Project 2025’s presidential influence is already taking hold

This past summer, I extensively researched, fact-checked, and wrote about The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and Donald Trump's ties to the organization and the document itself despite his repeated claims that he had nothing to do with it.

Since assuming office, Trump has enacted dozens of executive orders. Having read the documents in its entirety, these executive orders don’t come as a surprise. The language found in the executive orders mirrors Project 2025’s intentions plainly.

Today, I want to focus on two passages from Project 2025:

"The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (‘SOGI’), diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists."

The other passage on page 259 of the document states.

"In the past, the word ‘gender’ was a polite alternative to the word ‘sex’ or term’"biological sex.’ The Left has commandeered the term ‘gender,; which used to mean either ‘male’ or ‘female,’ to include a spectrum of others who are seeking to alter biological and societal sexual norms."

These passages have quickly become a reality on his first day in office, when Trump signed an executive order titled 'DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.' Among many things, this order states, “‘Sex’ shall refer to an individual's immutable biological classification as either male or female. ‘Sex; is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of ‘gender identity.’” This sounds quite similar to the statement on page 259 of Project 2025.

Another order that mirrors Project 2025 is ENDING RADICAL AND WASTEFUL GOVERNMENT DEI PROGRAMS AND PREFERENCING. It states, "The Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), assisted by the Attorney General and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), shall coordinate the termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and "diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility" (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear." This sounds very similar to the first highlighted passage from Project 2025.

These are just two executive orders of many that follow the thought process of Project 2025. But it's also not just the executive orders. Numerous government websites have been taken down which covered topics from women's health to LGBTQ+ issues, HIV, transgender healthcare, gender equity, and more. This mirrors Project 2025's request to remove numerous terms "out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists."

While these parallels to Project 2025 aren't shocking to many, some staunch defenders still claim that Project 2025 and the policies laid out in its pages have nothing to do with this current administration. While it can be scary to read, it's important to be aware of the similarities between Project 2025 and what is currently happening. It gives a possible playbook for what types of changes to anticipate. Knowledge truly is power, and knowing what's likely to come allows us to organize more effectively and foster more intentional communities.