Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Donald Trump spent his presidential campaign running from Project 2025. Now, he\u2019s using it to stock his White House and administration.<\/p>\n
In recent days, Trump has tapped nearly a half-dozen Project 2025 authors and contributors, including Brendan Carr, who Trump picked this week to lead the FCC; former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, who got the nod for ambassador to Canada; and John Ratcliffe, who was tapped for director of the CIA. One of Trump\u2019s first selections \u2014 Tom Homan as \u201cborder czar\u201d \u2014 was also a Project 2025 contributor.<\/p>\n
The next Project 2025 alum to join the administration could be Russ Vought, the president-elect\u2019s former director of the Office of Management and Budget, who is being closely considered for a return to the role, POLITICO reported this week<\/a>. That\u2019s despite Trump once calling the group\u2019s work product \u201cabsolutely ridiculous and abysmal,\u201d and the leader of his transition team, Howard Lutnick, saying the group had made itself \u201cnuclear.\u201d<\/p>\n Not anymore.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t think the Trump administration sees Project 2025 as toxic,\u201d said Michael Cannon, director of health policy at the CATO Institute, who advised The Heritage Foundation project but declined to be listed as one of its authors. \u201cSo, it should not surprise us when some of the people who contributed to that effort get picked up by the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n Now Project 2025 alums are slated to have key roles in his administration \u2014 particularly on the economy, immigration and dismantling the administrative state.<\/p>\n And with the most recent round of controversial Cabinet nominees, Cannon quipped, the Trump transition is \u201cdoing their level best to make Project 2025 look reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, there are limits. Roger Severino, an anti-abortion stalwart who held a prominent role at HHS during the first Trump administration and was the lead author of Project 2025\u2019s health care chapter, was rejected by Trump\u2019s transition team<\/a> to fill the No. 2 job at the agency over his participation in the project. Anti-abortion groups had lobbied hard for his nomination<\/a>, but Trump\u2019s team is trying to distance itself from the strict federal curbs on abortion Severino called for in Project 2025, after running on promises to leave the issue to the states.<\/p>\n In some cases \u2014 like Vought \u2014 it\u2019s unclear whether the influence of Project 2025 alumni ever truly ceased, even when Trump repeatedly disavowed the project on the campaign trail. Despite those pronouncements, Vought has played a key role behind the scenes, informally advising the Trump campaign on trade and economic policy alongside Trump loyalists like Vince Haley, the campaign\u2019s policy lead, and Robert Lighthizer, Trump\u2019s former trade chief.<\/p>\n Vought wrote a section of the Heritage report on paring back federal spending and regulations, as well as Project 2025\u2019s 180-day transition paybook<\/a>. In an appearance on Tucker Carlson\u2019s show on X, he said he would pursue a \u201cmassive deregulatory agenda\u201d alongside Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy and be \u201cas radical or aggressive as you can\u201d in reducing full-time federal employees and contractors.<\/p>\n Officials at The Heritage Foundation, amid a rocky summer where some prominent Republicans were criticizing the group \u2014 namely, top operatives on the Trump campaign, like senior adviser Chris LaCivita \u2014 were already anticipating that their standing would vastly improve after the election. Throughout much of 2024, the think tank took the position of \u201cwe\u2019re going to slide down a little bit and be quiet,\u201d said a Heritage official granted anonymity to speak freely.<\/p>\n But by October, the official said, there were already signs that there \u201cwas less cautiousness about Project 2025 and Heritage,\u201d giving way to quick nominations of Heritage fellows and Project 2025 contributors to Trump\u2019s new administration.<\/p>\n At a book release party last week for Heritage President Kevin Roberts \u2014 whose September publication date was pushed back until after the election, amid concerns about the Project 2025 brand \u2014 Rep. Ralph Norman<\/a> (R-S.C.) was among several members of Congress there to lend support for the organization.<\/p>\n \u201cI told Kevin, I think it helps,\u201d Norman told POLITICO of all the backlash and hand wringing over Heritage and Project 2025 in recent months, arguing that the publicity would ultimately serve to be helpful to the organization implementing its agenda.<\/p>\n That\u2019s certainly not how Trump\u2019s team saw things for months, though.<\/p>\n Democrats proved successful in raising awareness of the group\u2019s plans, an effort that began in February and picked up traction by early summer. Voters began bringing up Project 2025 organically in focus groups conducted for President Joe Biden\u2019s reelection campaign. Google searches started picking up, peaking in July.<\/p>\n That was around the time where Trump himself issued a statement on Truth Social, writing that \u201csome of the things they\u2019re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,\u201d and claiming he had \u201cno idea who is behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n