Project 2025, Explained
Learn more about the Heritage Project initiative that threatens to erode our democracy — and how to fight it.
The ACLU doesn’t endorse or oppose candidates for elected office, but we recognize that the 2024 presidential election has immense implications for the future of our democracy. In 2022, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative-leaning think tank, and 140 former Trump staffers put together Project 2025 — a roadmap for how to replace the rule of law with right-wing ideals.
Learn more about this initiative and its perilous implications for our civil rights and liberties below, as well as how the ACLU will use all of the tools at its disposal, from advocacy to litigation to community organizing, to defend our democracy.
What is Project 2025?
Project 2025 is a federal policy agenda and blueprint for a radical restructuring of the executive branch authored and published by former Trump administration officials in partnership with The Heritage Foundation, a longstanding conservative think tank that opposes abortion and reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrants’ rights, and racial equity. Project 2025’s largest publication, “Mandate For Leadership,” is a 900-page manual for reorganizing the entire federal government agency by agency to serve a conservative agenda.
Project 2025 includes a long list of extreme policy recommendations touching on nearly every aspect of American life, from immigration and abortion rights, to free speech and racial justice. A number of its recommendations rely on support from the executive branch and from Congress. Many other initiatives are outright unconstitutional.
What Are Some Plans/Proposals Included in Project 2025?
Project 2025 calls for hundreds of individual policy changes that will impact our constitutional freedoms, and every aspect of our lives. Among them are:
Gutting Abortion Access
Severely limiting abortion access nationwide by reversing the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, a drug used in medication abortion, and reviving a 19th century law, the Comstock Act, to ban any abortion medications, equipment, or materials from being sent through the U.S. Postal Service.
What you can do with us today:
Mass Deportations
Targeting immigrant communities through mass deportations and raids, ending birthright citizenship, separating families, and dismantling our nation’s asylum system.
What you can do with us today:
Abusing Warrantless Surveillance
Exploiting the executive branch’s vast and unprecedented powers to spy on Americans’ lives with warrantless surveillance of our data.
Learn more:
How Trump's Proposed Radical Expansion of Executive Power Will Impact Our Freedoms
Congress can fight back against egregious violations of our privacy by the government. Tell them to take action now.
Source: American Civil Liberties Union
Unleashing Undue Force on Protestors
Violating the First Amendment by using federal law enforcement to target journalists and protestors.
Learn more:
How Trump's Proposed Radical Expansion of Executive Power Will Impact Our Freedoms
A second Trump administration threatens to use executive authority to further limit First Amendment freedoms, surveil Americans and undermine...
Source: American Civil Liberties Union
Severely Limiting Voting Access
Abusing executive power to interfere in our elections by criminalizing the voting process and damaging fair representation.
What you can do with us today:
Censoring Critical Discussions in Classrooms
Censoring academic discussions about race, gender, and systemic oppression, in violation of the First Amendment, and promising to cut federal funding for schools with curricula that touch on these subjects.
What you can do with us today:
Defend Your Right to Learn: Join In The Fight Against Classroom Censorship
In 2023, more than 100 classroom censorship bills aimed at restricting students and teachers from discussing race, gender, or sexual orientation...
Source: American Civil Liberties Union
Rolling Back Trans Rights
Weaponizing federal law to require states and private actors to discriminate against transgender people by threatening to sue schools that protect the rights of trans students or telling hospitals that they would lose their Medicaid funding if they provide gender-affirming medical care to trans adolescents.
What you can do with us today:
What Are Donald Trump’s Connections to Project 2025?
Project 2025 was published by The Heritage Foundation, a longstanding conservative think tank with direct ties to former President Trump’s administration. Though Trump has falsely claimed he is not connected to Project 2025, a recent report from CNN found at who worked on Project 2025 previously worked in the Trump administration. The Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts also previously worked on President Trump’s transition team in 2016, and has described his organization’s role as “”
Roberts was also one of the principle advocates for overturning the 2020 election to keep Donald Trump in office after he lost the election. Heritage Foundation executive Mike Howell the 2024 election illegitimate before voting even began, claiming without evidence that any result other than a Trump victory will have been the result of fraud.
How is the ACLU Fighting Back?
In a series of 13 memos, the ACLU details the civil liberties and civil rights challenges presented by a potential Donald Trump or Kamala Harris presidency, and provides a roadmap for how we will fight to preserve and expand the freedom of all people. This includes:
- Going to court to preserve and advance the rights of immigrants, LGBTQ rights, abortion access, nondiscrimination laws, voting rights, and the free speech of all people.
- Working with Congress members to enact policy solutions to many of the most extreme proposals in Project 2025 and using Congress’s constitutional powers to provide oversight, investigate wrongdoing, and defund executive branch policies which restrict our fundamental freedoms.
- Working with state lawmakers around the country to enact proactive laws that protect people from federal interference.
- Organizing in communities to educate the public about their rights, the harms of Project 2025, and what they can do to preserve and advance our freedoms.
The Trump and Harris Memos
Our democracy hangs in the balance because of initiatives like Project 2025. Read our memos outlining what each presidential candidate means for...
Source: American Civil Liberties Union
For more info, watch the video below or visit aclu.org/memos to learn how the ACLU–and you–can fight back against any effort to deny us liberty. You can also share how Project 2025 might impact your personal freedoms and rights .