Project 2025, the right-wing plan to reshape the United States, has largely become a reality, according to the plan’s architect. The head of a major conservative think tank is now thanking President Trump for carrying out the radical plan since returning to office.
Org says Trump ‘deserves credit’ for implementing most of Project 2025 proposals
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts recently appeared on C-SPAN, where he was asked, “Did the president implement Project 2025 in this first year plus of his second term?” Declaring that Heritage has been presenting “presidential transition projects,” also known as “mandates for leadership,” for incoming presidents since 1980, Roberts explained that “what’s known as Project 2025 was done on such a scale that we proposed 1,913 recommendations. One thousand fifty-five, as we sit here, have been implemented. The person who deserves credit for that is one Donald J. Trump.”
The clip of Roberts boasting of the success of the Heritage Foundation’s proposals was reposted on social media by Headquarters, which recently relaunched as a liberal counterweight to conservative initiatives like Project 2025.
The right-wing Heritage Foundation was founded by conservative activists in 1973 and has been one of the most well-funded and influential think tanks in the United States. The organization has played a significant role in authoring and disseminating various pieces of conservative legislation, such as voter suppression bills that Republicans have promoted across the country. The organization has also opposed police reform measures and sought to discredit movements such as Black Lives Matter.
In 2022, Heritage published its most recent “Mandate for Leadership,” also known as Project 2025, as a 920-page document that is still posted on the organization’s website. The American Civil Liberties Union describes Project 2025 as containing “a long list of extreme policy recommendations touching on nearly every aspect of American life, from immigration and abortion rights, to free speech and racial justice.” The ACLU also states, “A number of its recommendations rely on support from the executive branch and from Congress. Many other initiatives are outright unconstitutional,” expressing concern that the project undermines American democratic institutions and principles.
Candidate Trump distanced himself from Project 2025; President Trump is implementing it
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Democrats warned that Trump would implement the radical plan if he returned to the White House. A segment of the Democratic National Convention highlighted specific goals in Project 2025, such as banning abortion, rolling back legal protections for LGBTQ individuals and eliminating the Department of Education.
The plan, which critics warned would enable Trump to govern in an authoritarian manner, also called for ending diversity, equity and inclusion practices, boosting the power of agencies like Immigration and Customs Enforcement and allowing Trump to unilaterally fire thousands of civil servants and place political appointees in their place.
Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump out over Project 2025 during their only presidential debate, with Trump claiming to have never read the document.
“This was a group of people, they came up with some ideas, I guess some good, some bad,” Trump said while claiming that he did not know what was in the proposal.
Although Trump claimed during the campaign that he was not familiar with Project 2025 and had nothing to do with it, he quickly placed many of its authors in key positions within his administration, including Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, senior counselor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, border czar Tom Homan and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr.
The Trump administration completed or began approximately half of its proposals within months of returning to the White House. By the end of 2025, Trump publicly embraced Project 2025 and boasted about implementing its recommendations.
Now that the head of the Heritage Foundation is likewise boasting about Trump’s implementation of the project, many voices are calling out Trump, the media and the public for ignoring Project 2025 during the campaign.
“Hey remember when Trump said he didn’t know what Project 2025 was and the super serious mainstream media swallowed it?” posted the Tennessee Holler in response to Roberts’ comments.
Now that he is in office, President Trump has been increasingly vocal about his support for Project 2025, the plan that his opponents warned would radically reshape the country. So far, Trump and his allies have been rapidly advancing the right-wing goals of the project, reshaping the government and targeting various marginalized groups within the United States in order to implement their ultra-conservative vision of the country.