About a year into President Trump’s second term, his administration has pursued a series of actions that align with proposals in Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation-led policy blueprint he sought to distance himself from during the 2024 campaign. Democratic attorneys general say they prepared for those moves using the document and have challenged several policies in court, while the White House argues it is carrying out Trump’s campaign agenda.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Project 2025 — a Heritage Foundation-led plan that runs about 900 pages — became a political flashpoint, as Democrats warned it would remake the federal government.
Those concerns gained wider attention in mid-2024 when actress Taraji P. Henson referenced the project while hosting the BET Awards, telling viewers: “Pay attention. It’s not a secret. Look it up! … The Project 2025 plan is not a game.” (kpcw.org)
Trump repeatedly sought to distance himself from the initiative during the campaign, calling its ideas “ridiculous” and saying he had “nothing to do with Project 2025,” even as some people involved in developing the plan had served in his first administration. (kpcw.org)
At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, senior Trump adviser Chris LaCivita sharply criticized the project’s organizers, calling them “a pain in the a**” at an event hosted by CNN and Politico and arguing they did not control the campaign’s agenda. (kpcw.org)
After the election, Trump selected Russell Vought — described by NPR as an architect of Project 2025 — to lead the Office of Management and Budget, a powerful post that can shape policy across federal agencies. (kpcw.org)
In his inaugural address, Trump said, “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.” NPR reported that the administration also moved to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs, launched what it described as massive immigration enforcement, and began steps to overhaul the federal workforce, actions NPR said were outlined in Project 2025. (kpcw.org)
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said those early actions tracked closely with the blueprint. “A lot of the policies from Day 1 to the last day and in between that the administration has adopted are right out of Project 2025,” Bonta said. He added that the nation’s 23 Democratic attorneys general studied the document and coordinated potential responses. (kpcw.org)
Bonta said he has filed or joined lawsuits that blocked several administration actions, including policies aimed at requiring states such as California to cooperate with an immigration crackdown, a freeze of domestic federal funding, and layoffs at agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education. (kpcw.org)
The White House dismissed concerns about Project 2025, with spokeswoman Abigail Jackson saying Trump is implementing the agenda he campaigned on, including lowering gas prices, accelerating economic growth and securing the border. (kpcw.org)
Tevi Troy, a presidential historian and former aide in the George W. Bush White House, told NPR that Project 2025 largely reflected long-standing conservative policy ideas — though with “a bit more of a MAGA flavor” — and suggested Trump’s decision to disavow it during the campaign made it more politically potent. (kpcw.org)
Project 2025 director Paul Dans told NPR he views the administration’s actions as a validation of the project’s work, saying: “Every day that President Trump rolls out another Project 2025 item, it’s really an endorsement of our work.” NPR also reported Dans is running for the Senate in South Carolina, challenging Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. (kpcw.org)
NPR reported that Trump later embraced the project more openly during a government shutdown fight in fall 2025, posting that he would meet with Vought — “he of PROJECT 2025 Fame” — to decide which federal agencies to cut and whether those cuts would be temporary or permanent. (kpcw.org)
