🧵 NEW: Our investigation reveals 70% of Trump's Cabinet has ties to Project 2025 groups—despite his repeated campaign denials.
More than 50 high-level officials connected to the Heritage Foundation-backed plan are now running the government.
🔗 buff.ly/KZ4eck9
The numbers are staggering: 17 of 24 cabinet-level officials have links to Project 2025 groups.
"That's a hugely significant finding," says Duke University's Nancy MacLean. "In Heritage’s own longtime language, ‘personnel is policy.’”
VP JD Vance leads the pack with ties to at least 5 different Project 2025 groups. He even wrote the foreword to Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts' book.
In 2021: "Fire every civil servant in the administrative state. Replace them with our people."
OMB Director Russell Vought—a key Project 2025 architect—authored the plan's central chapter on executive power. His vision: "break the bureaucracy to presidential will."
He's wasted no time implementing it.
But here's where it gets interesting: We found THREE additional centers of influence that appeared separate from Project 2025 but are actually deeply connected:
🔸 Convention of States
🔸 America First Policy Institute
🔸 DOGE
Texas oil billionaire Tim Dunn emerges as a key figure connecting many of these groups. His Convention of States project wants to rewrite the Constitution permanently—and has Trump cabinet members' endorsements.
18 states have already passed resolutions. They need 34 total.
The America First Policy Institute? Eight current cabinet officials had roles there, including Agriculture Sec. Brooke Rollins (who was CEO) and Education Sec. Linda McMahon (board chair).
It was called a "White House in waiting"—and that's exactly what it became.
Even DOGE isn't separate. Our investigation shows Elon Musk secretly donated $43 million to a subsidiary of Stephen Miller's America First Legal in 2022—before Project 2025 was even public. DOGE has been carrying out Project 2025’s vision.
buff.ly/FfblMPg
This isn't about partisan politics—it's about transparency. Americans rejected Project 2025 by overwhelming margins (only 4% approval pre-election), yet its architects now control the executive branch.
"It’s stunning. I don’t think any historian of the religious right could have predicted just how swiftly these types of individuals would come to power, and the degree to which a president would lean heavily on them," says historian Darren Dochuk
Read our full investigation and explore the interactive map of the ties:
Reporting by @joefasslerbuff.ly/KZ4eck9
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