Project 2025: How Trump Is Implementing the Conservative Blueprint After Returning to Power

Project 2025 served as a political scare tactic during President Donald Trump’s election campaign, as he repeatedly denied any connection to it. However, many of the project’s goals have become reality after being implemented by Trump during his first year back in office, according to Axios.

Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project 2025, is a political initiative published in 2023 by the conservative American think tank The Heritage Foundation. The project aims to advance conservative and right-wing policies to reshape the U.S. federal government and expand executive power following Donald Trump’s inauguration as president in 2025.

Trump and Project 2025

During his campaign, Trump disavowed Project 2025 and repeatedly denied plans to adopt its goals or policies. Yet according to reporting, his administration has implemented many of its objectives—many of which reflect long-standing conservative priorities.

From restructuring the federal government to efforts to recognize only two genders, Trump spent much of 2025 advancing items from conservatives’ Project 2025 “wish list.” Dozens of additional proposals remain pending as he moves into 2026.

Education Goals Under Project 2025

The Trump administration has laid the groundwork to dismantle the Department of Education and rolled back Biden-era Title IX protections related to gender identity and sexual orientation. Project 2025 outlines several additional education goals, including:

• Passing a federal “Parents’ Bill of Rights” affirming parents’ authority and responsibility to raise, educate, and care for their children.

• Converting funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) into block grants sent directly to school systems.

Trump also announced plans to move special education programs to the Department of Health and Human Services. His budget proposal called for consolidating IDEA programs to provide “greater flexibility” to states and school districts.

Project 2025’s authors further propose requiring all students in federally funded schools to take the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB).

The project also sought to eliminate the Head Start program, which provides free early childhood education, health, and nutrition services to low-income families. Human rights advocates warned such a move would have far-reaching negative effects on families, workers, and children.

Although a leaked Trump budget draft called for ending Head Start, the White House ultimately backed away. Still, the program faced funding disruptions and pressure in 2025 amid the administration’s campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Project 2025 on Abortion and Health Care

The reproductive rights group Reproductive Freedom for All says nearly half of Project 2025’s recommendations targeting reproductive rights are either completed or currently being implemented.

Other proposals remain, including removing emergency contraception from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s women’s preventive services guidelines.

The project also urges the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to revoke approval of medication abortion drugs—an issue Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said would be reviewed. It further calls for passing the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, legislation that has not passed Congress.

The bill would require medical professionals to provide the same level of care to infants born alive after an abortion as to any other child—a measure Democratic lawmakers have described as dangerous and unnecessary.

Project 2025 also calls on Medicare and Medicaid Services to impose time limits or lifetime caps on benefits to discourage long-term reliance on publicly funded health care.

A Hardline Immigration Agenda

Reducing immigration and accelerating deportations were key priorities at the start of Trump’s second term, but many Project 2025 immigration proposals remain under consideration.

The plan calls for sweeping reforms across the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including abolishing the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, which the project claims has been “weaponized for domestic political purposes.” While reports suggest major cuts to the office, it has not been fully eliminated.

Project 2025 also proposes creating a new cabinet-level Border and Immigration Agency, combining agencies such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The DHS chapter—written by former acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli—urges Congress to transfer migrant child detention from the Department of Health and Human Services to DHS and to eliminate anti-trafficking protections for unaccompanied minors, arguing they have failed.

Other Project 2025 Goals

Other notable goals outlined in Project 2025 include:

• Criminalizing pornography

• Fully commercializing National Weather Service forecasting operations

• Amending the Fair Labor Standards Act to require time-and-a-half pay for work performed on Saturdays