About half of the policies in the ultra-conservative manifesto have been implemented by the Trump administration, writes Ariana Baio
Ariana Baio
Sunday 28 December 2025.jpg)
Sunday 28 December 2025
.jpg)
THE INDEPENDENT
Approximately half of the recommendations in Project 2025 have become official policies, presidential directives or overall goals of the Trump administration in the first 12 months of President Donald Trump’s second term.
The nearly 1,000-page ultra-conservative policy blueprint emerged from the Heritage Foundation think tank in 2023 and was widely seen as a possible manifesto for a second Trump turn despite denials by the candidate himself and many of those around him.
Filling the federal workforce with political appointees, phasing out the Department of Education, rolling back major Biden administration-era policies on climate change, axing diversity polices and offices, as well as ramping up immigration deportations, were some of the major policy changes that aligned with the conservative mandate.
It’s an unsurprising finding, given that major Trump administration officials are authors or contributors to Project 2025, including Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought, border czar Tom Homan, FCC chairman Brendan Carr, CIA director John Ratcliffe, trade adviser Peter Navarro, SEC chairman Paul Atkins and many more.
Yet, the president appeared to downplay his understanding of it in June 2024 when he declared, “I know nothing about Project 2025” and “I have no idea who is behind it.”
Many of Trump’s executive orders appear to align closely with Project 2025’s recommendations (Getty Images)
Here are the areas where The Independent found Trump administration polices that reflected ideas set out in the 887 pages of Project 2025.
The federal workforce
Project 2025’s recommendations regarding the restructuring of the executive office and federal workforce have some of the most significant overlap with the Trump administration’s agenda.
The overall goal for the federal workforce, specifically within the executive branch, was to remove career civil servants and ensure that most employees are aligned with the president’s agenda while also reducing the size of the workforce by making cuts to grants and funding.
Project 2025 called for reinstating Trump’s first-term executive order, making 50,000 employees easier to dismiss by classifying them under Schedule F, designating them as at-will roles which made it easier to fire them. Trump did that on day one. Also successfully implemented was Project 2025’s call for the Office of Personnel Management to take more control over the federal workforce hiring process.
Thousands of federal employees have been forcibly removed from their positions through reductions-in-force at the hands of the Trump administration – though Project 2025 does encourage the president to be ‘wary’ of such (AFP via Getty Images)
While the Department of Government Efficiency was not part of Project 2025, its swift efforts to make sweeping cuts have helped cut down the workforce. Approximately 317,000 employees have left government jobs.
In addition, Project 2025 calls for the president to exert more authority over the executive branch by pushing for the Supreme Court to overturn a precedent that prohibits the president from firing individuals. The high court is currently considering this case.
Cuts to grants and funding
Project 2025 recommends that nearly every government department and agency conduct thorough reviews of grants and contracts to ensure no money is being allocated to projects that do not align with the president’s agenda.
Trump has fulfilled that goal, first by attempting to freeze all grants and then by taking a steadier approach to cutting back funding for polices or projects he does not agree with. Much of that impacted the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Throughout the year, the administration has cut funding to nonprofits or organizations embarking on green energy projects, as well as scrapping research projects aimed at renewable energy.
Project 2025 explicitly asks the administration to cut funding to public media such as NPR, PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – all of which the president has done.
rump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon have vowed to shut down the Department of Education and move its functions to separate departments – a suggestion from Project 2025 (REUTERS)
Education
Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon have made it clear they intend to phase out the Department of Education – a suggestion Project 2025 clearly recommends.
While completely shutting down the department requires an act of Congress, Project 2025 lists ways the administration can reduce the department’s powers. The Trump administration has turned many of those suggestions into policy.
That includes getting rid of Biden’s student loan forgiveness policy, removing protections for transgender or nonbinary students, scrapping diversity initiatives, and promoting parents’ choice.
Trump also implemented Project 2025’s call for the administration to withhold or review accreditation for colleges and universities that adopt DEI policies or are not deemed to be doing enough to protect religious freedom.
Immigration
Project 2025’s policies on harsher immigration policies are synonymous with the Trump administration and, if anything, the president has taken further steps to crack down on legal and nonlegal immigration than the mandate suggests.
Cracking down on immigration has been a staple policy of the administration – both a promise from Trump’s campaign and a suggestion from Project 2025 (Getty Images)
The president has tightened restrictions on foreign-born worker visas, penalized “sanctuary” cities, directed harsher penalties against undocumented immigrants with criminal records, expanded countries with travel bans and sought to redefine birthright citizenship (though Project 2025 does not call for that.)
Project 2025 asks the president to consider utilizing the National Guard or other military personnel to assist in immigration operations along the border and to consider increasing federal law enforcement presence in “sanctuary” cities.
Trump has taken up both suggestions and also combined them to deploy the National Guard in cities conducting immigration operations.
DEI and protections for LGBTQ+
The Trump administration quickly fulfilled Project 2025’s goal of removing all mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion in department policies, but it has also taken up suggestions to punish those who participated in promoting DEI.
Trump also removed protections for transgender individuals by redefining “sex” and “gender” to no longer include nonbinary or trans people, which Project 2025 calls for.
The administration also restored a former Trump administration policy that prohibits transgender individuals from serving in the military and eliminated a Biden-era policy to protect transgender student-athletes.
Democrats including Colorado governor Jared Polis used warnings about Project 2025 to try to sway voters away from Trump – however, the president distanced himself from the Heritage Foundation’s mandate (AFP/Getty)
The administration has taken up other specific suggestions in Project 2025, such as eliminating Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, modernizing nuclear facilities, and removing environmental protections to increase oil and gas drilling.
Going into 2026, the administration is likely to take up other suggestions in Project 2025 that it wasn’t able to implement swiftly – namely, implementing policies and goals that combat China.
Approximately half of the recommendations in Project 2025 have become official policies, presidential directives or overall goals of the Trump administration in the first 12 months of President Donald Trump’s second term.
The nearly 1,000-page ultra-conservative policy blueprint emerged from the Heritage Foundation think tank in 2023 and was widely seen as a possible manifesto for a second Trump turn despite denials by the candidate himself and many of those around him.
Filling the federal workforce with political appointees, phasing out the Department of Education, rolling back major Biden administration-era policies on climate change, axing diversity polices and offices, as well as ramping up immigration deportations, were some of the major policy changes that aligned with the conservative mandate.
It’s an unsurprising finding, given that major Trump administration officials are authors or contributors to Project 2025, including Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought, border czar Tom Homan, FCC chairman Brendan Carr, CIA director John Ratcliffe, trade adviser Peter Navarro, SEC chairman Paul Atkins and many more.
Yet, the president appeared to downplay his understanding of it in June 2024 when he declared, “I know nothing about Project 2025” and “I have no idea who is behind it.”
Many of Trump’s executive orders appear to align closely with Project 2025’s recommendations (Getty Images)
Here are the areas where The Independent found Trump administration polices that reflected ideas set out in the 887 pages of Project 2025.
The federal workforce
Project 2025’s recommendations regarding the restructuring of the executive office and federal workforce have some of the most significant overlap with the Trump administration’s agenda.
The overall goal for the federal workforce, specifically within the executive branch, was to remove career civil servants and ensure that most employees are aligned with the president’s agenda while also reducing the size of the workforce by making cuts to grants and funding.
Project 2025 called for reinstating Trump’s first-term executive order, making 50,000 employees easier to dismiss by classifying them under Schedule F, designating them as at-will roles which made it easier to fire them. Trump did that on day one. Also successfully implemented was Project 2025’s call for the Office of Personnel Management to take more control over the federal workforce hiring process.
Thousands of federal employees have been forcibly removed from their positions through reductions-in-force at the hands of the Trump administration – though Project 2025 does encourage the president to be ‘wary’ of such (AFP via Getty Images)
While the Department of Government Efficiency was not part of Project 2025, its swift efforts to make sweeping cuts have helped cut down the workforce. Approximately 317,000 employees have left government jobs.
In addition, Project 2025 calls for the president to exert more authority over the executive branch by pushing for the Supreme Court to overturn a precedent that prohibits the president from firing individuals. The high court is currently considering this case.
Cuts to grants and funding
Project 2025 recommends that nearly every government department and agency conduct thorough reviews of grants and contracts to ensure no money is being allocated to projects that do not align with the president’s agenda.
Trump has fulfilled that goal, first by attempting to freeze all grants and then by taking a steadier approach to cutting back funding for polices or projects he does not agree with. Much of that impacted the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Throughout the year, the administration has cut funding to nonprofits or organizations embarking on green energy projects, as well as scrapping research projects aimed at renewable energy.
Project 2025 explicitly asks the administration to cut funding to public media such as NPR, PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting – all of which the president has done.
rump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon have vowed to shut down the Department of Education and move its functions to separate departments – a suggestion from Project 2025 (REUTERS)
Education
Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon have made it clear they intend to phase out the Department of Education – a suggestion Project 2025 clearly recommends.
While completely shutting down the department requires an act of Congress, Project 2025 lists ways the administration can reduce the department’s powers. The Trump administration has turned many of those suggestions into policy.
That includes getting rid of Biden’s student loan forgiveness policy, removing protections for transgender or nonbinary students, scrapping diversity initiatives, and promoting parents’ choice.
Trump also implemented Project 2025’s call for the administration to withhold or review accreditation for colleges and universities that adopt DEI policies or are not deemed to be doing enough to protect religious freedom.
Immigration
Project 2025’s policies on harsher immigration policies are synonymous with the Trump administration and, if anything, the president has taken further steps to crack down on legal and nonlegal immigration than the mandate suggests.
Cracking down on immigration has been a staple policy of the administration – both a promise from Trump’s campaign and a suggestion from Project 2025 (Getty Images)
The president has tightened restrictions on foreign-born worker visas, penalized “sanctuary” cities, directed harsher penalties against undocumented immigrants with criminal records, expanded countries with travel bans and sought to redefine birthright citizenship (though Project 2025 does not call for that.)
Project 2025 asks the president to consider utilizing the National Guard or other military personnel to assist in immigration operations along the border and to consider increasing federal law enforcement presence in “sanctuary” cities.
Trump has taken up both suggestions and also combined them to deploy the National Guard in cities conducting immigration operations.
DEI and protections for LGBTQ+
The Trump administration quickly fulfilled Project 2025’s goal of removing all mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion in department policies, but it has also taken up suggestions to punish those who participated in promoting DEI.
Trump also removed protections for transgender individuals by redefining “sex” and “gender” to no longer include nonbinary or trans people, which Project 2025 calls for.
The administration also restored a former Trump administration policy that prohibits transgender individuals from serving in the military and eliminated a Biden-era policy to protect transgender student-athletes.
Democrats including Colorado governor Jared Polis used warnings about Project 2025 to try to sway voters away from Trump – however, the president distanced himself from the Heritage Foundation’s mandate (AFP/Getty)
The administration has taken up other specific suggestions in Project 2025, such as eliminating Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, modernizing nuclear facilities, and removing environmental protections to increase oil and gas drilling.
Going into 2026, the administration is likely to take up other suggestions in Project 2025 that it wasn’t able to implement swiftly – namely, implementing policies and goals that combat China.
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