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2025 Presidential Transition Project (Project 2025)

Type:

Coalition of Right-of-Center Organizations
Founding Organizer:

The Heritage Foundation

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The 2025 Presidential Transition Project, commonly referred to as Project 2025, is a coalition effort of more than 70 conservative organizations to form a presidential transition effort that the New York Times reported at $22 million for the next conservative president. 1 The coalition is organized by the Heritage Foundation. 2

Project 2025 aims to recruit conservative Americans to fill federal government jobs and replace as many as 50,000 career federal bureaucrats. 3 The more than 900-page Project 2025 policy plan calls for substantial policy changes in the U.S. Department of Justice, 4 the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 5 and the U.S. Department of Defense. 6 The plan also calls for eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Commerce. 7

Background

The 2025 Presidential Transition Project, commonly referred to as Project 2025, is a coalition effort of more than 70 right-of-center organizations planning for a transition for the next conservative president. 8

The presidential transition effort is being done on a “scale never attempted before in conservative politics,” according to the New York Times, with the paper valuing it at $22 million. 9 The coalition is organized by the Heritage Foundation. It builds off Heritage’s Mandate for Leadership series that began with the election of President Ronald Reagan in 1980. 10

The project’s website says: “If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on day one of the next conservative administration.” 11

The project has four pillars: a policy agenda, personnel, training, and a 180-day playbook. 12

The 900-page Project 2025 policy agenda for the next president includes input from hundreds of contributors. Project 2025 director Paul Dans asserted, “Project 2025 is not a white paper. We are not tinkering at the edges. We are writing a battle plan, and we are marshaling our forces. Never before has the whole conservative movement banded together to systematically prepare to take power day one and deconstruct the administrative state.” 13

Coalition Partners

Project 2025 coalition members with representatives on the Project 2025 Advisory Board include America First Legal, the Center for Renewing America, the Conservative Partnership Institute, the Claremont Institute, the Family Research Council, the Independent Women’s Forum, FreedomWorks, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, American Compass, the Coalition for a Prosperous America and the American Moment. 14

In 2022, the Heritage Foundation gave $1.67 million in grants that included $965,000 to the organizations on the advisory board of Project 2025. 15

Personnel Proposals

Project 2025 aims to recruit conservative Americans to fill federal government jobs and replace as many as 50,000 federal bureaucrats who are perceived to be ideological liberals. 16

The plan calls for doing this by reinstating “Schedule F,” which would reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees, out of more than 2 million, from career civil servants who generally cannot be fired without cause to political appointees who can lose their jobs at the will of the incumbent administration. Currently, a president can only replace about 4,000 political appointees. 17

To recruit about 20,000 candidates for the pool of employees, the project created what Politico, the New York Times, and others called a “right-wing LinkedIn,” or a database for a government-in-waiting for the next conservative president. 18 19

The project established a Presidential Administration Academy with video classes and certificates to train for administration positions. These classes include “Conservative Governance 101,” “Oversight and Investigations,” “The Federal Budget Process,” “The Administrative State: What it is & How to Address the Problem,” “How to Promulgate a Rule,” and “Taking the Reins: How Conservatives Can Win the Regulations Game.” The classes are designed to give incoming presidential appointees training ahead of taking a new job. 20 21

Policy Proposals

The more than 900-page Project 2025 Playbook calls for an overhaul of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). It claims the DOJ has become a “bloated bureaucracy with a critical core of personnel who are infatuated with the perpetuation of a radical liberal agenda upon the American people — and the defeat of political enemies,” and “appears to care more about how they are perceived in the next Politico or Washington Post article, or how any number of radical leftist organizations perceive their actions, than with doing justice and advancing the national interest for the American people.” 22

The plan also calls for legislation to align the FBI director, currently appointed to a 10-year term, with that of all major administrations and agencies. It also calls for the DOJ to stop pushing social media companies to remove content based on viewpoint. 23

The policy plan further calls for separating immigration agencies outside of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and creating a new Cabinet-level department to deal with immigration. The new Cabinet agency on immigration would include U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The proposed new agency would also take the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement and the DOJ’s Executive Office for Immigration Review and Office of Immigration Litigation. 24

The policy plan calls for the U.S. Department of Defense to abolish its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and reinstate any military servicemembers discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. 25

The plan calls for eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Commerce. It would also give the president more power over quasi-independent agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission. 26

The Project 2025 plan calls for appointing acting officials to certain roles if the U.S. Senate will not confirm appointees in a timely manner. 27

The plan would block federal subsidies for wind and solar energy, cut funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, close the U.S. Department of Energy’s weather-dependent energy offices, and prevent states from adopting California car pollution standards. 28

Leadership

Paul Dans is the director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project. Before working for the Heritage Foundation, Dans was the chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management during the Trump administration. In January 2021, then-President Trump appointed Dans as chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission. Before working at OPM, he was a senior advisor in the Office of Community Planning and Development at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Prior to working in the federal government, Dans was an attorney in a private practice in New York City. 29

Spencer Chretien is the associate director of Project 2025. Before joining Heritage, he was a special assistant to President Trump and associate director of presidential personnel. Before working in the White House, Chretien worked at HUD.  Before working in the government, he had stints at the American Legislative Exchange Council, Citizens Against Government Waste, and FreedomWorks. 30

Troup Hemenway is the associate director for personnel placement for Project 2025. Hemenway was previously the associate director for national security in the Office of Presidential Personnel during the Trump administration. After the Trump administration, he went to the America First Policy Institute, where he was the senior advisor to the American Leadership Initiative. 31

References

  1.  Haberman, Maggie and Swan, Jonathan. “Heritage Foundation Makes Plans to Staff Next G.O.P. Administration.” The New York Times. April 20, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/us/politics/republican-president-2024-heritage-foundation.html
  2. “About.” Project 2025. Accessed February 9, 2024. https://www.project2025.org/about/about-project-2025/
  3. Mascaro, Lisa. “Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision.” Associated Press. August 29, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981
  4.  Herlihy, Brianna. “Heritage recommends DOJ, FBI overhaul for next GOP president to end ‘radical liberal agenda.’” Fox News. April 19, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/heritage-recommends-doj-fbi-overhaul-gop-president-end-radical-liberal-agenda
  5. Mascaro, Lisa. “Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision.” Associated Press. August 29, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981
  6. Mascaro, Lisa. “Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision.” Associated Press. August 29, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981
  7. [1] Hirsh, Michael. “Inside the Next Republican Revolution.” Politico Magazine. September 19, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/09/19/project-2025-trump-reagan-00115811
  8.  “About.” Project 2025. Accessed February 9, 2024. https://www.project2025.org/about/about-project-2025/
  9. Haberman, Maggie and Swan, Jonathan. “Heritage Foundation Makes Plans to Staff Next G.O.P. Administration.” The New York Times. April 20, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/us/politics/republican-president-2024-heritage-foundation.html
  10. “About.” Project 2025. Accessed February 9, 2024. https://www.project2025.org/about/about-project-2025/
  11. “About.” Project 2025. Accessed February 9, 2024. https://www.project2025.org/about/about-project-2025/
  12. “About.” Project 2025. Accessed February 9, 2024. https://www.project2025.org/about/about-project-2025/
  13. Waldman, Scott. “Conservatives have already written a climate plan for Trump’s second term.” Politico. July 28, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/28/far-right-climate-plans-00107498
  14. Doyle, Katherine. “Donations have surged to groups linked to conservative Project 2025.” NBC News. November 17, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/donations-surged-groups-linked-conservative-project-2025-rcna125638
  15. Doyle, Katherine. “Donations have surged to groups linked to conservative Project 2025.” NBC News. November 17, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/donations-surged-groups-linked-conservative-project-2025-rcna125638
  16. Mascaro, Lisa. “Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision.” Associated Press. August 29, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981
  17. Mascaro, Lisa. “Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision.” Associated Press. August 29, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981
  18. Waldman, Scott. “Conservatives have already written a climate plan for Trump’s second term.” Politico. July 28, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/28/far-right-climate-plans-00107498
  19. Haberman, Maggie and Swan, Jonathan. “Heritage Foundation Makes Plans to Staff Next G.O.P. Administration.” The New York Times. April 20, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/us/politics/republican-president-2024-heritage-foundation.html
  20. Hirsh, Michael. “Inside the Next Republican Revolution.” Politico Magazine. September 19, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/09/19/project-2025-trump-reagan-00115811
  21. Press Release. “Project 2025 Announces Latest Additions to Presidential Administration Academy.” The Heritage Foundation. November 3, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.heritage.org/press/project-2025-announces-latest-additions-presidential-administration-academy
  22. Herlihy, Brianna. “Heritage recommends DOJ, FBI overhaul for next GOP president to end ‘radical liberal agenda.’” Fox News. April 19, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/heritage-recommends-doj-fbi-overhaul-gop-president-end-radical-liberal-agenda
  23.  Herlihy, Brianna. “Heritage recommends DOJ, FBI overhaul for next GOP president to end ‘radical liberal agenda.’” Fox News. April 19, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/heritage-recommends-doj-fbi-overhaul-gop-president-end-radical-liberal-agenda
  24. Shaw, Adam. “Conservative org prepares aggressive plan for DHS overhaul if Republicans win White House in 2024.” Fox News. April 18, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/conservative-org-prepares-aggressive-plan-dhs-overhaul-republicans-win-white-house-2024
  25. Mascaro, Lisa. “Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision.” Associated Press. August 29, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981
  26. Hirsh, Michael. “Inside the Next Republican Revolution.” Politico Magazine. September 19, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/09/19/project-2025-trump-reagan-00115811
  27. Mascaro, Lisa. “Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision.” Associated Press. August 29, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981
  28. Waldman, Scott. “Conservatives have already written a climate plan for Trump’s second term.” Politico. July 28, 2023. Accessed February 10, 2024. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/28/far-right-climate-plans-00107498
  29. “Paul Dans.” The Heritage Foundation. Accessed February 9, 2024. https://www.heritage.org/staff/paul-dans
  30. “Spencer Chretien.” The Heritage Foundation. Accessed February 9, 2024. https://www.heritage.org/staff/spencer-chretien
  31. Mendoza, Diego. “Heritage scores AFPI aide to work on 2024 transition.” September 13, 2023. Accessed February 9, 2024. https://www.semafor.com/article/09/13/2023/heritage-scores-afpi-aide-to-work-on-2024-transition
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