Donald Trump spent his presidential campaign running away from Project 2025, but is now using it to gather intelligence for the White House and government.
In recent days, President Trump has named nearly half a dozen authors and contributors to Project 2025, including Brendan Carr, whom he nominated this week to lead the FCC. Former Congressman Pete Hoekstra has been nominated to be ambassador to Canada. John Ratcliffe was selected to head the CIA. Tom Homan, one of President Trump’s first picks to play the “border czar,” was also a Project 2025 contributor.
The next Project 2025 graduate to join the administration could be Russ Vought, the president-elect’s former director of the Office of Management and Budget, whose return to the job is being closely considered, Politico reported this week. That’s despite President Trump once calling the group’s work “absolutely ridiculous and awful” and transition team leader Howard Lutnick saying the group has “nuclear-armed” itself. It is.
No more.
“The Trump administration does not believe Project 2025 is harmful,” said Michael Cannon, director of health policy at the CATO Institute, which advised the Heritage Foundation project but declined to be named as one of the authors. Ta. “So it’s not surprising that some of the people who contributed to that effort are picked up by the administration.”
Project 2025 graduates are now slated to play important roles in his administration, particularly on the economy, immigration, and the dismantling of the administrative state.
And Cannon quipped that Trump’s transition is “doing its best to make Project 2025 look plausible” in light of the latest round of controversial cabinet nominees.
Still, there are limits. Roger Severino, an anti-abortion activist who played a key role at HHS during the first Trump administration and was the lead author of the health care chapter of Project 2025, was told by President Trump’s transition team that his job He was denied the number two job at the agency because of his job duties. Participation in the project. Anti-abortion groups lobbied hard for his nomination., But the Trump campaign is moving away from strict federal restrictions on abortion called for by Severino in Project 2025, after making good on a promise to leave the issue to the states.
It’s unclear whether the influence of Project 2025 alumni has truly disappeared, even though President Trump repeatedly disavowed the project during his campaign, as Vought did. Despite these statements, Vought played a key role behind the scenes, working with Trump allies such as campaign policy director Vince Haley and former Trump campaign trade director Robert Lighthizer to discuss trade and economic issues. He has been informally advising the Trump campaign on policy.
Mr. Vought authored sections of the Heritage report on federal spending and regulation and Project 2025 cuts. 180 day migration paybook. During an appearance on X’s Tucker Carlson’s show, he joined Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in pursuing “massive deregulation” and talking about cutting the number of full-time federal employees and contractors. He said he would work “as radically and aggressively as possible.”
Officials at the Heritage Foundation said they wanted to clarify their position after the election amid a tough summer in which some prominent Republicans, including top Trump campaign operatives like senior adviser Chris LaCivita, criticized the group. I was already hoping that it would be significantly improved. Throughout much of 2024, the think tank took the position that “we’re going to tone it down a little bit and be quiet,” said a Heritage official who granted anonymity to speak freely.
But by October, there were already signs that “wariness about Project 2025 and Heritage had waned,” giving way to the swift appointment of Heritage fellows and Project 2025 contributors to the new Trump administration, the official said. said.
Congressman at last week’s book launch party for Heritage Chairman Kevin Roberts (whose September publication date was postponed until after the election due to concerns about the Project 2025 brand). ralph norman (R.S.C.) was one of several members of Congress who was there to support the organization.
“I told Kevin I thought it would be helpful,” Norman told Politico, referring to all the backlash and hand-wringing that has occurred in recent months surrounding Heritage and Project 2025. argued that it would ultimately be useful for organizations implementing the plan.
But that’s certainly not how Trump’s team saw things for several months.
Democrats were successful in raising awareness of the group’s plan, and the effort began in February and gained momentum by early summer. Voters began picking up Project 2025 organically in focus groups conducted for President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign. Google searches began to increase and peaked in July.
Just as Trump himself released a statement on Truth Social, writing that “some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and awful” and claiming that he has “no idea who’s behind it.” It was around that time.
Feeling threatened, MAGA Inc., a major pro-Trump super PAC, is launched.Your own Project 2025 website This summer, it called it a “hoax” and tried to capture search traffic from concerned voters.
But those close to Project 2025 stress that President Trump is unlikely to fully adopt its recommendations.
“It is in no way accurate to say that Project 2025 was on President Trump’s agenda,” Cannon said. “But he is certainly friendly to some of Project 2025, especially the most worrying and repressive parts like immigration restrictions.”
For example, the report’s trade chapter included separate discussions of free trade and protectionist policies, reflecting Trump’s deep divisions within the world over tariffs.
“Remember, Heritage magazine gave 30 pages to defending free trade,” Cannon added. “So it includes things that Trump doesn’t like and would never do.”
For Democrats, the hiring spree comes as a disturbing, if not unexpected, turn of events during the transition. During the presidential campaign, Democrats worked hard to tie President Trump to the Blueprint, a controversial conservative hard line. President Joe Biden’s rapid response team decided to begin tackling the issue in earnest in February, according to a person with direct knowledge of the strategy, and it ultimately led to Biden’s decision to address the issue in a June debate. Efforts are said to have begun in earnest ahead of his collapse. After Kamala Harris became the top Democratic candidate to replace Biden, she spent at least $5 million trying to tie Trump to Project 2025, according to AdImpact.
In response, President Trump distanced himself from the project and has now turned to some of the authors for roles within his administration.
“This is the most amazing thing I’ve seen in this administration,” said Michigan Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a candidate for Democratic National Committee chair, as she held up an oversized version of the 900-page policy plan at the Democratic National Convention. That’s not true.” I was against it in prime time. “You look at what 140 members of the former Trump administration were involved in writing and don’t believe for a second that he had no idea what this was. I mean, yeah, it’s like, ‘You know what? I don’t want to say I told you that, but I told you that.”
