After Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on Wednesday, Nov. 6, VERIFY reader Eddie asked us to compare two different Republican policy agendas: Project 2025 and the Trump campaign’s Agenda 47.
Project 2025 is an initiative launched in April 2022 by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation to provide a roadmap for the next conservative president to transform the government in favor of conservative social policies and ideals.
Though Trump has multiple connections to Project 2025, he has never publicly endorsed it. He and his campaign distanced themselves from the initiative ahead of the election.
Agenda 47 is Trump’s official policy platform that’s outlined on his campaign website.
VERIFY compared the two plans to explain how they are similar and different on some key issues, including LGBTQ+ protections, abortion, education, Social Security and Medicare, among others.
THE SOURCES
- “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” published in 2023
- Platform on Donald Trump’s official presidential campaign website
- Detailed explanations of Agenda 47 policy proposals on Trump’s campaign website
WHAT WE FOUND
Though The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 and Trump’s Agenda 47 are different policy plans, some of their proposals overlap.
Project 2025 is laid out in a 922-page how-to guide for the next conservative president called the “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” which was published in 2023.
While Trump himself has denied any connections to Project 2025, a number of members of his presidential administration and people currently working for his campaign directly contributed to the plan or have promoted it.
Agenda 47, which is the Trump campaign’s official policy plan, is outlined in several places on his official campaign website.
One section of Trump’s official website includes links to his more detailed Agenda 47 policy proposals. The homepage of his website directs people to a shorter set of 20 proposals and the official GOP platform.
VERIFY compared the Agenda 47 policy proposals on Trump’s website to Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership.” Here’s what we found.
LGBTQ+ proposals
Neither Project 2025 nor Agenda 47 propose ending gay marriage. But both plans call for rolling back protections for LGBTQ+ people.
Several of the chapters within Project 2025 include proposals that favor heterosexual couples over gay couples or are otherwise anti-LGBTQ+. You can read more about those Project 2025 proposals here.
These proposals are not included in Trump’s Agenda 47. But Agenda 47 and Project 2025 both call for rolling back some protections for transgender people.
For example, Project 2025 says the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) should “acknowledge that there is insufficient scientific evidence to support” coverage of gender-affirming surgeries for transgender people.
Project 2025 also says the next conservative president should reverse policies that allow transgender people to serve in the military.
“Gender dysphoria is incompatible with the demands of military service, and the use of public monies for transgender surgeries or to facilitate abortion for servicemembers should be ended,” the “Mandate for Leadership” says.
Trump’s Agenda 47 says he will “revoke” gender-affirming care policies and ask Congress to “permanently stop federal taxpayer dollars from being used to promote or pay for” gender-affirming procedures.
It also says Trump will ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the U.S. government only recognizes two genders – male and female – and they are assigned at birth.
The official Republican platform on Trump’s campaign website includes similar language. It says, “We will keep men out of women’s sports, ban taxpayer funding for sex change surgeries, and stop taxpayer-funded schools from promoting gender transition, reverse Biden’s radical rewrite of Title IX education regulations, and restore protections for women and girls.”
Abortion and pregnancy proposals
Project 2025 does not include any proposals to create a federal pregnancy registry, as some people have claimed.
But Project 2025 does call on the federal government to ensure states are submitting data about abortions and miscarriages after they happen. It also says the CDC should require “monitoring and reporting for complications due to abortion and every instance of children being born alive after an abortion.” You can read more about those proposals in this story.
Trump’s Agenda 47 does not include any of these proposals. The official Republican platform on Trump’s campaign website does say the GOP will “oppose late term abortions.” Trump’s own statements about abortion access while on the campaign trail have been inconsistent.
Education proposals
Both Project 2025 and Agenda 47 recommend shuttering the Department of Education, which establishes policy for, administers and coordinates most federal assistance to education.
The Project 2025 authors recommend that the agency be completely eliminated in order to “empower students and families, not government.”
In his Agenda 47 plan, Trump “pledges to close the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. and to send all education work and needs back to the states.”
The official Republican platform on Trump’s campaign website also says, “We are going to close the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. and send it back to the States, where it belongs, and let the States run our educational system as it should be run.”
Both policy agendas also call for an end to critical race theory and teachings on gender ideology in schools.
GLAAD, a nonprofit LGBTQ advocacy organization, explains that “gender ideology” refers to the false and malicious assertion that LGBTQ+ people are “an ideological movement rather than an intrinsic identity.”
Project 2025 recommends that critical race theory and gender ideology should be removed from every public school in the country.
Trump’s Agenda 47 also calls for cutting federal funding “for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children.”
Energy and climate proposals
Both Project 2025 and Agenda 47 call for ramping up energy production.
“The next conservative administration should prioritize energy and science dominance to ensure that Americans have abundant, affordable, and reliable energy; create good-paying jobs,” the Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership” document says.
Trump’s Agenda 47 also says his policy plans are aimed at making America the dominant energy producer in the world.
Both policy plans also support pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, which is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. The U.S. previously left the agreement during Trump’s first term in 2020 but rejoined under President Joe Biden in 2021.
Project 2025 also recommends dismantling the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), calling it a main driver “of the climate change alarm industry.” NOAA is a federal agency that provides daily weather forecasts, severe storm warnings, climate predictions and projections, as well as nautical charts and navigational information.
Agenda 47 does not include any proposals to dismantle NOAA.
Social Security and Medicare proposals
Project 2025 does not include any proposals to eliminate Social Security benefits.
For Medicare and Medicaid, the answer is more complicated. Project 2025 doesn’t propose cuts to Medicare. However, some of its proposals may increase costs for Medicare beneficiaries. Project 2025 does propose cuts to Medicaid.
You can read our full breakdown of these proposals here.
Trump’s Agenda 47, on the other hand, does not propose any cuts to Social Security or Medicare. “Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security,” Agenda 47 says.
The official Republican platform on Trump’s website includes similar language. It says the GOP will “fight for and protect Social Security and Medicare with no cuts, including no changes to the retirement age.”
Neither of the policy agendas include any language eliminating the taxation of Social Security benefits, though Trump has proposed doing so while on the campaign trail.
Military proposals
Both Project 2025 and Agenda 47 call for strengthening the U.S. military.
For example, Project 2025 recommends requiring students in public high schools to take a military entrance exam called the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB).
The proposed requirement would extend to schools that “receive federal funding,” the document says. That means the requirement would apply to students attending public schools and any private schools that receive federal funds.
Trump’s Agenda 47 does not include the ASVAB requirement. But it does say his administration will “rebuild America’s depleted military” and “address the embarrassing [military] recruitment situation” in the U.S.
Public broadcasting proposals
Project 2025 does call for the government to defund NPR and PBS.
Chapter 8 of the “Mandate for Leadership” is on media agencies. Within that chapter is a section dedicated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which the guide says would be “good policy and good politics” to stop public funding.
Trump’s Agenda 47 does not include any proposals to defund public broadcasting. However, he did try to eliminate funding for the CPB during his first term.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.