The 2024 Republican Party Platform was essentially a catchphrase – Make America Great Again. But behind it were the writings of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and former Republican staffers who authored Project 2025, a road map for how to replace the rule of law with right-wing ideals (1).
Project 2025 is based on the foundation’s decades-long campaign – “Mandate for Leadership” – to enhance executive branch power. Among the recommendations are to gut abortion access; begin mass deportations; target journalists and protesters; limit voting access; censor academic discussions; roll back trans rights, (including mandated discrimination against LGBTQ communities); eliminate the Department of Education; and slash Medicaid (2). These fall under four main policy areas: restore family as the centerpiece of American life; dismantle the administrative state; defend the nation’s sovereignty and borders; and secure a God-given, individual right to live freely. The document is almost 900 pages, and it can be found in its entirety here.
The President has publicly denied any knowledge of Project 2025. However, in a 2022 speech at a Heritage Foundation event, he stated, “This is a great group, and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America” (3). Some of the contributors to Project 2025 include well-placed White House officials and administrators:
- Russell Vought, director, Office of Management and Budget
- Stephen Miller, deputy chief of policy
- John Ratcliff, director, Central Intelligence Agency
- Tom Homan, Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations (border czar)
- Paul Atkins, chair, Securities and Exchange Commission
- Peter Navarro, senior counselor for trade and manufacturing.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt has identified Agenda 47 – core promises to Make America Great Again – as the President’s official policy agenda (4). So, are there any differences between Agenda 47 and Project 2025? If there are, it may be that Agenda 47 is a subset of the more exhaustive polemic.
Many of the Project 2025 policy recommendations have since become executive orders. Anyone watching the nightly news has already seen mass deportations, attempted censorship of academic institutions, as well as the targeting of protesters and freedom of speech. But these executive orders are facing a barrage of court challenges. The courts have temporarily blocked the attempt to end birthright citizenship. There are other lawsuits against dissolving the Department of Education, requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, and authorizing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), just to name a few (5). Harvard University filed a lawsuit on April 21, challenging efforts to discontinue its federal funding (6) and is contesting subsequent actions in court.
Take Action
What can be done to counteract Project 2025?
- Become familiar with its recommendations and opposing arguments to prepare for reasonable discourse with family and friends.
- Continue to voice your priority concerns to your federal, state, and local representatives on related issues.
- Support organizations that are publicizing and fighting against its policies, such as the American Civil Liberties Union.
- Write letters to the editors of newspapers and magazines.
It’s up to all of us to understand where the chaos originates.
Notes
- “Project 2025 Explained,” ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union, March 31, 2025.
- Spencer Chretien, “Project 2025,” Heritage Foundation, January 31, 20023.
- Andy Kroll and Nick Surgey, “Inside Project 2025’s Secret Training Videos,” ProPublica, ProPublica, Inc., August 10, 2024.
- Analese Hartford, “Trump Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt Caught in Project 2025 Controversy Despite Denials.” Cleveland Public News.
- Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder, “These are the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Executive Orders,” US News and World Report, updated May 28, 2025
- Johana Bhuiyan, Leonie Chao-fong, Anna Betts, and Tom Ambrose, “Harvard sues Trump administration as it fights back against threats to slash federal funding – as it happened,” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media Limited, updated April 22, 2025