When asked about his plans for immigration during an appearance on California’s KFI radio station, Donald Trump said he would hire Tom Homan, the author of Project 2025 and former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director.
“You’ve seen Tom,” Trump told host John Kobylt. “You’ve seen Tom Homan. He’s coming on board.”
Homan served as acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Trump administration, where he led the controversial family separation policy, widely criticized at the time, Newsweek reports.
A vocal critic of President Joe Biden’s handling of border and immigration affairs, Homan joined the Heritage Foundation as a contributor to Project 2025, a 900-page conservative policy playbook proposing an overhaul of nearly every federal agency and more than 175 immigration provisions. The document advocates for mass detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants to “regain control of the border.”
Project 2025 contributors also recommend ending the legal status of Dreamers, barring citizens from housing subsidies if they live with non-U.S. citizens, and immediately removing rejected visa applicants and beneficiaries, among other policies.
While Democrats have used the playbook to criticize Trump’s campaign, describing it as a blueprint for his potential presidency, Trump has denied any collaboration or endorsement of Project 2025.
In July, Trump said, “I have no idea who is behind it.” On his Truth Social account, the former president also claimed to “know nothing about Project 2025,” assertions critics find hard to believe given his ties to dozens of the document’s authors.
A CNN investigation found nearly 240 people linked to both Project 2025 and Trump, with at least 140 contributors being former Trump administration staff members.
Notable former Trump administration officials involved in Project 2025 include Rick Dearborn, former White House deputy chief of staff; Christopher Miller, former acting secretary of defense; and Ken Cuccinelli, former deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
The Heritage Foundation has published iterations of its “Mandate for Leadership” for over 40 years, detailing recommendations for the next Republican administration. According to a Niskanen Center report, the Trump administration implemented nearly 64% of these recommendations within its first year.
Per a Newsweek report, Trump gave a keynote speech at the Heritage Foundation in April 2022, saying: “This is a great group. And they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America, and that’s coming.”
Among other proposals, Project 2025 also suggests banning pornography, eliminating the Department of Education, restricting mail-order abortion pills, making it harder for transgender adults to transition, removing DEI hiring policies, and eliminating the federal agency overseeing the National Weather Service.
