The Heritage Foundation has published what they call “Mandate for Leadership” policy blueprints since 1979. So, Project 2025 is not an entirely new concept. Over the decades these documents have outlined what conservatives hope to see out of a Republican administration.
When Project 2025 started getting attention last year, Donald Trump said he knew nothing about it. During his debate in September with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, now-President Trump said “I have nothing to do with Project 2025. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it, purposely. I’m not going to read it.”
Whether or not President Trump has read the 900+ page document, many of the executive actions he’s taken so far since returning to the White House align with what it contains. And Paul Dans, who oversaw the creation of Project 2025 for The Heritage Foundation, told CNN “This is exactly the work we set out to do. It’s still in the early first stages of bearing fruit, but we wanted to make sure the president was ready to hit the ground running on day one. The rapidity and the depth of what they’ve rolled out this quickly is a testament to the work done in Project 2025 and other presidential transition projects.”
President Trump has filled key government posts with people who helped put Project 2025 together. Tom Homan, who is serving as White House border czar, and Trump’s new CIA Director John Ratcliffe contributed to Project 2025. Trump’s choice for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, wrote an entire chapter for Project 2025 on the agency he now leads.
Last July we talked with a woman who was closely following Project 2025 on her Substack titled, at the time, “How Project 2025 Will Ruin Your Life.” Andra Watkins is a bestselling author who doesn’t normally follow these kinds of things, but she was raised with a Christian Nationalist worldview and when she started reading through Project 2025 was alarmed by things she found in it that she says align directly with that worldview, which she has long-since left behind.
Now that President Trump has returned to the White House, and many of his initial flurry of executive actions align with what’s in Project 2025, we’ve brought her back for a follow up conversation to get her take on what's unfolded so far.
Guest: Andra Watkins, author of five books including the bestselling memoir “Not Without My Father: One Woman's 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace.” Her Substack is called “For Such a Time as This” — it was formerly called "How Project 2025 Will Ruin Your Life."
Click here to read or download the full Project 2025 document.
Click here to find President Trump's executive actions since returning to the White House.
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