'Literally running the show': Shock report reveals full reach of Project 2025
Despite repeatedly attempting to distance himself from Project 2025 during his reelection campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration employs dozens of senior officials with links to the Heritage Foundation-led plan to expand executive power and shrink the federal government—including a majority of his Cabinet.
That's according to an interactive analysis published Monday by the international climate-focused news outlet DeSmog, which found that more than 50 high-level Trump administration officials have ties to groups behind Project 2025.
That figure includes many of Trump's closest advisers, including Stephen Miller and Elon Musk, who recently stepped down as the de facto head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. It also includes 14 out of 24 Cabinet-level officials, or 70% of the Cabinet.
"That's a hugely significant finding," Duke University history and public policy professor Nancy MacLean told DeSmog. "In Heritage's own longtime language, 'personnel is policy.' It shows the incredible bad faith of Trump's denials, because this is who he stocked his administration with."
The analysis notes:
Some of the officials directly authored parts of "The Mandate for Leadership," the now-notorious, 900-page proposal to "dismantle the administrative state"—the meat of Project 2025. Others recently worked for, donated to, or otherwise collaborated with one or more of the dozens of conservative groups that created the distinctly Christian nationalist-flavored document. Some of these high-ranking officials have connections to five or more different Project 2025 groups.
"In other words, Project 2025 isn't just influential in Washington. Its friends and creators are literally running the show," DeSmog said. "Which helps to explain why the Trump administration has worked swiftly to implement the vision described in the 'Mandate.'"
DeSmog countered Trump's claims to "know nothing about Project 2025" or "who is behind it" by highlighting a host of his administration's policies and practices that track the the initiative. At least 140 people who worked in Trump's first administration—including six former Cabinet secretaries—have also been involved with Project 2025.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought co-authored the policy portion of Project 2025, which includes dramatic cuts to critical public programs, abolishing or gutting essential government agencies, a national abortion ban, and a litany of additional far-right wish list items.
"From across-the-board tariffs to the mass firing of tens of thousands of federal workers to attacking inclusive language and initiatives, from gutting whole agencies and departments to dramatically stepping up the rate of deportations to the broad-scale rollback of environmental regulations and initiatives, a clear pattern has emerged: if the Trump administration's doing it, Project 2025 probably spelled it out first," the outlet said.
"This matters because Americans overwhelmingly rejected Project 2025," DeSmog contended in a post on the social media site Bluesky. "A pre-election survey showed 4% approval. Trump wouldn't touch it. Yet the plan's architects and allies now run the executive branch."
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) shows reporters spending charts. Photo: Matt Laslo.