporations and high-class Americans.
While there are similarities, there are also differences between Trump and Project 2025’s ideas, but until January 20, Americans won’t know fully what will be enacted or not. This hard-right 900 page document could widen the partisan divide in America more than we have ever seen before. Many of the ideas, if implemented, would directly impact women, children, minority communities, disabled individuals, LGBTQIA+ community, and low-income/working-class Americans. Project 2025 can have lasting impacts on social, economic, and political issues, specifically women’s healthcare, the climate, and access to fair and equitable education.