What is Project 2025 and why is Donald Trump now embracing it?

Donald Trump has decided to embrace “Project 2025” the blueprint for governance developed by American conservative thinkers.

Project 2025 was originally set out as a policy and personnel “playbook” should Trump win re-election, aiming to quickly implement sweeping changes across the federal government. During the 2024 election campaign, Trump disavowed Project 2025, distancing himself from the content and its creators, claiming he knew nothing about it or the people involved.

“I’m not going to read it,” Mr. Trump said at his first presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris. “Everybody knows what I am going to do.”

However, that has changed since his second-term inauguration. Key contributors and authors involved in Project 2025 have been placed in influential roles within the Trump administration, ensuring policy proposals are swiftly enacted.

Its origins are as a comprehensive conservative policy and personnel initiative designed to prepare for a transition into a new Republican administration. The present version was produced by The Heritage Foundation and an alliance of over 100 conservative organizations.

The 900-page playbook is being enacted, with hundreds of objectives tracked and completed by federal agencies and the White House. It has garnered widespread attention due to its scale and intent to replace thousands of civil servants with loyalists and roll back what are deems to be progressive regulations and programs. To date 48 per cent of its objectives have been implemented.

The core aim is to impose sweeping changes in U.S. government structure and policy. This includes dismantling the so-called “administrative state,” consolidating executive power under the president, eliminating certain federal agencies, dismissing senior civil servants, and rolling back regulations regarding environment, civil rights, and diversity. The project also calls for significant changes to abortion policies, LGBT rights, and education, among other areas.

Centralizing executive power in the White House, it consists of four main components : a policy guide (“Mandate for Leadership 2025”), a database of vetted conservative personnel, candidate training (the “Presidential Administration Academy”), and a 180-day playbook for executive actions.

Project 2025 builds directly on a tradition of conservative transition planning , most notably the “Mandate for Leadership” framework first published by The Heritage Foundation in 1981 for Ronald Reagan’s incoming administration, influencing how Reagan reorganized the federal government.

Heritage and allied think tanks produced similar blueprints for subsequent Republican transitions , including those for George W. Bush in 2001 and Donald Trump in 2016, but Project 2025 is the most expansive to date.

A few days into the federal government shutdown, Trump has spoken on social media about meeting with Russell Vought — one of Project 2025’s chief architects and the director of the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) — to coordinate his administration’s handling of federal workers .

“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, on Oct. 2.

He continued: “I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.”

This prompted former Vice President Kamala Harris to tweet that this was “always” Trump’s plan and “he’s implementing it right in front of our eyes.”

This was always the plan.Project 2025 was Donald Trump's blueprint to seize unchecked power within the federal government and restrict Americans' freedoms. And he is implementing it right in front of our eyes. pic.twitter.com/rsU6So6tyN

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 2, 2025

Vought is an American government official and conservative political strategist. He is recognized as creating a sweeping conservative policy agenda designed to reorganize the federal government according to Trump-aligned priorities.

He was also director of the Office of Management and Budget during the first Trump administration.

Vought’s career spans over two decades in Washington, including key roles as deputy OMB director, vice president of Heritage Action for America, and in leadership positions with several Republican policy organizations. He has played a leading role in drafting budget reforms, pushing for executive branch power, and advocating for deep cuts in federal spending and restructuring several agencies.

His tenure has been marked by efforts to centralize power within the executive , utilize government shutdowns strategically, and implement far-reaching administrative changes.

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