Top Trump picks have ties to Project 2025

• Trump has so far nominated at least 18 authors or contributors to the text to serve in his second administration.

Driving the news: Russ Vought — an architect of Project 2025 — was confirmed by the Senate among party lines to return to the White House as Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget.

• Vought is one of the roughly 140 members of the first Trump administration who were involved in Project 2025, per CNN's tally.

Flashback: Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 as press coverage of its proposals became a headache on the campaign trail.

• "I have no idea who is behind it," Trump wrote in a July Truth Social post. "I disagree with some of the things they're saying and some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them."

Yes, but: Within a day of Trump's victory, allies and right-wing commentators claimed that Project 2025 was the agenda all along.

State of play: Trump, in his tumultuous first three weeks in office, implemented a cascade of sweeping executive actions, some of which were directly called for in Project 2025.

• His immigration crackdown, which included sending troops to the southern border and suspending U.S. Refugee Admissions Program resettlements, parallels the Project 2025 blueprint.

• Trump's early moves also mirrored the text's proposals on dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; loosening environmental regulations; and departing from certain international agreements.

What they're saying: "All of President Trump's cabinet nominees and appointments are whole-heartedly committed to President Trump's agenda, not the agenda of outside groups," Karoline Leavitt, now the White House press secretary, said in a November statement to Axios.

• "President Trump never had anything to do with Project 2025," she said.

Here are the Trump Cabinet and White House picks with ties to Project 2025.

Russ Vought: OMB Director

The OMB director — and reported acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — is listed among the authors of Project 2025.

• Vought was also policy director on the committee that crafted the official Republican Party platform.

Zoom in: Vought wrote the Project 2025 chapter laying out priorities for the Executive Office of the President, which includes OMB.

• In it, he outlines ways to centralize executive power and reel in the federal bureaucracy, which he says "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."
• He characterizes the OMB director as a vessel for the president's policy agenda, rather than as "the ambassador of the institutional interests of OMB and the wider bureaucracy."

Brendan Carr: FCC chief

Carr, Trump's pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, outlined his plan to challenge "Big Tech" in the FCC chapter of Project 2025.

• In his section, he called for the FCC to issue an interpretation of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to eliminate "expansive, non-textual immunities that courts have read into the statute."
• Section 230 protects online platforms — for example, Facebook or YouTube — from liability over content posted by their users.
• Carr also lays out proposals to expand broadband connectivity access, address TikTok's "serious and unacceptable risk" and support emerging satellite technologies, among other goals.

Tom Homan, immigration czar

Homan is listed among the dozens of Project 2025 contributors who aided in "development and writing."

• The former acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during Trump's first term, Homan has played a key role in implementing Trump's far-reaching immigration crackdown.

John Ratcliffe, CIA director

Ratcliffe, Trump's nominee to lead the CIA and a former director of national intelligence, was consulted for the Project 2025 chapter dealing with the intelligence community.

• That chapter was authored by Dustin Carmack, Ratcliffe's former chief of staff. It cites an interview with Ratcliffe in which he says previous intelligence directors had been "accustomed to yielding... to the preferences of the CIA and other agencies."

Other contributors

In addition to Ratcliffe and Homan, over a dozen other Trump nominees were listed as Project 2025 contributors. They include:

• Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), formerly Trump's ambassador to the Netherlands, is Trump's pick for ambassador to Canada.

• Kathleen Sgamma — who has long led the Western Energy Alliance, an industry group that advocates for greater drilling access — was tapped to be director of the Bureau of Land Management.
• Reed Rubinstein, the senior vice president of Stephen Miller's America First Legal, was nominated to be legal adviser of the Department of State.
• Aaron Szabo, a lobbyist, was tapped to be an assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Politico's E&E News reported he will head the Office of Air and Radiation.
• Caleb Orr, who per the James Wilson Institute served as a senior policy advisor to then-Sen. Marco Rubio (now the secretary of state), was selected to helm the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.
• James Baehr, Trump's pick to be general counsel for the Department of Veterans Affairs, served in Trump's first White House as a special assistant in the Domestic Policy Council.
• Anthony "Tony" Tata, a retired U.S. Army Brigadier General, was tapped to be under secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.
• Paul Atkins, a former member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, was tapped to head the SEC under Trump.
• Troy Edgar, the former Department of Homeland Security CFO, is Trump's pick for DHS deputy secretary.
• Elbridge Colby, who served in the Pentagon during Trump's first term, was tapped for a top policy role in the Defense Department.
• Earl Matthews, nominated to be DoD general counsel, held senior positions in Trump's first White House.
• Monica Crowley, a former Fox News contributor, was nominated for a key public relations role in the State Department.
• Steven Bradbury, selected to serve as deputy secretary for the Department of Transportation, held top positions in the department during Trump's first term.
• Paul Lawrence, Trump's pick for VA deputy secretary, also served in the department during Trump's first White House tenure.

Stephen Miller and other Trump picks

Miller, a longtime member of Trump's inner circle and founder of the MAGA-aligned America First Legal, took on an expanded role in Trump's White House, returning as deputy chief of staff.

• While he is not listed as a contributor to the project, America First Legal was listed as on the Project 2025 advisory board — until the group reportedly asked to be removed.

Zoom out: Other Trump picks were not explicitly listed as contributors or authors but were mentioned throughout the text, such as in footnotes or shoutouts.

• For example, policies introduced by former Reps. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.) and Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) — Trump's picks for the CDC and Transportation, respectively — are endorsed in the text.

Go deeper: A radical plan for Trump's second term

Editor's note: This story has been updated with Trump's latest picks.