TRANSCRIPT
"I don't know what the hell this is, this Project 25. I have nothing to do with it, I've said it every way possible. I purposely have not read it. I could, but I don't want to."
He may not have read it, but after taking office in January, nearly two-thirds of Donald Trump's executive actions mirrored proposals laid out in the Project 2025 manifesto... according to a report by Time Magazine.
Dr Emma Shortis, the Australia Institute's Director of International and Security Affairs, has been observing Mr Trump's second presidency since he took office in January.
"I think Donald Trump has taken on Project 2025 almost wholesale in his second administration, and when you look at the connections between the Trump world and the people who wrote and manage Project 2025, that shouldn't be at all surprising."
The manifesto was published in 2023.
Released by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, the more-than 900-page blueprint calls for the drastic shrinking of government and socially conservative reforms to US society.
In an interview with US outlet Politico in March, the former director of Project 2025 was asked if the stream of Turmp executive orders held true to his vision.
Paul Dan's response - it was beyond his wildest dreams.
Project 2025 called for the removal of the terms diversity, equity, and inclusion in government... as well as...
... banning transgender people from military service...
... eliminating the Federal Department of Education...
... and giving the President almost complete control of the entire federal bureaucracy, including independent agencies like the Department of Justice.
The manifesto also called for the elimination of protections for thousands of government employees.
Federal money for renewable energy would be slashed, with the Project 2025 text urging the next president to stop what it claims is a war on oil and natural gas.
They're all ideas Mr Trump has tried to enact in his first 100 days.
He's gone even further on the manifesto's calls to shrink the U-S Agency for International Development to pre-pandemic funding levels - with moves to have U-S-AID almost completely dismantled.
Professor Matthew Green from the Catholic University of America ((Australian Catholic University)) says eliminating the agency is not a part of Project 2025.
"There were definitely recommendations about changing the way USAID worked or the ways in which we determined the best uses of foreign aid, but that would be an example of something that is not in Project 2025 but appears to be something that either comes from Elon Musk and his DOGE initiative, or Trump himself. I will say that there are Republicans in Congress who have wanted to eliminate USAID. So we have to remember not everything Trump is doing comes from this one policy document."
Professor Green says one major issue repeatedly mentioned in Project 2025 - on which President Trump is yet to act - is abortion.
But Dr Shortis believes Trump hasn't diverged from the project's calls to clamp down on abortion access.
"I think he's being careful politically and taking his time. Project 2025 had radical designs on reproductive rights in the United States. The introduction to the manifesto says that the overturning of Roe v Wade was just the beginning and that hasn't gone away and it will not go away."
Analysts agree the President has a limited scope to pursue more Project 2025 policies, with waning enthusiasm from voters and a potential backlash at next year's midterm elections.
But Dr Emma Shortis also says these are not normal political times.
"There will be from Trump's base - which sees this victory as a generational one - an opportunity to implement generational objectives for the conservative movement."
Mr Trump's unpredictable nature has made it hard to forecast just what policies he may adopt next.
