Coming Soon to a Country Near You – Project 2025

Expect Trump to implement the plan he disavowed, even if by a different name

During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump distanced himself from the think-tank policy plan known as Project 2025. This plan, detailed in more than 900 pages, outlines proposals for a radical transformation of the federal government. However, shortly after his election, Trump appointed Linda McMahon, the co-chair of an institute that supported Project 2025, to co-chair his presidential transition. Clearly, Project 2025 is now back on the agenda, even if they never speak the name again.

Published by the conservative Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 serves as a blueprint for Trump’s first year in office, envisioning a restructuring of the federal government that would enable him to wield extraordinary power from day one. Among the policies he would likely pursue are:

• Politicizing the Department of Justice: Project 2025 calls for Trump to end the tradition of an independent DOJ, which has long ensured that Americans receive equal treatment under the law. This change would place the department under the president's control, allowing him to potentially direct investigations against critics and rivals.

• Ending the Independence of the Federal Reserve: The Federal Reserve has traditionally operated independently from the executive branch, providing stability for lenders, borrowers, employers, and individuals by setting interest rates free from political influence. In countries where politicians control rates, economic crises are often more frequent and severe.

• Implementing a Vast Patronage System: Historically, presidents appointed nearly all but the lowest-level federal employees, prioritizing loyalty over qualifications. Over recent decades, this practice was largely replaced by a professionalized, nonpartisan bureaucracy. Project 2025 aims to return to a patronage system, with tens of thousands of loyalists already identified to participate in this spoils system, raising concerns about potential corruption.

• Privatizing Medicare: Full privatization of Medicare, a long-held goal among extreme anti-government activists, would create a complex marketplace for seniors’ healthcare. Private insurers would likely restrict access to medications, hospital services, and therapies, with patients required to choose from limited networks and facing higher individual costs.

• Eliminating the Department of Education: Dissolving this department would end federal funding for schools and eliminate national standards for educational quality. Poor and middle-income communities would become increasingly reliant on local funding, exacerbating inequality and widening the achievement gap, giving children from wealthy districts greater access to opportunities.

Other aspects of Project 2025 include rolling back climate change initiatives, closing Head Start, cutting school lunch subsidies, and much more. Overall, the document proposes hundreds of policy changes, with a significant focus on expanding presidential powers. This aligns with Trump’s 2019 statement that the Constitution allows him, as president, “the right to do whatever.”

While it’s unclear which priorities from Project 2025 will ultimately be adopted, it’s notable that more than 140 individuals from Trump’s first administration contributed to the plan, including six former cabinet members, former White House aide John McEntee, former Office of Personnel Management official Paul Dans, and former Office of Management and Budget head Russell Vought. Vought, a principal architect of Project 2025, is widely viewed as a potential pick for attorney general.

With so many contributors likely to secure prominent roles in a new Trump administration, it seems likely that Project 2025’s recommendations will guide executive and legislative agendas. Originally intended as a call to revolution, the document’s vision may soon be put to the test.