Why is there so much confusion and chaos coming out of the White House regarding economics, international relations, and trade, while there is also much discipline in efforts to win the “culture war?” Thus, swift dismantling of structures designated as the “enemy,” via DOGE, followed by complete incompetence when it comes to matters of greater importance—the economy and foreign relations.
How to explain this inconsistency? Great focus in the culture war inside America, while all else is a grand debacle. Sure, America may now provide less government support for things Woke, and Trumpists may well shriek with delight reading about DEI hires being fired, or migrants being deported, as payback—while a needless trade war with the world is proving ruinous to the American economy. Where is this imbalanced approach coming from?
Introducing… Project 2025, a comprehensive conservative policy initiative organized by the Heritage Foundation, involving over 100 organizations, aimed at restructuring the federal government and consolidating executive power under a nationalist agenda. It is an effort to replace what is regarded as a “failed America” with a “successful America,” stronger, wealthier, more successful than any other country on this planet. In brief, Project 2025 is a “hostile takeover” of the United States, in order to change it fundamentally so that it confirms to a particlar political vision.
In other words, Project 2025 is the pursuit of Utopia—which as history has shown us again and again succeeds in one thing only—it ends up establishing a dystopia. Political dreams always turn into nightmares in reality.
Project 2025 was written by a team of conservatives, that is, over 200 former Trump officials and nearly 300 contributors across government agencies, including ex-cabinet secretaries and policy specialists.
Here are some of the more important authors of the Project.
Russell Vought is the “mastermind” of the entire Project. He served as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under Trump 45, from July 2020 to January 2021. He assumed office again in February 2025 after being confirmed by the Senate. He wants to reshape and reduce the size of the federal government. His strategy includes cutting federal spending by about $9 trillion over ten years, terminating entire federal programs such as housing assistance and educational loans, dismissing thousands of civil servants, and limiting aid to the underprivileged by requiring work in exchange for assistance. He has described his mission as dismantling what he calls the “woke weaponized bureaucracy.”
Vought is known for his loyalty to Trump and his deep knowledge of government operations, having played a critical role in Trump’s government restructuring efforts. He is a self-described Christian nationalist and founder of the Center for Renewing America, an organization opposing critical race theory and promoting the idea of America as a “nation under God.”
Paul Dans is the original director of Project 2025 and former Trump administration official (Office of Personnel Management chief of staff). He oversaw recruitment and policy development before stepping down in August 2024.
Kevin Roberts is the president of the Heritage Foundation and Project leader who described the effort as part of a “second American Revolution.” He assumed direct control after Dans’ departure.
Spencer Chretien is Associate director of the Project and former Trump White House personnel official, who emphasizes the need to install ideologically aligned staff.
John McEntee, senior advisor and former Trump personnel director, has been instrumental in building a database of Trump-loyal federal employees.
Christopher Miller, former acting Secretary of Defense who authored the Department of Defense chapter in the Project.
Brendan Carr wrote the Federal Communications Commission chapter, advocating stricter tech regulations. He was later nominated by Trump to chair the FCC.
John Ratcliffe, former Director of National Intelligence and contributor to intelligence-related sections. Trump nominated him as the Director of the CIA.
Tom Homan contributed to immigration policy sections as a visiting Heritage fellow. Trump appointed him as “border czar.”
Roger Severino, Heritage Foundation vice president for domestic policy and co-author of the Mandate for Leadership.
Daren Bakst, Deputy Director at the Center for Energy and Environment and Senior Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, wrote the chapters related to energy and environmental policy.
Jonathan Berry, managing partner at Boyden Gray & Associates PLLC, with experience in the Department of Labor and Justice, contributed to regulatory policy.
Lindsey M. Burke, Director of the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation, who authored education policy sections.
David R. Burton, Senior Fellow in Economic Policy at The Heritage Foundation, wrote on economic and regulatory issues.
Brian J. Cavanaugh, currently serves as Associate Director for Homeland Security at the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), a position he assumed in February 2025. He was actively involved in crafting the Project.
James Baehr is a nominee for General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in the second Trump administration. He contributed to the Project.
Paul Atkins, Securities Exchange Commission member and OMB advisor, made contributions on financial regulatory agencies.
Stephen Billy, credited in sections regarding the executive branch.
The project involved over 200 former Trump officials and nearly 300 contributors across government agencies, including ex-cabinet secretaries and policy specialists.
Thus far, Trump has appointed 18 authors of Project 2025 to key positions.
As for the Project itself, is stands on “four pillars,” which are:
- The Mandate for Leadership: A comprehensive policy agenda that outlines conservative goals and principles to reshape government and society, emphasizing family, sovereignty, and individual rights based on Christian nationalist values.
- A Personnel Database: A curated pool of vetted conservative candidates from diverse backgrounds prepared to fill key government positions, ensuring loyalty and alignment with the project’s agenda.
- The Presidential Administration Academy: A training program including workshops, seminars, and mentorship to prepare selected personnel to effectively implement the conservative agenda in government roles.
- The 180-Day Transition Playbook: A detailed, concrete plan for the first 180 days of a new administration, specifying actionable steps to rapidly reverse previous policies and enact Project 2025’s conservative reforms across federal agencies.
To understand what this Project proposes, it is necessary to break it down into its key components.
First, there are policy priorities:
- Border Security. The southern border wall must be completed, and undocumented immigrants must be quickly deported.
- Federal Agencies. The “Deep State” needs to be dismantled, by increasing presidential control over federal bureaucracies, including the FBI and DOJ.
- Economy. The Federal Reserve must be replaced with a commodity-backed currency, and simplifying income taxes to two flat rates (15 percent and 30 percent), and lowering corporate taxes to 18 percent.
- Education. The Department of Education must be eliminated, and federal oversight of civil rights in schools must be ended.
- Climate and Energy. Climate regulations must be reversed, and fossil fuel production expanded, while renewable energy initiatives are to be defunded.
- LGBTQ+ Rights: Sex is to be defined under Title IX as strictly biological, and banning transgender athletes from women’s sports.
Second, there are governance priorities:
- Executive Power. Presidential authority is to be expanded over federal agencies, while replacing career officials with political appointees.
- Elections. The Federal Election Commission’s ability to combat election misinformation and limit social media content moderation is to restricted.
- Media. Public broadcasting (NPR, PBS) is to be defunded, and FCC rules revised, to favor conservative media consolidation.
Third, there are implementation priorities:
- Personnel Database. Recruit and train loyalists to fill key government roles immediately after the 2025 inauguration.
- Legislative Barriers. Proposes requiring a three-fifths congressional majority to raise income taxes, a move legal scholars deem constitutionally dubious.
These three priorities are then expanded into full blown diktats.
- Personnel Database. Recruit and train loyalists to fill key government roles immediately after the 2025 inauguration.
- Legislative Barriers. Proposes requiring a three-fifths congressional majority to raise income taxes, a move legal scholars deem constitutionally dubious
Next comes government restructuring and executive power expansion:
- Replace nonpartisan civil servants with political loyalists across key agencies (DOJ, FBI, Commerce, FTC).
- Abolish or dismantle agencies including the Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, FTC, and Consumer Financial
This is followed by restructuring the Protection Bureau:
- Centralize presidential authority over federal agencies to bypass checks on executive power.
Then comes economic and tax overhaul:
- Implement a two-tier flat income tax (15 percent and 30 percent) and cut corporate taxes to 18 percent.
- Replace the Federal Reserve with a commodity-backed currency (e.g., gold) and eliminate its full employment mandate.
- Restrict future tax increases by requiring a three-fifths congressional majority.
Then, come the social policy and civil rights rollbacks:
- Criminalize pornography and remove anti-LGBTQ+ protections, redefining sex under Title IX as strictly biological.
- End diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and prosecute anti-white racism claims.
- Restrict abortion access by criminalizing mailing abortion pills and defund emergency contraception programs.
Next, the change of immigration and border policies:
- Deploy military forces domestically to enforce immigration laws and conduct mass deportations.
- Resume border wall construction and eliminate protections for undocumented immigrants.
then, comes climate and energy deregulation:
- Reverse climate policies by defunding renewable energy initiatives and expanding fossil fuel production.
- Abolish the EPA’s environmental justice office and block stricter emissions standards.
- Discredit climate science by encouraging legal challenges to climatology research.
This if followed by overhauling education and public services:
- Eliminate federal education standards by closing the Department of Education and redirecting funds to vouchers.
- End free school meal programs and defund Head Start, affecting 1 million low-income children.
- Forgive fewer student loans and penalize schools offering in-state tuition to undocumented students.
Then, both labor and health care are restructured:
- Reduce overtime protections for 4.3 million workers and relax workplace safety rules.
- Privatize Medicare by pushing enrollees toward Medicare Advantage plans.
- Limit access to food stamps and impose stricter work requirements.
These goals aim to consolidate power, deregulate industries, and enforce an agenda through executive action and legislative changes. In other words, a top-down governance, in which political power is to be used to “win” the culture war. People will not be allowed to get in the way of making America “great.”
Given the hue and cry over Project 2025 during the election campaign, Trump publicly distanced himself from it. But this was likely political expedience, in order to head off any criticism for bring aligned with a controversial document.
But post-election reality tells a different story—basically, Trump is implementing Project 2025, despite his public efforts to distance himself.
Here is a summary of this implementation:
Government Restructuring and Personnel. Trump has appointed key Project 2025 architects like Russ Vought (nominated to lead the Office of Management and Budget) and John Ratcliffe (CIA director). Project 2025’s goal to replace federal civil servants with loyalists and reshape agencies like the DOJ and FBI matches Trump’s executive actions.
Immigration and Border Policies. Trump has reinstated strict immigration measures, including suspending the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and restricting asylum pathways—policies directly mirroring Project 2025’s calls to curtail refugee admissions and deploy the military for domestic immigration enforcement.
Climate and Energy Deregulation. On his first day in office, Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement and promoted oil/gas drilling in Alaska, aligning with Project 2025’s push to dismantle climate initiatives and expand fossil fuel production.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) staff reductions and canceled leases for weather centers also reflect Project 2025’s proposal to commercialize NOAA’s functions. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a U.S. federal scientific and regulatory agency within the Department of Commerce, established in 1970. NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the surface of the sun to the depths of the ocean, and to conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources. It provides critical services such as weather forecasting, climate monitoring, ocean and coastal management, fisheries regulation, and environmental research.
Social and Cultural Policies. DEI Initiatives. Trump has issued orders to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across federal agencies and schools, as advocated by Project 2025. Abortion. Trump reinstated the Mexico City Policy (blocking federal funds for abortion services) and reversed Biden-era abortion protections, though Project 2025’s broader anti-abortion agenda remains partially unfulfilled. LGBTQ+. While not fully implemented, Project 2025’s proposal to remove anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination protections aligns with Trump’s historical stance.
Economic and Regulatory Changes. Trump’s aggressive deregulation efforts and tax policies (e.g., corporate tax cuts) reflect Project 2025’s free-market priorities. His executive orders targeting federal workforce reductions also match the blueprint’s goals.
Trump’s Public Distance vs. Policy Reality. Campaign Rhetoric. Trump repeatedly denied involvement with Project 2025 during the 2024 campaign, calling some proposals “abysmal” and claiming he had not read the document. Post-Election Shift. After winning, Trump acknowledged he did not “disagree with everything” in Project 2025 and began nominating its contributors to key roles. Executive Action Analysis. Independent reviews (e.g., TIME) found that nearly two-thirds of Trump’s early executive orders mirror Project 2025 proposals, particularly on immigration, energy, and government restructuring.
Thus, while Trump avoids explicit endorsement of Project 2025, his policy agenda and personnel choices reflect its core objectives. Over 60 specific actions in Trump’s first month—including executive orders, agency directives, and policy reversals—directly mirror Project 2025’s proposals. Key architects of the blueprint now hold senior roles, driving implementation of its agenda to centralize executive power and advance conservative priorities.
More importantly, Trump’s tariff strategy aligns closely with Project 2025’s protectionist economic vision, or trade agenda, which advocates aggressive trade policies to reshape U.S. manufacturing and trade relations.
Economic Nationalism. The Project prioritizes domestic manufacturing self-sufficiency, through tariffs, aiming to reduce reliance on foreign goods. This mirrors Trump’s recent tariffs, including a 25 percent levy on steel/aluminum and targeted duties on nations like China, which the administration claims will “close trade deficits” and “stimulate U.S. production.”
Negotiation as Leverage. The Project explicitly recommends using high tariffs as a bargaining chip to extract concessions from trading partners. Trump’s mixed messaging—threatening tariffs while leaving room for exemptions—follows this strategy.
Revenue and Protectionism. The Project envisions tariffs as a tool to fund government operations, echoing Trump’s nostalgia for pre-1913 tariff-dependent revenue models.
Implementation and Risks. The White House uses a formula tying tariff rates to trade deficits, applying a 10 percent baseline tariff globally and higher rates for “worst offenders” like China. This approach aligns with Project 2025’s call for “reshoring” manufacturing.
Exemptions. Canada, Mexico, and sanctioned nations (e.g., Russia) are excluded, but even uninhabited territories are included to prevent trade loopholes.
In essence, Trump’s tariffs operationalize Project 2025’s vision of economic nationalism.
More importantly, Trump is actively implementing the fourth “pillar” of Project 2025—the 180-Day Transition Playbook, which is the fourth pillar of Project 2025. This playbook is a detailed, agency-by-agency plan designed to be executed within the first 180 days of a new conservative administration to rapidly reverse policies from the previous administration and bring about significant changes aligned with conservative priorities.
Since taking office in his second term, Trump’s executive orders and actions have closely mirrored many of the proposals outlined in Project 2025’s comprehensive guide, Mandate for Leadership. Analyses show that over two-thirds of his early executive actions align with Project 2025’s agenda, including policies on immigration enforcement, dismantling diversity and inclusion programs, reducing environmental regulations, and restructuring federal agencies such as FEMA.
And, then, there is Elon Musk’s DOGE.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is actively implementing Project 2025, a conservative blueprint aimed at drastically reshaping the federal government under Trump. Just as a reminder, DOGE was established by executive order on January 20, 2025, emerging from discussions between Trump and Elon Musk, who serves as a senior advisor to the president within DOGE.
As noted, Project 2025 seeks to cut federal spending significantly, reduce the federal workforce by as much as 75 percent, and dismantle or reorganize numerous federal agencies and programs, including the Department of Education, USAID, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. DOGE has been executing these goals by organizing mass layoffs, terminating scientific research and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, and gaining pervasive access to government data and infrastructure.
DOGE’s actions closely mirror the Project 2025 agenda, with a focus on making the bureaucracy more responsive to the elected president and eliminating what they consider wasteful or politically undesirable elements of the federal workforce. This includes placing DEI workers on administrative leave and terminating DEI offices, as well as cutting back agencies like the Agriculture Department and Social Security Administration through office closures and workforce reductions.
In effect, DOGE is the executive vehicle implementing Project 2025 through aggressive restructuring, workforce reductions, and spending cuts across federal agencies. And Russell Vought, the current OMB director, plays a central role in shaping DOGE’s strategy and execution.
Most federal agencies of the United States are now being impacted by project 2025, by way of restructuring, downsizing, or outright dismantling as part of its agenda to consolidate executive power and align the federal bureaucracy with the Trump administration’s priorities.
Specific agencies affected include:
The Department of Justice (DOJ). Project 2025 is overhauling the DOJ, making it closely overseen by the White House and prosecuting what it calls “anti-white racism” while curtailing affirmative action and diversity programs. The FBI Director will be directly accountable to the president.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI is being restructured to focus on serious crimes and national security, with overlapping responsibilities shifted to other agencies like the DEA.
Department of Commerce (DOC) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC). These agencies are targeted for partisan control, replacing merit-based civil servants with loyalists.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Education (ED). As noted already, Project 2025 is up for dismantling or abolishing these departments. The Education Department, in particular, is facing plans to cut nearly half of its workforce and is a top target for elimination.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The CFPB has been targeted for elimination; employees were put on administrative leave but later reinstated by court order. The agency has been a focus due to its regulatory role over banks and digital assets.
United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Initially subsumed under the State Department, USAID employees were fired and the agency is planned for closure by mid-2025.
Voice of America (VOA). Employees were cut, but court rulings have reinstated them temporarily. VOA is also a target of Project 2025.
Department of Agriculture (USDA): Plans include dismantling its D.C. headquarters and closing field offices nationwide.
Social Security Administration (SSA): Reorganization plans involve closing some regional field offices.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The IRS has begun workforce reductions, notably cutting 75 percent of its Office of Civil Rights and Compliance.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Under leadership aligned with Project 2025, the FCC has launched investigations into NPR and PBS and is considering changes to media regulations to allow more consolidation and reduce public broadcasting influence.
Thus, the chaos and confusion that we are witnessing is the result of a utopia being implemented. Which means that a poorly thought out “conservative” ideology is being imposed upon the reality of what America is, which is largely not “conservative” but centrist. Nor is America overly liberal. Perhaps it is fairer to say that there are three “Americas,” not just one. How Project 2025 comes to the decision that its version of “America” is the “real” America, we are never told.
Thus, MAGA has created a false crisis, a false “culture war” in which liberals are said to predominate and thus need to be brought to heel, by force if need be. This sort of heavy-handedness contradicts the fundamentals of ordinary American life, which believes in “live and let live.”
So, all the desperate solutions being offered by Trump as somehow yielding a “better” America come across as artificial, if not simply false. There is no cultural crisis, as such, which Trump needs to fix by his decrees. Culture depends upon ideas—and ideas are impervious to the use of force. Rather, force only strengthens the ideas that governments try to eradicate. And force is a manifestation of chaos. If Trump needs to force America to become “conservative” then he has already failed.
As well, Project 2025 seeks to take a shortcut to making America “conservative.” Ideas require a long and arduous process of education and thought. MAGA is in a hurry to change the world, without understanding that the world may not want to change. The utopia that MAGA dreams about will never be built. And it is attempted, it will require a great deal of cruelty.
It is that cruelty which lies as a palimpsest within Project 2025, which has quickly moved to extremes. The same “logic” that America has been unleashing upon various “enemy” populations of the world, is now being used inside America.
How much cruelty will Trump be willing to unleash? That is the question now facing MAGA. Without such cruelty, MAGA will fail spectacularly. But by deploying cruelty, MAGA will utterly destroy itself. When politics becomes a race to extremes, then the outcomes are few and dire.
