Overview

Project 2025 (formally the 2025 Presidential Transition Project) is a $22 million initiative organized by the Heritage Foundation to provide a governing blueprint, personnel infrastructure, and implementation strategy for a conservative administration. Launched April 21, 2023, over 100 conservative organizations participated as coalition partners, and more than 400 contributors—the majority with ties to the first Trump administration—authored its proposals.

Heritage Foundation and the Mandate for Leadership Series

The Heritage Foundation (founded 1973) has published the Mandate for Leadership series since 1981. The first edition guided the Reagan administration, which adopted two-thirds of its 2,000 recommendations.

The ninth edition—Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise—published April 2023 as Project 2025’s centerpiece. At 920 pages with 30 chapters spanning every federal department, it was the earliest pre-election Mandate edition, released months before the first Republican primary debate.

Key Personnel

Kevin Roberts — Heritage Foundation president. Declared the initiative a “second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

Paul Dans — Project director and Mandate co-editor. Former Chief of Staff at the Office of Personnel Management under Trump. Left the project August 2024 amid political backlash.

Spencer Chretien — Associate Director of Presidential Personnel. Former Special Assistant to the President in Trump’s first term.

Steven Groves — Mandate co-editor, Margaret Thatcher Fellow at Heritage.

The Four Pillars

Pillar I — Policy Guide: The 920-page Mandate with 30 chapters of policy recommendations, produced by 400+ scholars. The New York Times identified 307 authors/contributors; 182 had ties to Trump. CNN counted 140+ first-term Trump officials among participants.

Pillar II — Personnel Database: A system to recruit, vet, and catalog 20,000+ potential appointees emphasizing ideological alignment over credentials. Applicants screened on political philosophy; those reluctant to “test the limits” of presidential power were flagged and rejected.

Pillar III — Presidential Administration Academy: Online and in-person training teaching recruits how government functions and how to function in government.

Pillar IV — 180-Day Playbook: Unpublished agency-specific implementation plans—Day One executive orders, personnel targets, and restructuring mechanisms.

Schedule F Civil Service Reclassification

The plan’s most structurally consequential proposal converts career civil servants in “policy-related” positions from competitive service (with due process protections) to at-will employment.

• October 2020: Trump creates Schedule F by executive order; never implemented before Biden rescinds it
• January 20, 2025: Trump signs executive order directing revival
• March 2026: OPM final rule implementing “Schedule Policy/Career” takes effect
• June 3, 2026: Executive order converts approximately 8,000 career employees (narrowed from initial 50,000 estimate)

Converted employees lose Merit Systems Protection Board appeal rights and independent whistleblower investigation. Multiple legal challenges pending.

Key Policy Proposals by Department

DOJ: Bring DOJ under direct presidential control, eliminate prosecutorial independence, target political opponents.

EPA: Roll back climate regulations, withdraw from Paris Accords, expand fossil fuel extraction on federal lands.

Education: Eliminate the department, end Title IX transgender protections, redirect funding to school choice.

HHS: Restrict abortion administratively, defund Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, direct NIH against gender-affirming care.

DHS: Expand expedited deportation, militarize border, penalize sanctuary cities, increase workplace raids.

DOD: Purge DEI programs, restructure civilian oversight, restore COVID-discharged service members.

Trump’s Distancing vs. Adoption

During the 2024 campaign, Trump denied involvement: “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it.” His campaign issued memos stating the project “had nothing to do with the campaign.”

After winning, Trump openly embraced the blueprint. Russell Vought (who authored the executive power chapter) became OMB Director. John McEntee (who developed the loyalty-screening questionnaire) returned to a senior role. Paul Dans had previously stated Trump was “very bought in.”

Implementation (2025–2026)

By February 2026, independent tracking by the Center for Progressive Reform documented 53 percent of Project 2025’s domestic agenda initiated or completed—283 of 532 recommended actions across 20 agencies.

POLITICO identified 37 direct correlations between executive orders and Project 2025, including “nearly verbatim language.” The Center for Reproductive Rights found 85 percent of reproductive health actions stemmed from Project 2025 recommendations.

Key implementations: Paris Accords withdrawal, federal DEI elimination, Schedule Policy/Career reclassification, expedited removal expansion, and centralization of control over independent agencies.

Coalition and Funding

110+ organizations on the advisory board including: America First Legal (Stephen Miller), Center for Immigration Studies, Moms for Liberty, Turning Point USA, Claremont Institute, and ALEC. Nearly half received dark money from networks linked to Leonard Leo.

Public Backlash

Project 2025 became a defining 2024 campaign issue. Democrats weaponized it to argue Trump’s second term would be authoritarian. Constitutional scholars compared its civil service proposals to authoritarian consolidation in Hungary and Brazil.

Sources

• Heritage Foundation, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise (April 2023)
• Center for Progressive Reform, Project 2025 Executive Action Tracker (February 2026)
• POLITICO, “37 ways Project 2025 has shown up in Trump’s executive orders” (2025)
• Government Executive, “Trump signs order moving thousands into Schedule F” (June 2026)