WASHINGTON: During his campaign, Donald Trump shunned Project 2025, a radical governing blueprint that envisioned a humbled federal burea­ucracy bending the knee to a nearly omnipotent White House.

Seeing the Heritage Founda­tion’s 922-page brainchild as toxic to his election prospects, the canny campaigner said he didn’t even plan to read it, much less endorse it.

Yet Trump’s embrace of Project 2025’s recommendations since returning to office — and his nomination for cabinet posts of many of its key architects — has alarmed critics and even raised some eyebrows on the right.

Federal workforce

The Heritage Foundation recommended reclassifying federal workers to make them easier to fire, and stripping protections from civil servants perceived as disloyal. Trump ordered both reforms. On the law enforcement front, it reinforced Trump’s conspiracy theory about a “deep state” working to undermine Republicans as it called for an end to the “weaponisation” of government.

And it demanded that intelligence chiefs undo the “damage” done by investigations into the Trump campaign and its coordination with Russia’s attack on the 2016 US

election.

Trump, who was indicted in 2023 by four grand juries, signed orders against weaponisation and ordered the FBI to identify agents who had investigated his involvement in the 2021 US Capitol insurrection.

On national disasters Trump has also indicated that he is open to shifting response costs from the federal government to affected states — another Project 2025 idea. The Heritage Foundation was also an early proponent of Trump’s hiring freeze for career officials.

Culture wars and the military

Project 2025 called for the reinstatement of military personnel discharged for refusing Covid-19 vaccines. Transgender troops, on the other hand, should be kicked out, it said.

Trump signed orders reinstating vaccine-sceptical service members and declaring gender dysphoria inconsistent with troop “readiness” and “lethality.” Project 2025 also called for an end to “Marxist indoctrination” in the military, singling out diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the armed forces and across the government.

It recommended purging the federal bureaucracy of terms considered “woke” by conservatives, from “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to “reproductive rights.” “Sex,” it said, should mean biological sex recognised at birth and has nothing to do with people’s identity preferences. Trump abolished DEI offices funded by the defense and homeland security departments — along with “illegal” DEI initiatives in every department.

He ordered an end to hiring practices based on “illegal racial discrimination under the guise of ‘equity’” and set US policy to recognise “two sexes, male and female.” He also revoked a Biden administration memorandum supporting abortion access abroad, following a recommendation from the Heritage Foundation.

In education, Project 2025 pushed for parental choice and wanted the Civil Rights Act (CRA) invoked to end “gender ideology and critical race theory” in schools.

Trump issued edicts prioritising “education freedom” and cited the CRA in an executive order withdrawing funding from public schools failing to respect parents’ rights and discrimination laws.

Immigration

Project 2025 wanted state and local police to be involved in immigration raids and pushed for the mandatory detention of undocumented migrants. Countries that don’t take back deported citizens should face “stiff sanctions,” the Heritage Foundation said.

Trump ordered migrant criminal suspects to be detained until deportation and announced the creation of new “federal-state partnerships” on immigration enforcement. He directed officials to ensure that diplomacy includes “the foreign states’ acceptance of their nationals who are subject to removal from the United States.” Trump also ordered so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement to be denied federal funding.

Environment

While much that Project 2025 had to say on fossil fuel production was standard Republican fare, it called specifically for drilling in Alaska. Trump, who made “drill, baby, drill” a clarion call for his campaign, said it was US policy to “fully avail itself of Alaska’s vast lands and resources.” Project 2025’s calls for the abolition of renewable energy subsidies and efficiency requirements for household appliances was also music to Trump’s ears — and fodder for several orders.

Foreign aid

“US foreign aid is too often disconnected from the strategy and practice of US foreign policy,” Project 2025 said. Trump halted all foreign aid in his first week back in office, saying the system was “not aligned with American interests.” The president is also trying to shutter the humanitarian agency USAID, although he faces legal challenges.

Project 2025 — which aligns with Trump’s protectionist “America First” outlook — had foreshadowed the president’s tariffs crackdown and pushed for his withdrawal from the World Health Organisation.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2025