Latest findings from Center for Progressive Reform and Governing for Impact demonstrate relentless pursuit of administration’s authoritarian agenda
WASHINGTON, DC — The Trump administration managed to initiate or fulfill more than 47 percent of the Project 2025 domestic regulatory agenda before the current government shutdown, according to the latest data from the Center for Progressive Reform (Center) and Governing for Impact (GFI) released today. This represents a substantial increase in the administration’s progress since April, when an analysis of the data from the organizations’ Project 2025 Tracker found that 28 percent of the agency actions had been completed.
In all, 251 of the 532 recommended actions identified in the tracker have been completed. That equates to a progress rate of almost 1 action per day since the inauguration (253 days between January 20 and September 30).
Launched in February, the tracker systematically monitors the administration’s implementation of Project 2025’s domestic policy proposals spread across 20 agencies within the executive branch. In the months since, regulatory experts with the Center and GFI have reviewed and analyzed hundreds of executive orders, press releases, regulations, and sub-regulatory actions to determine the extent to which Trump administration actions align with relevant recommended actions in Project 2025.
“The start of the new fiscal year on October 1 would have offered a natural point for taking stock of the administration’s progress on implementing Project 2025 in any event. The fact that it also marked the beginning of a major government shutdown that the administration itself has identified with Project 2025 only underscores the influence that this dangerous policy playbook is having,” said James Goodwin, Policy Director at the Center for Progressive Reform. “Rather than slowing progress on the Project 2025 agenda, the Trump administration admits that it is using the shutdown as an excuse to advance its goals of slashing government programs that benefit millions of Americans.”
Starting on day one, the Trump administration has aggressively pursued policy actions that match the detailed recommendations contained in Project 2025. President Donald Trump has also filled key posts with some of Project 2025’s most prominent contributors. But it was not until the government shutdown that Trump first explicitly embraced Project 2025, making clear that he intended to use this development as an opportunity to advance key elements of the Project 2025 policy agenda, such as downsizing the federal workforce and cutting budgets for programs he opposes.
“In less than a year, the Trump administration has enacted almost half of Project 2025. The administration has moved quickly and aggressively to make these radical proposals a reality that is reshaping the federal government,” said Elisabeth Mabus, Director of Outreach and Strategic Initiatives for Governing for Impact. “It is clear that President Trump’s agenda and Project 2025’s are one and the same.”
Still, it is helpful to put these numbers into context. Many of the Trump administration’s signature actions arguably fit the spirit of Project 2025 — centralizing power within the White House or weakening civil rights for marginalized populations — though they were not explicitly called for in the plan. The DOGE takeover of agency information systems and the attacks on universities under the pretext of responding to antisemitism would fall into this category, for example. In other cases, the administration has gone beyond even Project 2025’s already extreme recommendations. For instance, while the plan calls for weakening greenhouse gas standards for fossil-fueled power plants, the Trump administration is working to repeal them altogether.
“One of the things we’ve found through the Tracker is that the Trump administration has not been afraid to go off script to achieve some of Project 2025’s goals,” said Federico Holm, Research Scientist at the Center for Progressive Reform. “A clear example is that Project 2025 called for the Bureau of Land Management to use the standard rulemaking process to weaken a set of policies called ‘Resource Management Plans’ to make it easier to develop fossil fuels on public lands. Instead, Trump is working with Congress to rescind these policies altogether using the Congressional Review Act.”
Project 2025 is a Heritage Foundation-led presidential transition program first released in April 2023. Its focal point was a comprehensive 920-page-long policy blueprint called Mandate for Leadership that was jointly produced by representatives from dozens of right-wing think tanks and advocacy organizations. This document lays out an aggressive plan to consolidate power in the White House and impose significant changes across more than 30 federal agencies. Its proposals target long-standing protections for workers, the environment, public health, and civil rights.
The tracker provides a valuable resource for reporters, civil society groups, and legal organizations working to follow and respond to the administration’s extreme regulatory agenda. For more information about the specific steps the administration has taken to implement Project 2025, you can access the tracker HERE.
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About the Center for Progressive Reform
The Center for Progressive Reform is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that conducts independent scholarly research and policy analysis, and advocates for effective, collective solutions to our most pressing societal challenges. For additional information about the Center, please visit https://progressivereform.org/.
About Governing for Impact
Governing for Impact (GFI) is a regulatory policy organization dedicated to ensuring the federal government works for working Americans, not corporate lobbyists. The policies we design and the legal insights we develop help increase opportunity for those not historically represented in regulatory policy implementation work: working people. For additional information about GFI, please visit https://governingforimpact.org/.
