Donald Trump has so far chosen half a dozen authors and contributors to Project 2025 to serve in his administration despite distancing himself from the controversial plan on the campaign trail.
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 is an extremist policy and staffing initiative to reshape the federal government to support the agenda of Trump. It involves filling key positions with loyalists to roll back civil rights, ban abortion nationwide by stripping federal approval for abortion drug mifepristone and using the Comstock Act to ban the mailing of abortion pills, exacerbate climate change and weaken democracy.
It also calls for abolishing all student loan forgiveness, impose baseline tax rates and overhaul the Federal Reserve through methods like taking away the government’s control over the nation’s money, among others.
Trump and his campaign tried to distance themselves from Project 2025 in the months leading up to the November election, with the former and now future president calling some of the proposals “absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.”
Now, he has chosen five people associated with Project 2025 for key roles in his White House and administration so far. They are:
Russell Vought–Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director.
Trump announced Vought as his choice to lead the Office of Management and Budget in a statement on Friday. Vought served as OMB Director in Trump’s first term.
In a statement, Trump said Vought “did an excellent job serving in this role in my First Term. We cut four Regulations for every new Regulation, and it was a Great Success!”
He also praised Vought as “an aggressive cost cutter and deregulator who will help us implement our America First Agenda across all Agencies. Russ knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State and end Weaponized Government, and he will help us return Self Governance to the People.”
Vought is a co-author of Project 2025 who wrote in his chapter that the OMB director “should present a fiscal goal to the President early in the budget development process to address the federal government’s fiscal irresponsibility.”
He also laid out a plan on how the OMB could help consolidate Trump’s executive powers, arguing that the budget development process is “in fact a powerful mechanism for setting and enforcing public policy at federal agencies.”
Brendan Carr– Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Trump tapped Carr to lead the Federal Communications Commission, the agency responsible for regulating communications networks such as TV, radio and internet access.
He is expected to use his role at the agency to amplify Trump’s attack on the media and has already agreed with Trump’s promise to punish television networks for alleged political bias.
Earlier this month, Carr slammed NBC for including Trump’s Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, in a “Saturday Night Live” skit before the election.
“This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule,” Carr wrote on X. “The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct — a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election.”
In his chapter for Project 2025, Carr wrote: “The FCC needs to change course and bring new urgency to achieving four main goals: Reining in Big Tech; Promoting national security; Unleashing economic prosperity; and Ensuring FCC accountability and good governance.”
Tom Homan— Trump’s ‘border czar’
Homan, who served as the acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director during the first 18 months of Trump’s administration, will return in the president-elect’s second term as his ‘border czar.’
As ‘border czar’ Homan will have far-reaching responsibilities. Those include overseeing the implementation of Trump’s mass deportations policy.
Homan is listed as a contributor to Project 2025 writing several articles for the organization on immigration policy. He is also a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center.
John Ratcliffe— CIA Director
Trump named Ratcliffe as CIA director after he previously served as Trump’s director of national intelligence in his first term.
Ratcliffe is credited as a contributor to Project 2025, with the agenda’s chapter on the intelligence community citing an interview with Ratcliffe about working in the first administration.
Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra—Ambassador to Canada.
Hoekstra is listed as a contributor to Project 2025. His 1998 report titled Education at a Crossroads: What Works and What’s Wasted in Education Today, is cited in the report.
Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s draconian immigration policies in his first term in office, will serve as a deputy chief of staff for policy in Trump’s second term. Miller’s organization, America First Legal, previously appeared on Project 2025’s website in a list of advisory board members.
The name was later removed after Trump began criticizing the project.
“I have zero involvement with Project 2025. Zero. None,” Miller said in a statement in July. “I made an advice video a long while back for students. I have no involvement with the project whatsoever.”
