When Donald Trump gives his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, he is expected to tout his policies from his first year back in the White House.
But one thing likely won’t get a mention: Project 2025.
Just months before he won the 2024 presidential election, Trump publicly distanced himself from Project 2025, a 900-page policy “wish list” that some believed was a detailed blueprint for his second term.
“I have no idea who is behind it,” he said at the time. “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.”
His efforts to distance himself from the document, which was published by the Heritage Foundation think-tank and laid out an ultra-conservative vision for how Trump could govern, followed a prolonged backlash from his Democratic opponents.
But now that Trump is in office, many of the ideas suggested in Project 2025 have become reality.
From a major crackdown on immigration to a renewed focus on Venezuela and the firing of thousands of federal employees, liberal groups tracking Trump’s second term say around half of Project 2025 has been implemented.
Washington think-tanks regularly produce ideas for incoming presidents, and the right-wing Heritage Foundation released its blueprint in April 2023 when it was still unclear who would be the Republican Party’s nominee.
Project 2025’s centrepiece is a document titled Mandate for Leadership. It set out a means to make radical change by expanding presidential power, implementing sweeping cuts to the federal workforce, and imposing an ultra-conservative social vision.
Outside experts say the document not only provided a list of ideas, but outlined legal and administrative methods to achieve them.
“It really is a very detailed blueprint,” said Eugene Kiley, who wrote a comprehensive rundown on Project 2025 for the nonpartisan website Factcheck.org. “It sets out how to fire government employees and which ones, and how to take control of independent agencies.”
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