Overview of Project 2026
This episode of Today Explained (Vox) revisits Project 2025 — the 900+ page policy blueprint produced by the Heritage Foundation — and reports on how much of it has been implemented during the first year of President Trump’s second term. David A. Graham (The Atlantic), author of The Project: How Project 2025 is Reshaping America, explains what Project 2025 proposed, the mechanisms used to advance it, what the administration has accomplished (and not), and why some changes may be durable even if policy details can be reversed.
Key takeaways
- Project 2025 combined (1) a department-by-department policy playbook, (2) a plan to expand executive power and “seize control” of government, and (3) a large vetted pool of conservative appointees ready for day one.
- Many Project 2025 priorities were pursued early and aggressively via appointments and executive actions. A public tracker estimates just over 50% of items have seen progress — though such quantification is imperfect.
- Major implemented shifts: rollback of environmental and climate regulations, attacks on DEI and transgender rights, tougher immigration enforcement, tariff and tax policy shifts, and broader efforts to make independent agencies answer to the White House.
- Less accomplished goals: sweeping federal bans on abortion, full pro-natalist social-welfare redesigns, a broad tech “crackdown,” and radical monetary proposals (abolishing the Fed or a gold standard).
- Structural change — especially presidential control over independent regulatory agencies and a more weaponized executive branch — may prove harder to reverse than specific policy choices.
What Project 2025 is and how it was meant to work
- Three core elements:
- A detailed policy blueprint across most federal departments.
- Institutional strategies to expand presidential control and bypass the administrative state.
- A database of thousands of vetted conservative appointees trained to fill positions immediately.
- Goal: be “prepared day one” to implement conservative governance at scale.
Major policy areas: what’s been done and where things stand
- Gender, family, and civil-rights-related policy
- Active rollback on “woke” policies: federal and institutional pushback on DEI programs and restrictions targeting transgender rights.
- Pro-natalist/family-support programs (federal redesigns, fertility supports) largely undone or only partially pursued.
- Immigration and law-and-order
- Sustained focus on stricter immigration enforcement, continued prioritization of border measures and policing rhetoric.
- Economy and trade
- Tariffs re-emerged as a favored tool; tax cuts remain a priority. Extreme monetary proposals haven’t materialized, though the administration has attacked Fed leadership rhetorically.
- Environment and energy
- Aggressive push for increased oil and gas drilling, rollback of renewable mandates and climate research/regulation.
- Foreign policy and defense
- Actions in Venezuela, Iran, and other hotspots; not a neat match for Project 2025’s emphasis on prioritizing China/isolationism, but active and unpredictable foreign policy.
- Regulatory agencies and the administrative state
- Targeted efforts to control or politicize independent agencies (FCC, NLRB, FEC, etc.). A pending Supreme Court decision could strengthen presidential control over such agencies — a structural change with wide effects.
How the administration accomplished rapid change
- Ready personnel: veterans from the previous Trump administration and others who knew how to navigate government were prepped to act immediately.
- Executive orders and aggressive appointments allowed quick policy shifts on day one and soon after.
- Use of the Justice Department and other enforcement tools has been framed by critics as retributive and politicized (e.g., subpoenas to the Fed were noted as alarming).
- The Project’s appointee pipeline and playbook enabled a “blitzkrieg” style rollout that outpaced Congress and many courts initially.
What hasn’t been achieved
- Full-scale federal abortion ban and major restrictions on mifepristone/mail-order abortion drugs.
- Big shifts in social-welfare infrastructure toward faith-based providers or sweeping pro-family economic programs.
- Large-scale anti–Big Tech legal crusade; instead, a friendlier stance to tech leaders in many instances.
- Radical monetary policy changes (abolishing the Fed, gold standard) remain unrealized.
Political dynamics and fractures on the right
- Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 has been both influential and politically problematic: it helped set the agenda but became an electoral liability due to its unpopularity and the perception that it constrained Trump’s sole authority.
- Infighting and jockeying: Heritage, Mike Pence–aligned groups, and other conservative factions are vying for influence and the next governing blueprint.
- The only unifying force across competing conservative factions appears to be Trump himself; the coalition’s durability without him is uncertain.
Durability and likely trajectory
- Specific policies enacted by executive action can be reversed by a future president or Congress.
- Structural changes — especially presidential control over independent agencies and the normalization of a highly centralized, weaponized executive — are likely to be harder and slower to undo.
- Key near-term items to watch: courtroom decisions about agency independence, regulatory leadership picks, DOJ investigations/subpoenas, and how midterm elections shape Congressional checks.
Notable quotes
- Project description: “We need to have an army of conservatives ready to march in day one.”
- On implementation pace: “We could conduct this blitzkrieg that took the courts by surprise.”
- On permanence: “We have the most powerful presidency we've ever had. And taking that back... is going to take years to redo.”
What to watch next (actionable signals)
- Supreme Court rulings about protections for independent agencies (could give presidents broader control).
- Appointments and policy moves at agencies like the FCC, NLRB, FEC, and DOJ.
- Enforcement actions (e.g., DOJ subpoenas) involving regulatory or financial institutions.
- Legislative outcomes in the midterms that could check or enable further Project-style moves.
- New blueprints or competing conservative manifestos from Heritage, Pence-aligned groups, or others aiming to shape “post-Trump” conservatism.
Further reading / sources
- David A. Graham, The Project: How Project 2025 is Reshaping America (author and Atlantic staff writer interviewed in the episode).
- Project 2025 (Heritage Foundation materials) — the original >900-page policy plan.
- Public trackers summarizing Project 2025 implementation (noted in episode as estimating just over 50% progress, with caveats).
Produced by Vox’s Today Explained; interview with David A. Graham.