Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts recently stated in a June 23 fundraising email that “the Trump administration has already implemented 53% of Project 2025’s policy recommendations.” He cited “strengthening border enforcement and tightening asylum standards,” “eliminating wasteful government agencies like USAID,” “removing leftist ideologies like DEI from government policies,” and “lowering taxes on hardworking Americans” as among the policies already enacted.
Roberts’ announcement aligns with data from other groups. The Center for Progressive Reform estimated in February that the Trump administration had “initiated or completed 53 percent of Project 2025’s domestic administrative policy agenda,” or “283 of the 532 recommended actions.” Additionally, the Project 2025 Tracker reported that the administration had implemented 54% of 320 tracked objectives as of mid-July.
Although left-wing media reacted hysterically to Project 2025 during the 2024 presidential campaign, it is merely the ninth installment of The Heritage Foundation’s Mandate for Leadership—a list of policy recommendations published periodically since 1981. By comparison, Heritage’s website states that the Reagan administration implemented “nearly two-thirds of the 2,000 policy recommendations” from the 1981 Mandate. Similarly, the first Trump administration completed 64% of the 334 recommendations in the 2016 edition.
This demonstrates the importance of looking to the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution as goalposts. When politicians or organizations fail to adhere to these foundational documents, their policy proposals become unmoored from America’s founding principles.
The article does not require rejecting incrementalism. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in a 1789 letter to James Madison: “If we cannot secure all our rights, let us secure what we can.” However, that progress must remain firmly rooted in American principles. Instead of focusing on how much of Project 2025 the Trump administration has implemented, attention should shift to whether the administration has followed the U.S. Constitution.
