After Trump's Project 2025 denials, he is tapping its authors and influencers for key roles

As a former and potentially future president, Donald Trump hailed what would become Project 2025 as a road map for "exactly what our movement will do" with another crack at the White House.

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As the blueprint for a hard-right turn in America became a liability during the 2024 campaign, Trump pulled an about-face. He denied knowing anything about the "ridiculous and abysmal" plans written in part by his first-term aides and allies.

Now, after being elected the 47th president on Nov. 5, Trump is stocking his second administration with key players in the detailed effort he temporarily shunned. Most notably, Trump has tapped Russell Vought for an encore as director of the Office of Management and Budget; Tom Homan, his former immigration chief, as "border czar;" and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as deputy chief of policy.

Those moves have accelerated criticisms from Democrats who warn that Trump's election hands government reins to movement conservatives who spent years envisioning how to concentrate power in the West Wing and impose a starkly rightward shift across the U.S. government and society.

Trump and his aides maintain that he won a mandate to overhaul Washington. But they maintain the specifics are his alone.