11 min read
'Hugely influential': Does Trump's new term echo the controversial Project 2025?
Throughout last year's US presidential campaign, Donald Trump sought to separate himself from Project 2025. Two weeks into Trump's second term, some experts are pointing to apparent parallels between the plan and his actions as president.
Published 8 February 2025 2:59pm
Updated 8 February 2025 5:41pm
By Emma Brancatisano
Source: SBS News
Image: US President Donald Trump has repeatedly sought to distance himself from Project 2025. (SBS News)
"History teaches that a president's power to implement an agenda is at its apex during the administration's opening days."
So begins a "note" on Project 2025 — a set of policy proposals published in 2023 that its authors described as a roadmap for the next conservative president of the United States.
The note, written by the project's former director, Paul Dans, is included in the roughly 900-page-long publication.
"To execute requires a well-conceived, coordinated, unified plan and a trained and committed cadre of personnel to implement it," it reads.
Dans, who previously served in Donald Trump's administration, steered Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in the US.
He stepped down last July, and the foundation did not provide a reason for his departure. However, the foundation's president said the work would continue.
It followed criticism, including from Trump — then former president and Republican presidential candidate — who repeatedly distanced himself from the project throughout his 2024 campaign.
Now, weeks into Trump's second administration, experts say several of his actions appear to mirror some of the proposals outlined in Project 2025.
Lester Munson, a non-resident fellow at the University of Sydney's US Studies Centre, said such agendas are part of American politics, and that policymakers are the "responsible entity".
However, Dr Emma Shortis, director of international and security affairs at The Australia Institute argues Project 2025 shines a light on the "significance of what is happening and the danger of what Trump is doing".
She says there are "absolutely parallels" between Project 2025 directives and Trump's first actions during his second presidency.
What is Project 2025?
Led by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 was designed as a "manifesto" for the country's next conservative president, which took several forms — including a book titled Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, Shortis said.
The project's recruitment arm could be loosely described as a "conservative LinkedIn that was looking for loyalists who would basically pledge their allegiance to a Trump administration", she said.
"Then, there's also an education arm that aims to teach those recruits about the American political system and how to use political power."
Behind the scenes, project affiliates drafted executive orders and agency regulations that could be used to quickly implement its policy proposals, according to Reuters.
Project 2025's main document has four policy areas: restoring the family as the "centrepiece of American life", dismantling the administrative state, defending the nation's sovereignty and borders, and securing "God-given individual rights to live freely".
Its proposals are detailed and varied, ranging from enforcing laws that make it illegal to mail abortion pills over state lines, criminalising pornography, and eliminating the Department of Education.
The project also recommends a sweeping elimination of environmental regulations, a crackdown on programs to boost diversity in the workplace and a broad expansion of presidential power by boosting the number of political appointees and increasing the president's authority over the Justice Department.
'A big ecosystem'
Shortis said the Heritage Foundation is part of a "big ecosystem" of think tanks that have influence over the conservative movement and American politics more broadly.
This dates back to its claims of influence during Republican former president Ronald Reagan's administration during the 1980s.
Munson said there are "more think tanks than you can count" in Washington. He is affiliated with BGR Group, a government relations firm, and formerly worked in the George W Bush administration.
"There are liberal ones, conservative ones, there are ones in the middle," he said. "We have a whole bunch of people advocating for things in Washington because, to be totally frank, the policy decisions of the US government are fairly consequential."
But Shortis maintains the Heritage Foundation is "hugely influential".
"The people in the Heritage Foundation and the organisations that it has coordinated to build this project has influence and an exchange of ideas in that broader right-wing universe."
What has Donald Trump said about Project 2025?
While Project 2025 has been around in some form since 2023, attention ramped up during last year's presidential campaign, as Democrats seized on parts of the project — suggesting ties with Trump — to appeal to voters.
Trump repeatedly sought to distance himself from the project.
During the in September, Harris said: "What you're going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025, that the former president intends on implementing if he were elected again."
Trump responded: "I have nothing to do with Project 2025."
"That's out there. I haven't read it. I don't want to read it, purposely. I'm not going to read it," he said.
"This was a group of people that got together, they came up with some ideas, I guess some good, some bad, but it makes no difference."
Kamala Harris described Project 2025 as a "dangerous plan" during her debate against Donald Trump during the presidential campaign. Trump responded that he had "nothing to do with Project 2025". Source: AAP, AP / Alex Brandon
Despite these remarks, many of Trump's policy advisers — and some of those who are now taking high-ranking positions in his administration — are involved.
Russell Vought is listed as an author. He served as Trump's Office of Management and Budget director during his first term and will return to the same role in Trump's second administration.
Russell Vought will once again be the director of the US Office of Management and Budget, having previously done the role during Trump's first presidency. Source: AAP / Mattie Neretin / Sipa USA
Munson said while there are connections between its authors and Trump's administration, he believes the president's comments, at face value, were accurate.
"This is American politics," he said, adding: "By my observation, he wants to be the one who decides things."
Shortis said it could be "simultaneously true" that Trump did not read the manifesto but that it would play a role.
"It was always clear, I think, what a central role Project 2025 and the people who wrote it would play in a second Trump administration," she said.
"I think it has absolutely materialised."
'Direct and indirect parallels'
In Shortis' view, there are "parallels" between Project 2025 proposals and the executive orders Trump has signed across various policy areas.
According to an analysis by Time magazine, almost two-thirds of Trump's orders issued as at 24 January mirror, or partially mirror, proposals outlined in the document.
CNN also found more than two-thirds of the 53 orders issued as at 31 January evoke proposals in the blueprint, with overlap including steps taken to enact some of his pledges.
Some of these are also noted in other policy documents.
Energy, Paris Agreement and Alaska
A relevant chapter of Project 2025 reads: "The next conservative administration should withdraw the US from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement."
Shortis also pointed to its broad proposals to review climate action and rescind policies from the Biden administration, including a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling.
It calls for the next president to "stop the war on oil and natural gas", including establishing a "strategic plan to promote [the US'] national security, energy and economic interests in the Arctic".
"An analysis and plan to support the responsible development of Alaska's energy assets should be a priority," it says.
LISTEN TO
Experts brace for Trump's 'disastrous' climate agenda but say the global fight will continue
SBS News
10/11/202408:05
Trump's executive order, issued on 20 January, laid out a sweeping plan to maximise oil and gas production, including by declaring a "national energy emergency" and rolling back environmental protections.
A separate order outlined expediting the "permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects in Alaska" to enhance "economic and national security".
Trump had and his campaign website also made clear he intended to reopen Alaska for drilling, according to CNN.
Future of USAID
Chaos has consumed the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which distributes billions of dollars of humanitarian aid around the world, since Trump ordered a freeze on most foreign aid and .
A chapter of Project 2025 which focused on the agency said the Biden administration had "deformed" it. It recommended "scaling back its global footprint" and "deradicalising" programs and structures to align foreign aid with foreign policy.
"Those kinds of pauses and review processes were all recommended by Project 2025, particularly in areas of reproductive rights and family planning, diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) matters, climate funding and democracy promotion, which are all things USAID has historically supported," Shortis said.
Moves to dismantle DEI programs
Trump has signed multiple executive orders across the federal government and private sector.
Project 2025 calls on the next administration to "reverse the DEI revolution" and "eliminate every one of [these] wrongful and burdensome ideological projects", referring to labour policy under the Obama and Biden administrations.
"Almost everywhere you look at what Trump is doing, there will be a reflection in some form — sometimes direct, sometimes indirect, of what is recommended by Project 2025," Shortis said.
In a recent statement to CNN, a White House spokesperson repeated that the president "had nothing to do with Project 2025".
"In his first few days in office, President Trump has delivered on the promises that earned him a resounding mandate from the American people — securing the border, restoring common sense, driving down inflation, and unleashing American energy," the spokesperson said.
The Heritage Foundation has been contacted for comment.
Donald Trump's early orders: Some differences despite 'alignment'
However, there are also differences between Project 2025 proposals and Trump's actions — for example, when it comes to immigration.
Several executive orders from the president have already tightened border security and attempted to , by a second federal judge.
Project 2025 similarly calls for "hardline" reforms, Shortis said, but some of these have not appeared to date in Trump's agenda — for example, dismantling the Department of Homeland Security and re-integrating it with other agencies.
While it does not specifically mention birthright citizenship, she argued Project 2025 and Trump are "very much aligned" on immigration policy.
And in some cases, such as , the administration is "potentially ... going further".
Munson said regardless of whether Trump's immigration policies mirror Project 2025, it was "clearly a significant issue" that helped him secure re-election.
"At the end of the day, I tend to land in a place where the policymaker themselves is the responsible entity. Whatever President Trump has decided to do now, that's on him and he's held responsible — and that's what should happen."
Shortis argued Project 2025 plays into "what happens beneath".
"[It] tells us so much about what a Trump administration is doing, what it might do and the ideology that drives it".
"But we're also dealing with Trump himself, and his unpredictability ... the interplay between those things can be difficult to predict."
With additional reporting by Reuters.
