What is Project 2025?

Project 2025, a presidential transition project created by the Heritage Foundation, has become a political lightning rod in recent weeks. It has garnered criticism from both Democrats and former President Donald Trump, and on July 30 the project’s director, Paul Dans, resigned. Yet it’s merely the latest in a line of Heritage policy proposals for incoming presidents. The think tank created its first such proposal in 1981 for the Reagan administration. The latest iteration, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, consists of nearly 900 pages of policy ideas in five categories: taking the reins of government, the common defense, the general welfare, the economy, and independent regulatory agencies.

What does the document say? It calls for a litany of conservative priorities, including a federal limit on abortion, a simplified tax system, a stricter credible-­fear test for asylum-seekers, a pornography ban, and consolidation of government agencies, among other things. For example, the authors recommend combining U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to create a new border security agency. In another proposal, the document’s section on energy recommends sunsetting the Department of Energy’s loan authority and eventually eliminating the Loan Programs Office, which finances energy infrastructure projects, citing a distortion between public and private sectors. While the project doesn’t include specific language for consideration by members of Congress, its proposals suggest ways in which policymakers could update existing law.

What’s the Democratic criticism of Project 2025? Democrats have used the document for election messaging, denouncing it as a crystallization of former President Donald Trump’s top priorities. “It’s dangerous, it’s dastardly, and it’s diabolical,” proclaimed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y, at a July press conference. “The extreme MAGA Republican agenda is to jam Trump’s Project 2025 down the throats of the American people.”

What does Trump say about it? The former president claims no affiliation with the effort. “I know nothing about Project 2025,” he stated on social media in July. “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.”

Do Project 2025’s policy proposals differ from Trump’s? Trump has cited a few key differences. For example, Mandate for Leadership calls on a Republican president to “work with Congress to enact the most robust protections for the unborn that Congress will support.” By contrast, at a meeting in June, Trump encouraged House Republicans to avoid any messaging calling for a national ban on abortion. His position is that abortion policies should remain at the state level.

Don’t Project 2025’s contributors have links to the Trump administration? Of the project’s 34 authors, 20 held roles either directly in the Trump administration or worked in federal agencies during its tenure. Christopher Miller, who authored the project’s section on the Department of Defense, served as acting secretary of defense and directed the National Counterterrorism Center under Trump. Dans, the former Project 2025 director, served as Trump’s chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Despite Dans’ departure, Heritage President Kevin Roberts said the project’s next phase—building a personnel database of potential Trump administration hires—would continue.