Project 2025 may loom large in the second Trump administration

President-elect Donald Trump has unveiled numerous plans for his second administration's agenda, but many are concerned about his prior comments committing to being a "dictator on day one" in a second term.

While there have been arguments over whether Trump's words are hyperbole or literal, there is at least one group apparently scheming to assist with these dictatorial tendencies, through a plan called Project 2025.

Project 2025 is the brainchild of a conservative think tank called the Heritage Foundation. The foundation is collaborating with at least 80 other conservative groups to spearhead an effort to "rescue the country from the grip of the radical left," with a "governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on day one of the next conservative administration," according to the Project 2025 website.

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Many in opposition to the plan have alleged that Project 2025 is part of a greater effort by conservatives to turn the United States into a Trump-led autocracy. And while Trump himself has disavowed Project 2025, there are seemingly many people with ties to the plan that will have close access to the incoming president.

What is Project 2025?

It is a "mission to dismantle the federal government and replace it with a vision closer to [Trump's] own," The Associated Press said, and is "essentially a government-in-waiting" for Trump or another likeminded conservative president. The full Project 2025 consists of a 920-page outline that mandates four doctrines to implement in the event of a conservative presidency: the first is to "restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children," the outline said. The second doctrine is to "dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people."

Third, Project 2025 would "defend our nation's sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats." And the last doctrine of the project is to "secure our God-given individual rights to live freely — what our Constitution calls 'the Blessings of Liberty.'" The main goal of these four tenets would be to execute a "sweeping expansion of presidential power over the machinery of government," The New York Times said. The majority of the plan would be implemented during a transition period of 180 days that the project is calling its "playbook."

As the project's outline shows, this would involve the consolidation and retooling of dozens of federal agencies to place them fully under Trump's auspices. The project is mostly based on a legal principle called the unitary executive theory, which asserts that the president of the United States has complete power to control the executive branch of the government. The theory is an interpretation of Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which states that the country's executive power "shall be vested" in the president.

Proponents of the unitary executive theory, including those in charge of Project 2025, argue that this vesting of power in Article II "gives the president complete control of the executive branch, so Congress cannot empower agency heads to make decisions or restrict the president's ability to fire them," the Times said. The theory is often a point of debate among scholars but has been championed by conservatives. The Reagan administration first developed the theory "as they sought to advance a deregulatory agenda."

The plan would also seek to fill the government with Trump loyalists by "scouring records and social media accounts to rule out heretics — effectively administering loyalty tests — and launching a so-called Presidential Administration Academy that tutors future MAGA bureaucrats," Politico said. This would ensure that "what remains of this slashed-down bureaucracy is reliably MAGA conservative — not just for the next president but for a long time to come — and that the White House maintains total control of it."

Using these powers as a baseline, Project 2025 presents a "Christian nationalist vision of the United States, one in which married heterosexuality is the only valid form of sexual expression and identity; all pregnancies would be carried to term, even if that requires coercion or death; and transgender and gender-nonconforming people do not exist," The New Republic said.

Who is behind Project 2025?

The project is mainly run by the aforementioned Heritage Foundation. Led by Kevin D. Roberts, the foundation is a think tank "based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values and a strong national defense," according to its website. The foundation has grown to become one of the most influential conservative groups in the country.

Other people and groups involved with the project include like-minded right-wing think tanks and institutes, including individuals who once worked in the prior Trump administration. This includes Turning Point USA, a college-based nonprofit led by right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, as well as a conservative advocacy organization called the Center for Renewing America. Former Trump staffers involved with Project 2025 include former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump's former senior adviser Stephen Miller, the latter of whom has been described as a white nationalist.

Overall, at least "140 people who worked in the [first] Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025," said CNN. This includes more than "half of the people listed as authors, editors and contributors" to the project's core manifesto. Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, also wrote the forward to an upcoming book by Kevin D. Roberts that is described as the outline for a "peaceful 'Second American Revolution.'" And even more people connected with Project 2025 are waiting in the wings to join Trump's second administration, including some nominated for major government roles.

What have analysts said about Project 2025?

Many progressives have opined that Project 2025 is an effort to turn the country into an autocracy, with Trump and his MAGA movement at the top. "The right is intent on turning Trumpism into a governing agenda," Robert L. Borosage said at The Nation. The Heritage Foundation is looking to "recruit, train and plant MAGA operatives throughout the government, and arm them with clear marching orders."

The priority of Project 2025 is to "bring the permanent bureaucracy to heel," Borosage said. The appointees in Trump's new government "will be driven not by Reagan's sunny 'morning in America' conservatism but by a dark QAnon vision of America betrayed," he added. However, there remains an unknown: whether Trump "would have the discipline to impose this agenda." Nevertheless, there is a "greater likelihood" that "his next administration will be far more organized, relentless and destructive than his first," said Borosage.

It is "highly likely that some of Project 2025's ideas would be implemented — we just don't know which ones," said Gaby Del Valle at The Verge. Some of the most proactive proposals are "prominently highlighted but never explained." This includes proposals like the banning of pornography. But while there "are some contradictions between and within chapters — signs of fissures or points of contention among the dozens of participating organizations," said Del Valle, Project 2025 in general does "amount to a coherent vision."

How could Project 2025 influence Trump's second term?

Trump himself made little mention of Project 2025 by name during the early days of his campaign, and as the election inched closer, he began disavowing it, claiming he knew nothing of it or who created it. The plan has "some things that are very conservative and very good. They have other things I don't like," Trump said to Time in a post-election interview, in line with a prior social media post saying that he would "wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them."

After winning the election, Trump "named several high-profile conservatives associated with Project 2025 to his administration despite repeatedly distancing himself from the hard-right initiative on the campaign trail," said Reuters. Russell Vought, Trump's nominee to run the Office of Management and Budget, has "played a major role in Project 2025," while Trump's incoming border czar, Tom Homan, and CIA director designate, John Ratcliffe, also worked on the project. The aforementioned Stephen Miller has also been tapped for a role in the second Trump White House. Additionally linked to the plan is Brendan Carr, Trump's nominee to run the Federal Communications Commission, who "outlined what he wants to see happen at the agency in a chapter for Project 2025," said NewsNation.

The president-elect continues to maintain that Project 2025 is not an official part of his agenda or White House plans. But his surrounding picks are "setting the stage" to "implement a conservative Christian agenda that has the potential to reshape the federal government and redefine rights long held by all Americans," said The 19th. Of the "more than 350 people who contributed to Project 2025, at least 60% are linked to the incoming president," meaning that even if Project 2025 isn't official, its proponents could have widespread power during Trump's second term.