Trump is nearly halfway through Project 2025 agenda in just the first six months of his presidency
Just over six months into Donald Trump's second term, approximately 115 of the 317 objectives set forth in the far-right playbook, authored in 2023 by the Heritage Foundation, have become a reality.
That's about 46 percent, according to the Project 2025 Tracker, an online spreadsheet created by two Reddit users and updated as Trump announces policies. It appears to be one of the only publicly available resources regularly updated with data on Project 2025 objectives and administration action.
Some of those objectives have been implemented through executive orders, such as shutting down the Department of Education, eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) language from the federal government, and restoring implementation of the death penalty for certain crimes.
Other objectives have been pushed forward through Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which was passed by Congress in July. Some of those objectives include eliminating electric vehicle incentives and adding work requirements for Medicaid.
It's unsurprising that many of Project 2025's 'Mandate for Leadership' objectives have become part of Trump's agenda.
Several of his senior staff are authors of or contributors to Project 2025, including Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, senior trade adviser Peter Navarro, border czar Tom Homan, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Chief of Protocol Monica Crowley, and others.
Other staffers have ties to the Heritage Foundation, which produced the more than 900-page mandate.
Despite the administration's close ties to the Heritage Foundation and enacting some nearly identical policies to those named in Project 2025, Trump had insisted on the campaign trail that he knew 'nothing' about the mandate and acted as though he was very unfamiliar with it.
The Project 2025 Tracker says that around 63 policies in Project 2025 are currently 'in progress. One example is the language in Project 2025 that encourages the president to revoke guidance that prohibits adoption or foster agencies from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
While Trump has not signed an executive order directly doing so, his executive order establishing the White House Faith Office includes language that encourages the team to make recommendations 'promoting foster care and adoption programs in partnership with faith-based entities' while promoting religious freedom.
In January, Paul Dans, a conservative lawyer who oversaw Project 2025, told CNN t hat Trump's first few actions were 'exactly' what the Heritage Foundation set out to do.
'This is exactly the work we set out to do,' Dans said at the time. 'It's still in the early first stages of bearing fruit, but we wanted to make sure the president was ready to hit the ground running on day one. The rapidity and the depth of what they've rolled out this quickly is a testament to the work done in Project 2025 and other presidential transition projects.'
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The Independent
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