By Isabelle Oss
Boston University News Service
In 1981, a conservative research and educational foundation proposed a “Mandate for Leadership,” ahead of Ronald Reagan’s inaugural presidential term.
A 2015 updated version of The Heritage Foundation’s mandate included suggestions to leave the Paris Climate Accords, increase military spending and increase offshore drilling. Former President Donald Trump adopted these proposals while in office.
Today, the United States will vote for a new president. With Trump on the Republican ticket once again, Vice President Kamala Harris has been using Project 2025 to warn Democratic voters about what a second Trump term could mean.
Here’s what to know about it, according to the chapters in the 900-page mandate.
What is it?
Project 2025 is a proposed presidential transition project for the next Republican elect. According to The Heritage’s website, the project has an advisory board with more than 100 conservative groups.
The Project consists of four pillars.
The first pillar is an updated version of the 1981 “Mandate for Leadership.” This version is called “Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise” and is central to much of the criticism for the Project, according to a CBS News report.
Pillar two is an online database that Spencer Chretien, Associate Director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project and former special assistant to Trump, calls a “Conservative LinkedIn.” According to an article on The Heritage Foundation website, it’s a personnel database for “rock-solid” conservatives who could serve in the next presidential administration.
The third pillar is the “Presidential Administration Academy”–an on-demand training program for conservatives in an administration.
Pillar four is a playbook for the “Mandate for Leadership,” which includes a list of actions for completion within the first 180 days of the next Republican president’s time in office.
The policies outlined in the 900-page mandate book extend to every piece of the executive office. According to The Heritage website, there are 350 contributors, including Russ Vought and Chris Miller, who are former members of the 2020 Trump administration.
Project 2025 Policies
The Project is focused on policy proposals to target issues at the center of the conservative party for years.
Reproductive Rights
A mail-in abortion pill ban, mifepristone restrictions and a pro-life task force are some of the key proposals within the chapters of Project 2025.
The Comstock Act, an 1873 law, bans abortion drugs sent through mail. In the wake of the 2022 overturning of Roe. V. Wade, the authors of the project propose that the Justice Department should target providers and distributors by enforcing a federal ban.
The Department of Health and Human Services is advised to reverse its 24-year-old approval of an abortion pill, mifepristone and reinforce tight restrictions on the use of the drug. Currently, the pill is approved to be taken up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, while the Project suggests a seven-week policy, not to be distributed by mail.
The Project 2025 proposals replace the pre-Roe overturn and Biden-era Reproductive Healthcare Access Task Force, with a pro-life task force.
Transgender Rights and Same-sex Marriage
One of the sections facing the brunt of the criticism aimed at the Project, “The Family Agenda,” includes controversial suggestions for the HHS chief.
The authors call on the chief to state that men and women are the only “biological realities,” and that, “married men and women are the ideal, natural family structure because all children have a right to be raised by the men and women who conceived them.” Also proposed, is a revised, biblically structured definition of marriage.
The mandate also suggests that Trump’s ban on transgender individuals serving in the military be reinstated following Biden’s reversal.
The Project aims to dismantle Biden’s Title IX regulations and to restore former Secretary of Education Betsey DeVos’s rules. This includes defining sex “under Title IX, to only mean a person’s biological sex, recognized at birth.”
Immigration
Trump’s 2024 campaign reflects his past focus on immigration and is a central topic in Project 2025. The section titled, “Department of Homeland Security,” is authored by Ken Cuccinelli, former director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, whose appointment by the Trump administration was ruled unlawful in 2020, according to a Guardian report.
In addition to finishing the construction of the border wall, Project 2025 proposes a strict crack-down on drug cartels at the border using the National Guard and active-duty military personnel to assist with arrests.
Another Project 2025 proposal suggests the current restriction on immigration enforcement procedures taking place at sensitive locations like schools, churches and playgrounds be removed.
The Project suggests that the Department of Homeland Security should be dismantled. The agencies that operate under it should be combined with other agencies or given to separate government departments to oversee them. This includes a 100,000-employee agency under the Department of Homeland Security and Justice and Health and Human Services.
Labor and Unions
A chapter of the mandate titled “Department of Labor and Related Agencies” calls for numerous reforms.
The plan suggests a reversal of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion “revolution” on the basis that it discriminates against workers with religious and conservative viewpoints. This proposal also includes a dismantling of critical race theory training in the workplace or enforcing a federal ban on using taxpayer dollars to fund such trainings.
Project 2025 proposes that Congress should consider abolishing public sector labor unions and create non-union “employee involvement organizations.” The Project also suggests that private-sector unions adopt a transparency policy that would require them to file detailed information to the Department of Labor, including spending, income, assets and membership information.
Trump’s Stance on Project 2025
Trump took to social media earlier this year, claiming he knows nothing about Project 2025 and has purposely not read it.
“I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” Trump said.
Despite adopting several plans proposed by the 2015 version of the “Mandate for Leadership” during his presidential term, his campaign maintains the former president’s sentiment.
The Trump campaign says Project 2025 should not be associated with the former president in any way, according to a social media post.
Harris’s Stance on Project 2025
The Democratic ticket continues to connect the Project with the Trump campaign, despite the Republican candidate’s efforts to distance himself from the mandate.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz is critical of Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, for writing the foreword of a book by Kevin Roberts, President of The Heritage Foundation and one of the architects of Project 2025.
Ahead of his exit from the 2024 presidential race, Biden accused Trump of lying about his affiliation with Project 2025, saying it should “scare every single American,” and that it will “destroy America,” according to a post on his social media earlier this year.
Harris claims the implications of a second Trump term are “all laid out” in Project 2025. In her speech at the Chicago Democratic National Convention in August, Harris claimed that Trump would adopt the suggestions in the Project to bring the country back in time.