What is Project 2025 and why is Donald Trump meeting with a man who helped write it?

U.S. President Donald Trump appears to be warming to “Project 2025,” the blueprint for governance developed by American conservative thinkers that he distanced himself from during the election.

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,” Trump said at his first presidential debate against then 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, a number of its policy proposals appear to have been enacted and Trump posted on social media about Project 2025 on Thursday.

Here’s what you need to know about Project 2025 and what Trump has said about it.

Its origins are as a comprehensive conservative policy and personnel initiative designed to prepare for a transition into a new Republican administration. The 900-page playbook was produced by The Heritage Foundation and an alliance of over 100 conservative organizations.

The Project 2025 website is tracking 318 objectives across 34 federal agencies. It has garnered widespread attention due to its scale and intent to replace thousands of civil servants with loyalists and roll back what are deemed to be progressive regulations and programs. To date, the website states that 48 per cent of its objectives have been implemented, including some by the White House itself.

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.

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.

While many of the policies outlined in its 900-plus pages align closely with the agenda that Trump was proposing during the election — particularly on curbing immigration and dismantling certain federal agencies — others called for action Trump had never discussed, like banning pornography, or Trump’s team was actively trying to avoid, like withdrawing approval for abortion medication.

“I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump insisted in July 2024. “I have no idea who is behind it. 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.”

Trump’s campaign chiefs were equally critical.

“President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the President in any way,” wrote Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita in a campaign memo. They added, “Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you.”

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 posted 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.”

The federal government was thrown into a shutdown on Oct. 1, as Democrats held firm to their demands to salvage health care subsidies that Trump and Republicans in Congress have dismissed as something to possibly discuss later.

Trump has seized on the government shutdown as an opportunity to reshape the federal workforce, threatening mass firings of workers and suggesting “irreversible” cuts to programs important to Democrats.

Trump’s post 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.”

Asked about Trump’s reversal, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, “Democrats are desperate to talk about anything aside from their decision to hurt the American people by shutting down the government.”

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.

In his chapter in the blueprint, Vought made clear he wanted the president and OMB to wield more direct power.

“The Director must view his job as the best, most comprehensive approximation of the President’s mind,” he wrote. Vought described OMB as “a President’s air-traffic control system,” which should be “involved in all aspects of the White House policy process,” becoming “powerful enough to override implementing agencies’ bureaucracies.”

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said on Fox News Channel that Vought “has a plan, and that plan is going to succeed in further empowering Trump. This is going to be the Democrats’ worst nightmare.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson echoed that message, insisting the government shutdown gives Trump and his budget director vast power over the federal government and the unilateral power to determine which personnel and policies are essential and which are not.

Trump has close ties with many of its authors, including John McEntee, his former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, and Paul Dans, former chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Trump has stocked his second administration with the project’s authors, including “border czar” Tom Homan, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller and Brendan Carr, who wrote Project 2025’s chapter on the Federal Communications Commission and now chairs the panel.

Heritage did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on Thursday. But Dans, the project’s former director, said it’s been “exciting” to see so much of what was laid out in the book put into action.

“It’s gratifying. We’re very proud of the work that was done for this express purpose: to have a doer like President Trump ready to roll on Day One,” said Dans, who is currently running for Senate against Lindsey Graham in South Carolina.

National Post, with additional reporting from The Associated Press

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