--- title: What Is Project 2025? description: If you were on Twitter or TikTok over the weekend, you might have seen people talking about Project 2025. canonical: https://time.com/6986995/what-is-project-2025/ author: Chantelle Lee article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-06-09T17:46:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:43:15.657Z article:section: Politics og:title: What Is Project 2025? og:description: If you were on Twitter or TikTok over the weekend, you might have seen people talking about Project 2025. og:url: https://time.com/6986995/what-is-project-2025/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4bb5c321c1127d82/698a57b4cabb1de079e5439a/Project-2025.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Election 2024 Conservative Agenda og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What Is Project 2025? twitter:description: If you were on Twitter or TikTok over the weekend, you might have seen people talking about Project 2025. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4bb5c321c1127d82/698a57b4cabb1de079e5439a/Project-2025.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What Is Project 2025? > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=7ee1d92f-2fc7-4eda-b3d6-f16533a42e75&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: What is Project 2025 and Why Are Biden and Trump Talking About it so Differently? [Watch (HLS stream): What is Project 2025 and Why Are Biden and Trump Talking About it so Differently?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/sFzczKg5.m3u8) (2:30)  _Published 2024-07-11. Project 2025 is now a major talking point for politicians and voters in the upcoming 2024 presidential election between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump._ by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Jun 9, 2024 5:46 PM UTC Project 2025 is now a major talking point for politicians and voters in the upcoming 2024 presidential election between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. by [Chantelle Lee](https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/) ## Chantelle Lee Reporter Jun 9, 2024 5:46 PM UTC If you were on Twitter or TikTok over the weekend, you might have seen people talking about Project 2025. Led by the right-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 is a presidential transition operation—basically a government-in-waiting if former President Donald Trump returns to office on Jan. 20, 2025\. The [$22 million effort](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/us/politics/republican-president-2024-heritage-foundation.html) does not say it is specifically [intended](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/26/what-is-project-2025-trump) for Trump, but that it wants a conservative as the next commander-in-chief. The project, published in 2023, includes a nearly [1,000-page handbook](https://static.project2025.org/2025%5FMandateForLeadership%5FFULL.pdf) that detailed a conservative agenda for the next president. Project 2025 said on its [website](https://www.project2025.org/policy/) that the handbook is “the next conservative President’s last opportunity to save our republic.” “It is not enough for conservatives to win elections,” Project 2025 said on its [website](https://www.project2025.org/about/about-project-2025/). “If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on day one of the next conservative administration. That is the goal of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project.” “With the right conservative policy recommendations and properly vetted and trained personnel to implement them, we will take back our government,” the project continued. **Read More:** [_How Far Trump Would Go_](https://time.com/6972021/donald-trump-2024-election-interview/) Dozens of conservative organizations are behind the effort. Part of the plan includes firing federal employees that conservatives believe are preventing right-wing policies from being implemented and replacing them with their own picks, the [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981) reported. The handbook detailed “a top-to-bottom overhaul” of the Department of Justice and putting an end to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) efforts to curb the spread of misinformation. The handbook said that “the FBI have absolutely no business policing speech.” The agenda also included a crackdown on abortion pills, which it called “the single greatest threat to unborn children in a post-_Roe_ world.” The handbook urged the Food and Drug Administration to reverse the approval of the pills, claiming that the approval process was “politicized” and “illegal” (more than 100 scientific studies over decades have [found](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/01/health/abortion-pill-safety.html) that both mifepristone and misoprostol, the two abortion-inducing drugs, are safe). The [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-conservatives-trump-heritage-857eb794e505f1c6710eb03fd5b58981) previously called the handbook’s language “apocalyptic.” The handbook encouraged the next presidential administration to “reexamine the balance between media demands and space constraints on the White House premises,” saying that there is “no legal entitlement” for the press corps to have permanent space on the premises. Many [critics](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/29/opinion/project-2025-trump-administration.html) have labeled Project 2025 as “authoritarian.” The project relies on what legal scholars call the unitary executive theory, which dismisses the idea that there are three separate branches of government for checks and balances, [The New York _Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/17/us/politics/trump-plans-2025.html) reported. Rather, proponents of the theory argue that Article 2 of the Constitution allows the president to have total authority over the executive branch. “Some of these visions, they do start to just bleed into some kind of authoritarian fantasies where the president won the election, so he’s in charge, so everyone has to do what he says—and that’s just not the system the government we live under,” Philip Wallach, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies the separation of powers in the U.S., previously told the Associated Press. Get alerts on the biggest breaking news stories [**here**](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=breaking-news) ## Transcript Project 2025 is now a major talking point for politicians and voters in the upcoming presidential election, led by the right wing Think Tank Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 is a collection of conservative policies and a blueprint for the next conservative president, who would be Donald Trump if elected in November. The 2025 project published in 2023 has gained a lot of attention following the first presidential debate. The $22,000,000 effort funded by donors includes a nearly 1,000 page handbook that detailed a conservative agenda for the next President. It does not say it is specifically intended for Trump, but that it wants a conservative as an ex commander in chief. However, the project celebrates various orders brought in during Trump's time in the White House, including his abortion and immigration policies. Handbook outlines an expansion of presidential power and plans to fire as many as 50,000 government workers to be replaced with conservatives, including a top to bottom overhaul of the Department of Justice and the FBI. It calls for the next conservative administration to rescue the country from the grip of the radical left, which includes policies like a crackdown on abortion pills, the reinstatement of the Trump era immigration bans, a ban on transgender people serving in the military, and eliminating the Department of Education. On July 5, Trump disavowed his involvement in Product 2025, and a post on Truth Social, his own social media platform owned by the Trump Media and Technology Group. Still, multiple former Trump administration officials have contributed to Product 2025, including former acting Secretary of Defense, Christopher Miller, and former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cucinlli. Rosval and Ed Martin, both of whom helped shape the RNCs party platform, and former White House Personnel Chief John Mcente are tied to product 2025. Since President Biden's much criticized debate performance, his reelection campaign has worked to draw more attention to what they view as an extreme agenda, particularly as Biden tries to keep fellow Democrats on board. On July 6, Biden's campaign released a statement by the president assailing Trump's claim that he's not involved with project 2025, saying it was written for him by those closest to him. Project 2025 will destroy America. Look it up. The Biden campaign has even put together their own website, breaking down what Project 2025 is for Democrats and supporters. The campaign has also been reposting new sources, criticizing the agenda, and even sharing memes about Project 2025. Where Trump's campaign distances itself, Bidens digs deeper, trying to prove that if Trump is elected, this will be the policy reality starting in 2025. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6986995/what-is-project-2025/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6986995/what-is-project-2025/"},"headline":"What Is Project 2025?","datePublished":"2024-06-09T17:46:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-19T07:43:15.657Z","description":"If you were on Twitter or TikTok over the weekend, you might have seen people talking about Project 2025.","url":"https://time.com/6986995/what-is-project-2025/","keywords":["2024 Elections","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4bb5c321c1127d82/698a57b4cabb1de079e5439a/Project-2025.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Chantelle Lee","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/chantelle-lee/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4bb5c321c1127d82/698a57b4cabb1de079e5439a/Project-2025.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Election 2024 Conservative Agenda","caption":"Election 2024 Conservative Agenda","creditText":"Charlie Neibergall—The Associated Press","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2024-election/","name":"2024 Elections"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6986995/what-is-project-2025/","name":"What Is Project 2025?"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"What is Project 2025 and Why Are Biden and Trump Talking About it so Differently?","description":"Project 2025 is now a major talking point for politicians and voters in the upcoming 2024 presidential election between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/sFzczKg5/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-07-11T19:28:28.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/sFzczKg5.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/6986995/what-is-project-2025/","duration":"PT2M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/6986995/what-is-project-2025/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```