Donald Trump has nominated several people for his Cabinet who are tied to Project 2025, despite the President-elect and his team distancing themselves from the conservative manifesto.
Trump has named at least four nominees to his next Cabinet who are listed as contributors to Project 2025 or helped write The Heritage Foundation's 922-page document outlining how a potential Republican administration could overhaul the federal government. These include his upcoming border czar, Tom Homan, and Brendan Carr, who has been tapped to head the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
In July, Trump said he knows "nothing" about Project 2025 and that some of the ideas it promotes—including limiting access to the abortion pill mifepristone and banning pornography—are "absolutely ridiculous and abysmal." Other policies, such as major hard-line immigration proposals, align closely with Trump's 2024 election promises. A number of former Trump administration officials also serve as directors or advisers for Project 2025.
Newsweek has contacted the Trump transition team for comment via email.
More names linked to Project 2025 could also be nominated to Trump's next Cabinet. Russ Vought, who previously served in Trump's Cabinet as director of the Office of Management and Budget, is in line for the same role again, according to reports by The Washington Post and CBS News. Vought wrote a chapter of Project 2025 detailing how to bring changes to the executive branch.
Below, Newsweek has listed the names of those Trump has chosen for his next Cabinet who are linked to Project 2025.
Brendan Carr
Carr, the current top Republican on the FCC, has been named by Trump to lead the agency next year. Carr wrote a chapter about the FCC in the Project 2025 report, including the four main goals it needs to achieve in order to "change course and bring new urgency."
These goals are: "Reining in Big Tech, promoting national security, unleashing economic prosperity, and ensuring FCC accountability and good governance."
Carr has already vowed to tackle Big Tech companies such as Google and Facebook in his role as head of the regulated telecommunications agency over claims they censor conservative voices online.
Tom Homan
Homan, the former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director, is set to lead Trump's plans for launching the largest mass deportation of undocumented immigrants in history when he reenters the White House next year.
Homan is listed among the dozens of contributors who helped write the 922-page report. He is also a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation's Border Security and Immigration Center.
John Ratcliffe
Trump's planned nominee for CIA director is listed as a contributor for Project 2025. Ratcliffe, the former director of national intelligence, is also quoted in the document.
Pete Hoekstra
The president-elect's choice for ambassador to Canada is among the list of contributors who helped put together Project 2025. A 1998 report by the former congressman, titled Education at a Crossroads: What Works and What's Wasted in Education Today, is cited in the report.
Hoekstra previously served as U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands in Trump's first term.
Elsewhere, America First Legal, an organization run by top Trump aide Stephen Miller, previously appeared on Project 2025's website in a list of advisory board members. The name was allegedly removed after Trump began criticizing the project.
In a July statement to ABC News, Miller said: "I have zero involvement with Project 2025. Zero. None. I made an advice video a long while back for students. I have no involvement with the project whatsoever."
Trump is expected to name Miller as his White House deputy chief of staff for policy.
Following news that Vought will be the latest potential Trump Cabinet pick linked to Project 2025, Alex Floyd, spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement: "After months of lies to the American people, Donald Trump is taking off the mask: He's plotting a Project 2025 Cabinet to enact his dangerous vision starting on Day One."
ABC News also reported that Trump's transition team has considered several other people with ties to Project 2025 for Cabinet positions.
These include former Department of Homeland Security official Gene Hamilton, who wrote a chapter in the document about the Department of Justice, being considered for a top legal role.
Reed Rubinstein, former deputy associate attorney general and a Project 2025 contributor, is said to be in consideration for general counsel at the Department of Treasury.
What Is Project 2025?
The 922-page document is a guideline led by the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank on how the next conservative administration could dismantle the United States government and replace it with one more in line with a hard-line conservative agenda.
The proposals include an overhaul of the Department of Justice and measures to make it easier to fire federal workers.
Project 2025 calls for several conservative policies, such as urging a ban on pornography, with a broad definition suggesting most LGBTQ+ content is considered pornography.
The project also calls for the expansion of executive power, the elimination of the Department of Education, reducing the scope of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and removing the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Democrats have warned that Project 2025 is a blueprint for how authoritarian a second Trump term could be.
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