Five months ago, President Donald Trump stood on a debate stage with Kamala Harris and told voters he had “nothing to do with Project 2025,” that he hadn’t read it, and that he did not want to.
Two months earlier, he made a similar claim about Project 2025 at a rally: “I don’t know what the hell it is.”
However, a new report by Politico outlines 37 examples of the language of Project 2025 appearing in Trump’s orders.
Project 2025 is a right-wing playbook written by 100 right-wing think tanks, led by the Heritage Foundation. Its authors included several former Trump administration officials and allies.
And now, less than a month into his time at the White House, Trump has signed dozens of executive orders that mirror the policies and language in the 900-page document.
When asked about these parallels by The Independent, Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields reiterated Trump’s continued claim he has “nothing to do with Project 2025.”
“In his first few days in office, President Trump has delivered on the promises that earned him a resounding mandate from the American people – securing the border, restoring common sense, driving down inflation, and unleashing American energy,” Fields said.
Here are some of the key parallels:
Denying the existence of transgender, nonbinary and intersex people
Lindsey Burke, the Heritage Foundation’s director of the Center for Education Policy, wrote in Chapter 11 of Project 2025 the federal government must “define ‘sex’ under Title IX to mean only biological sex recognized at birth.”
On the first day of his presidency, Trump did just that with the executive order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”
“It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” the order read. “These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
Ending diversity, equity and inclusion practices in government
Gene Hamilton, a former Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice official under Trump, wrote that diversity, equity and inclusion practices are “vehicles for unlawful discrimination.”
Trump’s executive order ending the programs throughout the federal government used similar language: “Federal hiring should not be based on impermissible factors, such as one’s commitment to illegal racial discrimination under the guise of ‘equity,’ or one’s commitment to the invented concept of ‘gender identity’ over sex.”
Leaving the World Health Organization
Trump withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization on day one of his presidency, mirroring a proposal from former Department of State official Kiron Skinner in Chapter 6 of Project 2025.
“When such institutions act against U.S. interests, the United States must be prepared to take appropriate steps in response, up to and including withdrawal,” Skinner wrote. “The manifest failure and corruption of the World Health Organization (WHO) during the COVID-19 pandemic is an example of the danger that international organizations pose to U.S. citizens and interests.”
This means U.S. agencies that work with WHO, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will suffer from the president’s decision. The decision also comes as the U.S. sees a spike in bird flu cases across the nation.
Trump has pulled the U.S. from the World Health Organization before. He first severed ties with WHO and suspended funding to the organization in July 2020 as COVID-19 cases surged globally and thousands of Americans died from the virus.
Trump’s most recent executive order simply stated: “The United States intends to withdraw from the WHO.”
Former President Joe Biden reversed the order on his first day in office in 2021.
Banning trans people from the military
Former Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller wrote in Chapter 4 of Project 2025 that the next GOP president must “reverse policies that allow transgender individuals to serve in the military.”
“Gender dysphoria is incompatible with the demands of military service…restore standards of lethality of excellence” he added.
Then, Trump issued an executive order on January 27 titled “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness.”
“It is the policy of the United States Government to establish high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity,” Trump wrote. “This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria.”
Sarah Klimm, a transgender Marine who served for 23 years and is now a policy analyst with Minority Veterans of America, told the Associated Press that removing thousands of service members is concerning given their contributions to the military and the recent dip in recruitment numbers.
”Trans military members that are out there right now are dropping bombs, pulling triggers, fixing all the weapons systems,” she told the AP. “And now you’re looking to keep them away.”
Trump enacted a similar ban during his first term, which Biden reversed.
Sending troops to the U.S.-Mexico border
Ken Cuccinelli, a former DHS official under Trump, wrote in Chapter 5 that the next administration must “explicitly acknowledge and adjust personnel and priorities to participate actively in the defense of America’s borders, including using military personnel and hardware to prevent illegal crossings between ports of entry and channel all cross-border traffic to legal ports of entry.”
Within hours of his inauguration, Trump did exactly that in his executive order, “Declaring a National Emergency at the Southern Border of the United States.”
“Order as many units or members of the Armed Forces, including the Ready Reserve and the National Guard, as the Secretary of Defense determines to be appropriate to support the activities of the Secretary of Homeland Security in obtaining complete operational control of the southern border of the United States,” Trump wrote.
The Independent has contacted the White House for comment.
