Project 2025
Proposed conservative plan to reshape the U.S. federal government / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project, is a collection of conservative policy proposals from The Heritage Foundation to reshape the U.S. federal government in the event of a Republican victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.[2][3] Established in 2022, the project aims to recruit tens of thousands of conservatives to the District of Columbia to replace existing federal civil servants—whom some Republicans characterize as part of the "deep state"—and to further the objectives of the next Republican president.[4] It adopts a maximalist version of the unitary executive theory, a disputed interpretation of Article II of the Constitution of the United States,[5][6] which asserts that the president has absolute power over the executive branch upon inauguration.[3][7]
Purpose | Plan to reshape the U.S. federal government to support the agenda of Republican Party president |
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Location |
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Director | Paul Dans |
Main organ | Mandate for Leadership |
Parent organization | The Heritage Foundation |
Budget | $22 million[1] |
Website | www |
Project 2025 envisions widespread changes across the government, particularly economic and social policies and the role of the federal government and its agencies. The plan proposes slashing funding for the Department of Justice (DOJ), dismantling the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), sharply reducing environmental and climate change regulations to favor fossil fuel production, eliminating the Department of Commerce, and ending the independence of federal agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC).[8][9] The blueprint seeks to institute tax cuts,[10] though its writers disagree on the wisdom of protectionism.[11] Project 2025 recommends abolishing the Department of Education, whose programs would be either transferred to other agencies, or terminated.[12][13] Funding for climate research would be cut while the National Institutes of Health (NIH) would be reformed along conservative principles.[14][15] The Project urges government to explicitly reject abortion as health care[16][17] and eliminate the Affordable Care Act's coverage of emergency contraception.[18] The Project seeks to infuse the government with elements of Christianity.[19][20] It proposes criminalizing pornography,[21] removing legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity,[21][22] and terminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs,[4][22] as well as affirmative action.[23]
Project contributor Jeffrey Clark advises the future president to immediately deploy the military for domestic law enforcement and direct the DOJ to pursue Donald Trump's adversaries by invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807.[24][25] The Project recommends the arrest, detention, and deportation of undocumented immigrants.[26] It promotes capital punishment and the speedy "finality" of those sentences.[27] Project director Paul Dans explained that Project 2025 is "systematically preparing to march into office and bring a new army, aligned, trained, and essentially weaponized conservatives ready to do battle against the deep state."[28][29] Dans admitted it was "counterintuitive" to recruit so many to join the government to shrink it, but pointed out the need for a future president to "regain control" of the government.[4] Although the project cannot by law promote a specific presidential candidate, many contributors have close ties to Trump and his 2024 campaign.[6][30]
Critics of Project 2025 have described it as an authoritarian, Christian nationalist movement[19] that could turn the United States into an autocracy. Several experts in law have indicated that it would undermine the rule of law and the separation of powers.[8] Some conservatives and Republicans also criticized the plan, for example in the contexts of centralizing power,[4] individual rights and freedoms,[31] climate change,[32] and foreign trade.[11]