The Project 2025 Tracker
We must support independent journalism resources. Add your suggestions in the comments.
If we survive the dystopian nightmare — and there are still colleges and universities not run by churches — there will be a decades worth of courses in journalism departments documenting how corporate media failed Democracy.
And if you flip through the syllabus of available courses documenting that failure Project 2025 will be a late-era highlight. Hell, given its space on the Venn diagram intersecting public policy and media it might be its own degree — or at the very least the subject of countless final steps to a Master’s degree.
If you’re reading this you know doubt have a good idea about Project 2025, but here’s a quick Wiki refresher:
Project 2025 (also known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project) is a political initiative to reshape the federal government of the United States and consolidate executive power in favor of right-wing policies. The plan was published in April 2023 by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, in anticipation of Donald Trump winning the 2024 presidential election.
The ninth volume of the Heritage Foundation's Mandate for Leadership series, Project 2025 is based on a controversial interpretation of the unitary executive theory according to which the executive branch is under the President's complete control. The project's proponents say it would dismantle a bureaucracy that is unaccountable and mostly liberal. Critics have called it an authoritarian, Christian nationalist plan that would steer the U.S. toward autocracy. Some legal experts say it would undermine the rule of law, separation of powers, separation of church and state, and civil liberties.
In April 2023, the Heritage Foundation published the 920-page Mandate, written by hundreds of conservatives. Nearly half of the project's collaborating organizations have received dark money contributions from a network of fundraising groups linked to Leonard Leo, a major conservative donor and key figure in guiding the selection of Trump's federal judicial nominees. Some of the authors worked for Amazon, Meta, and bitcoin companies directly or as lobbyists. One expert claimed inconsistencies in the plan are designed for fund-raising from certain industries or donors that would benefit.
Both Biden (and then Harris) did everything they could to raise public awareness about Project 2025 — and there was no shaortage of frightening material to pull from its 920 pages.
They were helped greatly by actress Taraji Henson highlighted the project while hosting the BET Awards in July 2024:
Henson’s attack went viral and Harris had a prime-time segment highlighting it during her Democratic National Convention. It looked like Project 2025 was going to be at the heart of the fall election season.
But, as quickly as it rose to prominence in popular culture it was quickly extinguished by mainstream, corporate media. Feeling some heat, Trump did one of his ham-handed denials where you could replace Project with Underage Epstein Girls and rape with read:
“I have nothing to do with Project 2025,” Trump said in the ABC News Presidential Debate. “I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it purposely. I’m not going to read it.”
A few more weak statements from the Trump campaign and that was that. Project 2025 was effectively dropped as an issue by corporate media.
The collective rationale was cynically simple: Of course Trump, who could only manage to make it through briefings in toddler picture book form — couldn’t know the details of a nearly 1,000-page manifesto.
Of course that was 100% true.
But, it ignored the dark, Faustian Bargain Trump had struck with the Christian Nationalist and intellectual wing of the Republican Party years earlier. Beyond some economic and racist views, Trump has never cared about policy. But, he’s been willing to give the crazies everything they want in exchange for almost messianic support. And surely the underlying Road to Dictatorship that Project 2025 mapped out was appealing to the monster who has always worn those desires on his sleeve.
And that is exactly what happened. Faster than he could ever throw Ukraine under the bus for Putin, Trump’s government was filled the architects of P25 and it has been full-steam ahead ever since.
How fast and thorough that implementation has been is being documented in the Project 2025 Tracker which you can explore here.
To call this depressing is an understatement of biblical proportions. At this point it could be rebranded as a Countdown To The End of Democracy. But, it’s important that we track it if only to anticipate what is coming next.
It’s becoming abundantly clear that it’s going to be too late to save our Democracy in 2028. Our last chance on the calendar is the 2026 Midterms — and even making it to them is going to be an uphill climb.
If you can, go to the link above and give those folks a few bucks to support their important work. Here are a few other good resources on Substack that you can follow and support:
One of the things that has fallen off my own to do list is putting together a more complete list of independent journalists and organizations we all need to be following. Please add your suggestions the comments and I will get it back on my radar.
my thoughts and prayers are with all who think 2026 will be a free and fair election