It was the policy ghost that wouldn't stop haunting the 2024 campaign trail. For months, Donald Trump looked at the Heritage Foundation’s nearly 1,000-page "Mandate for Leadership" and basically said, "I don't know her." He called it extreme. He claimed he had no idea who was behind it. He even wished the people involved luck but insisted they had nothing to do with him.
Fast forward to 2026. The distance is gone.
Honestly, the "I don't know them" phase was always a bit of a stretch given that over 140 former Trump administration officials helped write the thing. But now, with a year of his second term in the rearview mirror, Trump confirms Project 2025 through action rather than just press releases. We’ve seen a systematic rollout of the blueprint’s most controversial pillars, from the gutting of federal agencies to a radical shift in reproductive health policy.
The Pivot from Disavowal to Delivery
During the 2024 debates, Trump was adamant. He told ABC’s David Muir, "I have nothing to do with Project 2025." He said he hadn't read it and didn't want to. It was a smart political move at the time because the document had become a lightning rod for Democratic attacks.
But once the 2025 inauguration passed, the tone changed. It wasn't a single "I love Project 2025" tweet that did it. It was the appointments. When you put Russell Vought, a primary architect of the project, back in charge of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), you aren't just hiring a guy. You're hiring the plan.
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Vought wrote the chapter on the Executive Office of the President. He’s the one who advocated for "Schedule F," a move that would effectively turn tens of thousands of career civil servants into political appointees who can be fired at will. In early 2025, Trump signed the executive orders to make this a reality. This isn't just "coincidence." It’s the literal manual being followed page by page.
Real-World Implementation: Beyond the Rhetoric
People often ask if this is just standard Republican stuff. Kinda, but not really. The scale is what’s different.
Take the Department of the Interior. Project 2025 called for an "Energy Dominance" agenda that prioritized fossil fuel extraction on public lands over conservation. By January 2026, reports from the Center for Western Priorities showed that the administration had already implemented about 80% of the project's recommendations for public lands.
They didn't just talk about it. They:
- Reinstated federal coal leasing.
- Rescinded Biden-era climate priorities for land management.
- Fast-tracked logging permits in protected forests.
Then there's the immigration side of things. Ken Cuccinelli, another Project 2025 contributor, called for mass detention and the end of certain visa classes. Look at the numbers from this past year. The average daily population in ICE custody jumped from 38,000 in late 2024 to nearly 65,000 by the start of 2026. The administration also made it significantly harder for victims of human trafficking to get T-visas, another specific recommendation found in the 900-page mandate.
The Reproductive Health Overhaul
This is where the "confirmation" gets most intense. Trump spent the campaign saying abortion should be left to the states. Project 2025, however, laid out a federal roadmap to bypass state laws using the Comstock Act of 1873.
While a full national ban hasn't cleared Congress, the executive branch has been busy. In June 2025, the administration rescinded the Biden-era guidance that required hospitals to provide emergency abortion care under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).
They also went after the mail-order availability of mifepristone. By leveraging the Justice Department—now led by Project 2025 supporters like Pam Bondi—the administration has signaled it will enforce 19th-century obscenity laws to stop the shipping of abortion-related materials.
It’s a "quiet" confirmation. You don't need a speech when you have a signature on an executive order.
Why the "Overlap" Argument is Fading
For a while, the White House tried to say their "Agenda 47" was the only real plan and Project 2025 was just "outside ideas."
That’s getting harder to believe.
When your Secretary of Education (or the person running the transition to dismantle the department) is using the exact language of "universal school choice" and "eliminating the woke bureaucracy" found in the Heritage document, the distinction disappears. The 2025 "One Big Beautiful Bill" (OBBBA) reconciliation act included provisions to defund Planned Parenthood for a year—a specific, tactical goal of the project.
Major Policy Alignments as of 2026:
- Personnel: Hiring "loyalists" via a pre-vetted database (The "LinkedIn for Conservatives").
- Defense: Ending DEI programs and banning transgender people from military service (Executive Order signed Jan 2025).
- Environment: Gutting NOAA and the National Weather Service's focus on climate data.
- Justice: Asserting "Unitary Executive Theory" to bring independent agencies under direct White House control.
The Strategy of Plausible Deniability
So, why the act? Why did Trump distance himself so hard in 2024?
Politics 101. Project 2025 was unpopular with swing voters. The Heritage Foundation’s president, Kevin Roberts, didn't help things when he talked about a "second American Revolution" that would stay bloodless "if the left allows it." That kind of talk scares people who just want to pay less for groceries.
By disavowing the document, Trump kept those voters. Now that he's in office, he has the "mandate" (in his view) to do what he wants. And what he wants happens to align with what the Heritage Foundation spent $22 million preparing.
It's a "Personnel is Policy" game. If you hire the people who wrote the book, you don't have to read the book. They’ve already memorized it.
What This Means for the Next Two Years
We are currently in the "structural" phase. The first year was about clearing the decks—firing the "deep state" and installing the "loyalists." 2026 is about the long-term shift.
Expect more focus on the Comstock Act and more aggressive moves to dismantle the Department of Education. The legal challenges are piling up, of course. Groups like the ACLU have filed dozens of lawsuits to stop the Schedule F reclassifications. But the administration is moving faster than the courts can keep up with.
If you're trying to track what happens next, stop looking at campaign speeches from two years ago. Start looking at the Table of Contents in the "Mandate for Leadership." It’s the most accurate weather vane we have.
Actionable Insights for Navigating 2026:
- Monitor Federal Jobs: If you or someone you know is a federal employee, understand your rights under "Schedule F" and follow the litigation in the D.C. Circuit Court.
- State-Level Protections: Many states are passing "shield laws" to protect against the federal use of the Comstock Act. Check your local legislation if you live in a state where reproductive rights are currently protected.
- Environmental Data: If your business relies on NOAA or NWS data, be aware that these agencies are being restructured. Private weather services may become more vital as federal climate research is scaled back.
- Education Funding: Keep an eye on Title I and IDEA funding changes if you are a parent or educator, as the push to move these to block grants for states is currently in the legislative works.
The reality of 2026 is that the debate over whether Trump is "connected" to Project 2025 is over. The connection is the government itself.