You’ve seen the headlines. You’ve probably seen the viral clips of people holding up a massive 900-page book like it’s some kind of forbidden text. But when you start digging into the actual link between JD Vance and Project 2025, things get a lot more complicated than just a simple "yes" or "no" on a campaign flyer.
Politics is rarely as clean as we want it to be.
Honestly, the connection between the Vice President and the Heritage Foundation’s "Mandate for Leadership" is a mix of personal friendships, shared intellectual DNA, and a very deliberate attempt by a campaign to keep its distance while keeping its allies close. It's not just about a PDF on a website. It’s about the future of the conservative movement and who gets to hold the keys to the federal government.
The Foreword That Started the Fire
If you want to find the "smoking gun" that critics always point to, you have to look at a book called Dawn’s Early Light. It was written by Kevin Roberts. Who is Kevin Roberts? He's the president of the Heritage Foundation and essentially the architect of Project 2025.
JD Vance wrote the foreword for that book.
In that intro, Vance didn’t just offer a polite blurb. He went deep. He talked about "circling the wagons" and "loading the muskets" for a cultural and political battle. He praised Roberts for turning Heritage into the "de facto institutional home of Trumpism." When you write a glowing introduction for the man running the project, people are going to assume you’re on board with the project itself.
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The campaign tried to play it down. They said Vance didn’t agree with everything in the 922-page Project 2025 document. But the language Vance used in that foreword—talking about the need for a "second American Revolution" to dismantle the old guard—echoes the very core of what Project 2025 aims to do. It’s about vibes and vision, even if they aren't checking every single box in the manual.
Why the "Schedule F" Idea Matters So Much
One of the biggest overlaps between JD Vance and Project 2025 is something called Schedule F.
It sounds boring. It's not.
Basically, it’s a plan to reclassify thousands of civil service workers—the "deep state" bureaucrats—as political appointees. This would allow a president to fire them and replace them with loyalists. Vance has been on the record about this for years. Back in 2021, on a podcast, he literally said the advice he’d give Trump is to "fire every single mid-level bureaucrat" and replace them with "our people."
That is the beating heart of Project 2025.
The project spent $22 million building a "LinkedIn for MAGA" to vet people for these potential openings. While the Trump-Vance ticket officially runs on "Agenda 47," the personnel overlap is massive. You have people like Russ Vought, who worked for Trump and helped write Project 2025, now serving in high-level roles in the current administration.
Abortion, IVF, and the Policy Gap
Here is where it gets tricky. If you listen to the news, you’d think Vance and Project 2025 are in total lockstep on social issues.
That’s not quite true.
Project 2025 contains some pretty radical proposals about using the Comstock Act to effectively ban the mailing of abortion pills nationwide. Vance has had a moving target on this. In the past, he signed a letter urging the DOJ to use the Comstock Act. But during the 2024 campaign and into his vice presidency, he’s shifted toward the "leave it to the states" position that Donald Trump pushed.
There's a tension there.
- Project 2025: Wants a hardline, federal approach to restricting abortion access.
- Vance’s Current Stance: Focuses more on "pro-family" policies like child tax credits, while trying to avoid the political landmine of a federal ban.
The same goes for IVF. Some contributors to the Heritage plan have been vocal critics of IVF. Vance, meanwhile, has repeatedly stated he supports IVF access. He’s trying to bridge a gap between the old-school religious right and a new "National Conservative" movement that is more focused on birth rates and economic support for families.
The Power of the Heritage Foundation
You can't talk about Vance without talking about the Heritage Foundation. It isn't just a think tank anymore; it's a talent scout.
Vance has called Heritage the "most influential engine of ideas" for the GOP. He’s not wrong. Since the Reagan era, Heritage has been writing these "Mandates for Leadership." The difference now is that the current version is much more aggressive about dismantling federal agencies like the Department of Education.
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Is It the "Official" Plan?
The short answer is no. The long answer is "sorta."
Donald Trump famously said he "knew nothing" about Project 2025 and called some of its ideas "abysmal." This was a tactical move. The project became a massive liability in the polls. However, if you look at the executive orders being signed today, the "evocation" of Project 2025 proposals is everywhere.
CNN actually did a deep dive and found that more than two-thirds of the administration's initial executive actions matched suggestions from the Project 2025 blueprint.
Vance is the bridge. He’s the guy who speaks the language of the intellectuals at Heritage but can also sell the "populist" version of those policies to the base. He doesn't have to carry the physical book around to be the primary vessel for its ideology.
Common Misconceptions
- Myth: JD Vance wrote Project 2025.
- Reality: He didn't write a single chapter. He wrote a foreword for a book by the project's leader.
- Myth: Every Project 2025 policy is now law.
- Reality: Many are being challenged in court or were modified by the administration to be more politically palatable.
- Myth: The project is a "secret" plan.
- Reality: It’s been public on the internet for years. It’s 900 pages of very dense, very public policy.
What This Means for You
Whether you love the direction the country is headed or you're terrified by it, understanding the link between JD Vance and Project 2025 is about understanding how power actually works in 2026. It’s not just about the person in the Oval Office. It’s about the thousands of people being hired to run the departments you interact with every day—from the EPA to the Department of Labor.
The "revolution" Vance wrote about is less about a single law and more about a complete overhaul of who runs the government.
If you want to stay ahead of where the administration is going next, don't just watch the press briefings. Look at the names of the people being appointed to sub-cabinet positions. If they came from the Heritage Foundation or the Center for Renewing America (another Project 2025 partner), you can bet they have a copy of that 922-page manual on their desk.
Next Steps for Staying Informed:
- Monitor Personnel: Keep an eye on the "Schedule F" implementation. If civil service protections are stripped, the speed of policy change will accelerate.
- Track the Comstock Act: Watch for any DOJ memos regarding the Comstock Act. This is the "backdoor" to abortion policy that Project 2025 advocates for, even if the President says otherwise.
- Review Local Impacts: Many Project 2025 goals, like eliminating the Department of Education, will hit your local school district's funding first. Check your state's contingency plans for federal funding cuts.