What is Project 2025?
Project 2025, also known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, is a conservative policy and staffing blueprint authored and led by The Heritage Foundation, with substantial input from over 100 conservative and former Trump officials (Wikipedia, CBS News, Reuters). It was established in 2022 and its main policy document, Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise, was published in April 2023 (Wikipedia).
The project’s purpose is to offer a radical restructuring of the U.S. executive branch, shifting governance through ideological staffing, consolidating presidential power, and implementing sweeping conservative policy reforms—often bypassing traditional checks and balances (Wikipedia, Center for American Progress, Le Monde.fr, People.com).
It’s recommended to read the document so you understand not only what is in the document, but also who created it. It was not the billionaires who are paying for it to be enacted who wrote this, but academicians, some from legitimate backgrounds, politicians and other passionate people who put this together as part of an ideology. The people who wrote Project 2025 did so because they believe they are right and that the project benefits the US.
How will this information change how we fight them? It can change the tactics we take, and even the strategy. Fighting an idealogue who thinks they’re changing the world for the better is different from fighting paid mercs who only work for money.
You may even find that you agree with tenets of it. How does that change things for you?
Read below to understand some general facets of Project 2025, then use that information to help form your strategy and what you want to do to tackle it.
General Plan – Four Main Pillars:
- Policy Guide – A ~900-page (Mandate for Leadership) blueprint prescribing extensive reforms: dismantling or politicizing agencies, curbing abortion access, undermining LGBTQ+ rights and DEI programs, slashing environmental regulations, altering tax and social safety net structures, and expanding federal enforcement authority (Wikipedia, CBS News, Center for American Progress, Democracy Forward, People.com, Le Monde.fr).
- Personnel Database – A “conservative LinkedIn” comprising names of thousands of vetted Trump-aligned candidates for government roles, aimed at replacing merit-based civil servants (Reuters, Wisconsin Examiner, Wikipedia).
- Presidential Administration Academy – A training apparatus intended to prepare loyalists for appointed government roles (Congresswoman Grace Meng, CBS News).
- First-180-Days Playbook – A set of (largely unpublished) planned executive orders and actions to be executed immediately upon inauguration (Congresswoman Grace Meng, CBS News).
Here’s what we know about Project 2025’s “First-180-Days Playbook” and the associated executive orders:
What the Playbook Is (and What It Isn’t)
- The 180-Day Transition Playbook is the fourth pillar of Project 2025—a detailed, agency-by-agency roadmap for the first six months of a new conservative administration. Its primary aim is to swiftly implement the policies laid out in the Mandate for Leadership while bypassing bureaucratic resistance (project2025.org, NewsNation Now).
- However, the playbook itself has never been made public. Project 2025’s leaders have kept it entirely undisclosed, including from Congress. A secretly recorded comment from a Project 2025 researcher affirmed that the orders would be distributed during the transition in a way that they would never be made public (Wikipedia, Congressman Daniel Goldman).
What Can Be Inferred (From Trump’s Early Actions)
Though the exact playbook remains secret, many of the executive orders that President Trump signed immediately upon taking office appear to mirror Project 2025’s recommendations. These include:
- Restoring Schedule F, enabling easier removal of federal civil servants by reclassifying them as political appointees (TIME, Washington Examiner).
- Ending DEI Programs: Executive Order 14151 dismantled all federal DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility) initiatives (Wikipedia).
- Rescinding Discrimination Protections: Executive Order 14173 revoked longstanding civil-rights protections (e.g., EO 11246) and centralized authority in the Department of Labor (Wikipedia).
- Immigration Actions: Freezing the Refugee Admissions Program, halting asylum processes, and deploying military personnel and National Guard troops to the southern border—aligning with Project 2025’s proposals for militarized border enforcement (bangsamaj.com, Salon.com, NewsNation Now).
- Climate and International Agreements: Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and the WHO, targeting NOAA and national monuments, and dismantling environmental protections—consistent with the project’s anti-climate blueprint (TIME, bangsamaj.com, Salon.com, NewsNation Now).
- Alaska Resource Exploitation: Executive actions to open federal lands in Alaska for oil, gas, and mining development (TIME, bangsamaj.com).
- Expanding AI Development: EO 14179 aimed to promote AI leadership by revoking Biden-era safeguards (Wikipedia).
Summary Table
| Area | Likely EO Actions |
|---|---|
| Bureaucracy restructuring | Schedule F reinstatement, hiring freezes |
| Civil rights & DEI | EOs ending DEI programs (14151), revoking protections (14173) |
| Immigration & border | Deploy troops, freeze refugees, restrict asylum |
| Climate & environment | Exit Paris/WHO, curb NOAA/EPA, downsize monuments |
| Resource extraction | Open Alaska lands for drilling and mining |
| Tech policy | Promote AI via EO 14179 |
Bottom Line
- The specific executive orders outlined in the Project 2025 180-Day Playbook are not publicly known.
- We do know that many of the actual orders issued at the start of Trump’s second term closely align with Project 2025’s ambitions.
- Critics and members of Congress have called for the playbook to be released due to its potentially profound impact—but as of now, it remains secret (Congressman Daniel Goldman).