Project 2025

What it was built to do

Project 2025 was designed before the 2024 election to prepare a future conservative administration to govern immediately. The project’s own materials describe policy recommendations, advance personnel recruitment, training and implementation planning as connected parts of one transition system.

Personnel infrastructure

The Presidential Personnel Database collected prospective appointees for review and recommendation.

Former White House personnel director John McEntee joined as a senior adviser when the database launched; former Trump personnel official Troup Hemenway later joined personnel placement.

The Presidential Administration Academy trained prospective appointees on the mechanics of federal service and early implementation.

Implementation

The publicly released Mandate for Leadership can be compared directly with later government action.

The separate 180-day agency playbooks were described publicly but were not released in full, creating an important evidence gap.

This site labels similarities between a Mandate recommendation and a later executive action as policy overlap unless there is separate evidence establishing authorship or causation.

Documented later overlap

Russ Vought wrote the Mandate chapter on the Executive Office of the President and later returned as OMB director.

Brendan Carr wrote the FCC chapter and later became FCC chairman.

Project 2025 discussed Schedule F-style personnel planning; the second Trump administration later restored and implemented a policy-influencing federal workforce category called Schedule Policy/Career.

Evidence limits

The project’s existence does not prove every later Trump administration policy came from Project 2025.

There is no complete public list showing which administration appointees came through the personnel database.

The Trump campaign publicly distanced itself from Project 2025 during the 2024 campaign; later overlap must be evaluated independently.

Timeline

2022
Project 2025 launches
Heritage launches the 2025 Presidential Transition Project to combine policy recommendations with vetted and trained personnel.
The Heritage Foundation · Paul Dans
2023
Project 2025 personnel database launches
Project 2025 formalizes advance recruitment and vetting through a Presidential Personnel Database; John McEntee joins as a senior adviser.
Project 2025 Presidential Personnel Database · John McEntee
2023
Troup Hemenway joins Project 2025
Former Trump personnel official Troup Hemenway joins as a senior adviser and associate director of personnel placement.
Troup Hemenway · Personnel Policy Operations
2023
Project 2025 adds personnel and training infrastructure
The Presidential Personnel Database and Presidential Administration Academy formalize recruitment, vetting and training before a future administration takes office.
Project 2025 Presidential Personnel Database · Project 2025 Presidential Administration Academy · John McEntee · Troup Hemenway
2023
Project 2025 defines an implementation pillar
The project describes an agency-by-agency 180-day playbook intended to translate policy proposals into early transition actions.
Project 2025 180-Day Playbook
2025
Project-linked personnel enter senior government roles
Russ Vought returns as OMB director and Brendan Carr becomes FCC chairman; both had documented Project 2025 roles before the administration.
Russ Vought · Brendan Carr · Federal Communications Commission · Donald Trump
2026
Schedule Policy/Career is formally implemented
The administration implements the policy-influencing federal-workforce category whose predecessor, Schedule F, had been discussed in Project 2025's personnel recommendations. This is a documented policy overlap, not proof of causal authorship.
Schedule Policy/Career · Donald Trump