Trump has selected Tom Homan to serve as his “border czar” and run the administration’s border and immigration policy. After his stint as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during Trump’s first administration, Homan joined The Heritage Foundation as a visiting fellow and was listed as a contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership, the effort’s nearly 900-page policy book. He has promised to carry out “​​the biggest deportation operation this country has ever seen” and said that “no one’s off the table.” 

In February 2022, Homan attended a white nationalist conference hosted by the American First Political Action Conference and its leader, white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Homan ultimately left before the conference began, and skipped a planned speaking gig there, claiming he was unfamiliar with Fuentes and his followers.

Trump has named Brendan Carr for FCC commissioner. Carr currently serves on the commission, after being nominated by Trump in 2017. Carr wrote Mandate for Leadership’s chapter on the FCC, arguing that the commission should focus on “reining in Big Tech, promoting national security, unleashing economic prosperity, and ensuring FCC accountability and good governance.” He also targeted TikTok.

During the 2024 election, Carr echoed some of Trump’s attacks at broadcasters. Trump has repeatedly threatened to revoke the licenses of major broadcast TV news outlets, and Carr said he will make sure the FCC enforces laws that require broadcasters “to operate in the public interest.” 

Trump has picked Stephen Miller to head up the new administration’s homeland security policy. Miller is the founder and leader of a former Project 2025 partner organization, America First Legal, and appeared in recruitment videos shared on the project’s website. Miller has since tried to distance himself from the Heritage project even though AFL is mentioned 14 times in Mandate for Leadership. 

Leavitt, selected to be the administration's press secretary, worked on the Trump ‘24 campaign, where she pushed claims that the Trump campaign had no connections to Project 2025 and other, election-related conspiracy theories. Leavitt also appeared in training videos for Project 2025. 

Russ Vought has been renominated to direct the Office of Management and Budget, a position he also held in Trump’s first term. Vought authored the second chapter of Mandate, on the Executive Office of the President, which argues that “a President today assumes office to find a sprawling federal bureaucracy that all too often is carrying out its own policy plans and preferences—or, worse yet, the policy plans and preferences of a radical, supposedly ‘woke’ faction of the country.” Vought is also a founder of the Center for Renewing America, a MAGA-aligned think tank and Project 2025 partner. He is an outspoken proponent of Christian nationalism, at one point calling for an “army” of right-wing activists with a “biblical worldview” to “go out and lead in reckless abandon.” .

Vought is a leading voice advocating for Schedule F — a scheme to reclassify career civil servants as political appointees and thus make them easier to fire. The policy is a critical piece of a key Project 2025 priority to staff the federal bureaucracy with MAGA loyalists and undermine the agency independence. Vought told former Fox host Tucker Carlson,  “The whole notion of an independent agency should be thrown out.”

Trump has selected John Ratcliffe to lead the CIA. Ratcliffe served as Trump’s director of national intelligence during the COVID-19 pandemic though he had little prior intelligence experience. He drew criticism during his first nomination for having supported conspiracy theories related to the Mueller investigation, and during his time in the Trump administration Ratcliffe continued to spread disinformation about the Russia probe. Ratcliffe is listed as a contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership. 

Former Ambassador to the Netherlands Pete Hoekstra has been tapped to be Trump’s ambassador to Canada for the second administration. Most recently, Hoekstra served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party and worked with the anti-Muslim group Gatestone Institute. Hoekstra is listed as a contributor to the Project 2025 Mandate for Leadership.

Trump has announced James Braid will be the White House’s director of legislative affairs. Braid worked in the Office of Management and Budget during the first Trump administration and as a policy adviser for J.D. Vance in the Senate. Braid contributed to Project 2025’s administration employee training courses, appearing in one titled “Congressional Relations: How to Work with Members.” Braid has also been associated with the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 partner organizations Hillsdale College and American Moment in various roles.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced his selection of Peter Navarro to serve as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing in his second administration. Navarro was previously a senior White House aide under Trump, serving as the director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, and recently served four months in federal prison for contempt of Congress. During his time in Trump’s first administration, Navarro drew scrutiny for his handling of the administration's COVID response and later for ;elevating conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. During the 2022 January 6 hearings, former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson claimed Navarro frequently talked about his connections to QAnon and his “QAnon friends.” Navarro wrote a section of Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership, titled “The Case for Fair Trade,” in which he claimed the World Trade Organization unfairly charges the U.S. with higher tariffs and called for the next administration to significantly raise tariffs on Chinese products.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced that former Fox News contributor and former Trump treasury official Monica Crowley will serve as chief of protocol of the United States. Crowley is listed as a Project 2025 contributor. She is known for her history of plagiarism and her promotion of conspiracy theories about former President Barack Obama, election integrity, and other topics. She has expressed extreme anti-abortion views and helped prep JD Vance for his vice presidential debate in 2024.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced that he’d chosen Paul Atkins to serve as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins appears as a contributor in Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership, and the chapter on the SEC lists him as one of several people who “deserve special mention.” Atkins served as an SEC commissioner during the George W. Bush administration and founded Patomak Global Partners, a financial firm, after his time in the Bush administration. The New York Times reports that he is “seen as a strong advocate for looser regulation of crypto assets.” Atkins is expected to reverse course from the current SEC chair, Gary Gensler, who has taken action to regulate and bring accountability to crypto markets.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced his selection of Michael Anton to serve as director of policy planning for the State Department, a position that does not require Senate confirmation. Anton is listed as a contributor in Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership and is one of several people singled out for “special thanks” in the chapter on the Executive Office of the President of the United States, written by Russ Vought, whom Trump announced he will nominate to serve as the director of the Office of Management and Budget. Anton previously served as National Security Council spokesperson during the first Trump administration and is a lecturer at Hillsdale College and senior fellow at The Claremont Institute, a MAGA-aligned think tank. Anton is notable for writing “The Flight 93 Election,” which supported Trump’s candidacy in 2016. He is a frequent critic of birthright citizenship.

CBS News reported on December 22 that Trump has selected Brian McCormack to serve in a senior role on the National Security Council. According to CBS, McCormack is a “longtime energy consultant” who worked as “a top aide in the Energy Department for then-Secretary Rick Perry and later at the Office of Management and Budget” during Trump’s first term. He previously served as a personal aide to former Vice President Dick Cheney. McCormack is a contributor to Mandate for Leadership’s chapter on the Executive Office of the President of the United States written by Russ Vought, Trump’s designee to head the Office of Management and Budget, and is also listed as a contributor in the policy book’s chapter on the Energy Department.  

In a post on Truth Social, Trump announced his selection of Troy Edgar to serve as deputy director of Homeland Security. Trump noted that Edgar had served in his first administration as the chief financial officer and associate deputy under secretary of management for Homeland Security. Edgar was an IBM executive at the time of Trump’s recent announcement, and had previously served as the mayor of Los Alamitos, California. He is listed as a contributor to Mandate for Leadership.  

Steven Bradbury has been selected as the next deputy secretary of transportation in the second Trump administration. Bradbury previously co-authored the infamous “torture memos” during the George W. Bush administration as the acting assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel. He was blocked from confirmation to the permanent assistant attorney general position in part because of his involvement with the memos, which authorized the CIA to use “waterboarding and other torture techniques” on prisoners. During the first Trump administration, Bradbury served as general counsel for the Department of Transportation and has since been employed by the Heritage Foundation, where he contributed to the Department of Transportation chapter in Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership. 

Trump announced Paul Lawrence as his pick for deputy secretary of Veterans Affairs in a post on Truth Social. Lawrence is listed in Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership as a contributor to the policy book. Lawrence previously served as the under secretary for benefits at the VA during the first Trump administration; he came under fire when the agency failed to pay some veterans their full benefits under the Forever GI Bill.

Former ICE senior adviser Jon Feere was quietly installed as chief of staff at the immigration agency following Trump’s inauguration in January. Feere is listed as a contributor to Mandate for Leadership and was formerly the director of investigations at Project 2025 partner and anti-immigrant organization the Center for Immigration Studies. Prior to his hiring at DHS during the first Trump administration, Feere promoted content from Ann Coulter and the white nationalist website VDare on his Twitter account. Feere has staunchly opposed birthright citizenship and published a related white paper to the Center for Immigration Studies’ site. 

Economist Casey B. Mulligan has been nominated by Trump to be the Small Business Administration chief counsel for advocacy. Mulligan is credited in Mandate for Leadership as having contributed to Russ Vought’s chapter on the Executive Office. During the first Trump administration, Mulligan served as chief economist on the Council of Economic Advisors.

Trump’s FCC commissioner and fellow Project 2025 contributor Brendan Carr announced Adam Candeub’s hiring as FCC general counsel in a statement released on February 4 and praised Candeub for his work against “Big Tech censorship.” Candeub authored a full chapter in Project 2025’s policy book, Mandate for Leadership, on the role of the Federal Trade Commission. In the first Trump administration, Candeub served as the acting head of the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration and was named deputy associate attorney general in December 2020. He was formerly a senior fellow at Project 2025 partner organization Center for Renewing America. 

Earl Matthews has been nominated to serve as general counsel for the Department of Defense. Matthews is listed as a contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership. Matthews held various positions in the Pentagon and on the National Security Council during the first Trump administration.

Elbridge Colby has been nominated to be undersecretary of defense for policy for the second Trump administration. Colby is listed as a contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership. Colby previously served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development in the first Trump administration.

Trump has nominated Anthony Tata to lead personnel for the Department of Defense. Tata contributed to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership. Tata was nominated for a leadership role at the Defense Department in the first Trump administration, but his confirmation hearing was canceled after reports of Tara having made anti-Muslim posts on social media and calling former President Obama a “terrorist leader.” Trump installed Tata as an acting official in the Pentagon instead of continuing the confirmation process. Tata has been a regular guest on Fox News.

Reed Rubinstein has been nominated to be a legal adviser to the State Department. Rubinstein contributed to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership as a senior vice president of Stephen Miller’s legal group America First Legal. In the first Trump administration, Rubinstein served as deputy associate attorney general, Department of Education general counsel, senior counselor to the Department of Agriculture, and senior adviser to the secretary of the Treasury.

Caleb Orr has been nominated as an assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs. Orr is listed as a general contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership and is credited for contributing to the chapters on the Department of Labor and the Small Business Administration.

Trump has nominated James Baehr to serve as general counsel to the Department of Veterans Affairs. Baehr is listed as a contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership. In the first Trump administration, Baehr served as a special assistant to the president. Baehr then worked as a senior fellow at America First Policy Institute.

Kathleen Sgamma has been nominated to lead the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management. Sgamma is listed as a contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership as president of Western Energy Alliance, an oil and gas lobbying group. Sgamma chaired an advisory group at the Department of Interior during the first Trump administration and has pushed for expanding access to fossil fuel drilling on public lands.

Aaron Szabo has been nominated to be an assistant administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. Szabo is listed as a contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership. During the first Trump administration Szabo served as an attorney for the Council on Environmental Quality, then became a lobbyist for oil and gas companies.

Brian Cavanaugh has been appointed to the senior role of Office of Management and Budget associate director for homeland security under fellow Project 2025 contributor and OMB Director Russ Vought. Cavanaugh is listed as a contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership policy book. He served on the National Security Council during Trump’s first term before becoming senior vice president at American Global Strategies, a consulting firm launched by Trump’s former national security adviser Robert O’Brien. 

Stephen Billy has been appointed to the role of senior adviser at the Office of Management and Budget. Billy is listed as a contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership and is thanked for his contributions to Russ Vought’s Mandate chapter on the “Executive Office of the President of the United States.” During the first administration, Billy held roles in the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Commerce, and the OMB. Following the first administration, Billy served at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America as the executive director of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the anti-abortion research arm of the organization, and then as vice president of state affairs. In 2022, leaked audio of a meeting between Billy and GOP Tennessee lawmakers caught him advising on when and how to regulate contraception and IVF. 

Darin Selnick has been sworn in as a senior adviser to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Selnick is listed as a contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership and is thanked for his specific contributions to the policy book’s chapter on the Department of Veterans Affairs. Selnick was previously the senior adviser to right-wing veterans affairs group Concerned Veterans for America and served in the first Trump administration in the White House and Department of Veteran Affairs. 

Michael Duffey has been nominated to a leadership role in the Department of Defense by President Trump. Duffey is credited as a contributor to Russ Vought's chapter on the Executive Office of the President in Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership policy book. During the first Trump administration Duffey served in the Office of Management and Budget and was the official who reportedly requested the Pentagon freeze aid to Ukraine following Trump’s request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Biden family.

Roman Jankowski has been appointed to the role of chief privacy officer and chief FOIA officer at the Department of Homeland Security. Jankowski is listed as a contributor to Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership. Jankowski served in multiple roles at DHS both before and during the first Trump administration. Following Trump's 2020 election loss Jankowski worked as senior investigative counsel for The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, a group that filed thousands of FOIA requests, including many that specified individual government employees in order to root out communications related to DEI, election integrity, LGBTQ issues, climate change, and more.

Matthew Schuck has been appointed as the DOT's director of communications and senior government affairs officer under Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Schuck is listed as a contributor to Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership policy book. Schuck was formerly the senior major gifts officer at Project 2025 partner organization the American Cornerstone Institute and was a special communications adviser at the U.S. Agency for Global Media during the first Trump administration.

Loren Smith has been appointed as the DOT deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy under Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Smith is listed as a contributor to Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership policy book and formerly served in various roles at the DOT during Trump's first term.

Sohan Dasgupta has been appointed as assistant secretary for trade and economic security at the Department of Homeland Security. Dasgupta was a contributor to Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership policy book. During the first Trump administration, Dasgupta served as special counsel at the Department of Education and deputy general counsel of DHS. Dasgupta has been a contributor to right-wing legal group The Federalist Society.

Joseph Edlow has been nominated to serve as the director of USCIS at the Department of Homeland Security. Edlow is listed as a contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership. Previously, Edlow worked as a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, the organization that created Project 2025, and in the first Trump administration he served as the acting director and chief counsel of USCIS. Edlow was part of Trump’s DHS transition landing team along with other Project 2025 contributors Jon Feere, John Zadrozny, Troup Hemenway, Sohan Dasgupta, and Joe Guy. Feere has also landed a position at DHS.

Matthew Kozma has been nominated to lead the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis. Kozma is listed as a contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership. During the first Trump administration Kozma served in positions at the Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Andrew Hughes has been nominated to serve as the deputy secretary of HUD. Hughes is listed as a contributor to Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership. Previously, Hughes served as the Executive Director of Ben Carson’s American Cornerstone Institute, a Project 2025 partner organization, and under Carson at HUD as chief of staff during the first Trump administration.

Language in this post has been updated for clarity.

Correction (3/13/25): This piece has been updated to fix the spelling of Jon Feere's name.