Heritage Foundation operatives hold 140 administration posts

CNN analysis documented that 36 of Trump's first 53 executive orders closely mirror Project 2025 proposals, with 47% of the Heritage Foundation's 922-page blueprint implemented by Aug. 2025 across immigration, social policy, and government staffing.

Key Project 2025 architects returned to power including Russ Vought directing OMB (authored Project 2025's executive branch chapter), John Ratcliffe as CIA Director, Peter Navarro as trade adviser, and Tom Homan as Border Czar implementing their own policy recommendations.

Heritage Foundation's 'Presidential Personnel Database' vetted Trump appointments based on loyalty questions like 'the President should advance his agenda through bureaucracy without hindrance from unelected officials,' ensuring implementation by ideological allies.

Schedule F reclassification reinstated for 50,000 federal workers strips civil service protections from policy analysts, scientists, and economists, allowing political appointees to fire professionals whose expertise contradicts presidential directives.

Trump's executive orders eliminating Department of Education, cutting EPA budget by 65%, and reducing NIH funding by $120 billion directly implement Project 2025's aggressive downsizing recommendations for federal agencies.

Project 2025's unitary executive theory concentrates all government authority in the White House, eliminating internal checks from career civil servants, independent agencies, and professional expertise that traditionally resist political pressure.

The blueprint's $2.7 trillion in spending cuts target education, environmental protection, and social services while expanding military budgets, transferring resources from working families to defense contractors and corporate allies.