The detailed plan to dismantle and reconstruct the government laid out by conservative groups known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project has critics up in arms over its “apocalyptic” and “authoritarian” nature.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., led an effort to create the more than 900-page “Mandate for Leadership,” published in April 2023, reimagining the executive branch and presented a plan to overhaul several federal government agencies, including the FBI, for the country’s next conservative president to follow.
According to the Project’s website, the playbook provides a governing agenda and a lineup of people ready to implement it to “rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left.” It includes a domestic and foreign policy agenda, a list of personnel, training, and a 180-day playbook.
“It is not enough for conservatives to win elections,” Project 2025 said on its website. “With the right conservative policy recommendations and properly vetted and trained personnel to implement them, we will take back our government.”
Project 2025’s Director is Paul Dans, who served as the U.S. Office of Personnel Management chief of staff in former President Donald Trump’s administration. Although it mentions Trump by name, the handbook does not directly assume the Republican party’s presumptive nominee will be the one to carry out its agenda.
