Project 2025: The Man Trump Named, and What He Has Done
FMNN Investigates · Project 2025 · By Joseph J. Jackson · Oct. 19, 2026
This is an investigative report. Facts are sourced and labeled by evidence level. Sections marked Analysis are FMNN's reading of the record.
Project 2025 is no longer a campaign talking point. It is a working government program, and the man running it is Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget.
On Oct. 2, 2025, President Donald Trump called him "Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame." About 15 months earlier, Trump had said, "I know nothing about Project 2025."
The short version
- What has been done: Much of the Heritage Foundation's "Mandate for Leadership" is now in place. Agencies have been taken apart, independent regulators brought to heel, federal workers cut and reclassified, and spending withheld. One tracker counted 283 of 532 executive-action recommendations, 53%, started or finished within a year. Vought wrote the Mandate's chapter on the Executive Office of the President, and his OMB is the engine.
- What is coming: The Supreme Court overruled Humphrey's Executor on June 29, 2026, opening the way to firing members of most independent agencies at will. Also pending: a FY2027 budget with a 10% cut to non-defense agencies, a government funding deadline of Dec. 11, 2026, about 8,000 employees moved into "Schedule Policy/Career," a Nov. 5 White House hearing aimed at removing Fed Governor Lisa Cook, and a second contested "pocket rescission."
- What they tried and failed: The Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs on Feb. 20, 2026, and blocked Cook's firing, 5-4. Congress reversed the shutdown layoffs, and a federal judge enforced it. Three federal judges rejected Vought's theory for cutting off CFPB funding. The Government Accountability Office has twice found pocket rescissions illegal. But several early court losses were later undone by the Supreme Court's emergency docket.
What you need to know
Documented: Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 during the 2024 campaign. On July 5, 2024, he wrote on Truth Social: "I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it." At the Sept. 10, 2024, debate with Kamala Harris, he said, "I have nothing to do with Project 2025."
His campaign chiefs, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, wrote in a campaign memo that Project 2025 "should not be associated with the campaign or the President in any way."
Documented: On the morning of Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025, the second day of the federal shutdown, Trump posted: "I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent."
The Associated Press called it a dramatic about-face. The same day, Trump wrote, "I can't believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity," and shared an AI-generated video showing Vought as the Grim Reaper. Asked about the Project 2025 reference, a White House spokeswoman did not directly answer.
Documented: Vought wrote Chapter 2 of the Mandate, "Executive Office of the President of the United States." It opens: "The modern conservative President's task is to limit, control, and direct the executive branch on behalf of the American people." He called OMB "a President's air-traffic control system," with "the only statutory tools in the White House that are powerful enough to override implementing agencies' bureaucracies." He wrote that the director "must view his job as the best, most comprehensive approximation of the President's mind."
Documented: The Senate confirmed Vought 53-47 on Feb. 6, 2025, on a party-line vote, after a 30-hour Democratic floor protest. The next day Trump also made him acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He held that job until Aug. 1, 2026, when federal vacancy-law time limits ran out and Deputy Director Mark Paoletta took over.
Part One: Russ Vought, in his own words
The "trauma" speech
Documented (Tier 1, recordings published by ProPublica and Documented, October 2024): In a private 2023 speech, Vought said: "We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can't do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so. We want to put them in trauma."
In a 2024 speech in the same reporting, he said: "We have detailed agency plans. We are writing the actual executive orders." He added, "We are writing the actual regulations now, and we are sorting out the legal authorities for all of what President Trump is running on."
The hidden-camera video
Documented (Tier 1 video; reported by CNN, Aug. 15, 2024): Reporters from the Centre for Climate Reporting, a British journalism nonprofit, posed as relatives of a wealthy donor and secretly recorded Vought in a Washington hotel suite.
On tape, Vought said: "We are trying to create a shadow Office of Management and Budget, a shadow National Security Council, and a shadow Office of Legal Counsel." He waved off Trump's denials as politics, describing the president "distancing himself from the left's boogeyman of Project 2025."
He said Trump was "very supportive of what we do" and had "blessed" his group, the Center for Renewing America. Asked about a job, he said, "I think there's an expectation that I would go in." His research director, Micah Meadowcroft, called the executive-order drafting "the second phase" of Project 2025.
ProPublica later reported that Vought led Project 2025's transition work, which included writing about 350 executive orders, regulations and other plans.
Under oath
Documented (Tier 1, Senate record): The Senate Homeland Security committee heard Vought on Jan. 15, 2025, and the Budget Committee on Jan. 22.
Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., asked about the "trauma" remark. Vought said he meant "bureaucracies" that were "weaponized." He added: "That doesn't mean there's not amazing career civil servants, many of whom I've worked with at OMB."
He would not say whether he had discussed bringing back Schedule F with Trump. Asked whether the 1974 Impoundment Control Act is constitutional, he said, "No, I don't believe it's constitutional."
The shutdown
Documented (E&E News/Politico, NPR): During the 2025 shutdown, Vought told conservative radio host Charlie Kirk the administration would "keep those RIFs rolling throughout the shutdown." He said layoffs would "probably end up being north of 10,000."
The ledger: Russ Vought
| Row | Entry | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| SAID | Mandate Ch. 2: OMB should "override implementing agencies' bureaucracies"; the president needs "boldness to bend or break the bureaucracy to the presidential will." 2023 speech: "We want to put them in trauma." 2024 video: building a "shadow" OMB, NSC and Office of Legal Counsel. | Documented, Tier 1 |
| DID | Ran OMB from Feb. 6, 2025. Ran the CFPB as acting director Feb. 7, 2025, to Aug. 1, 2026. Directed agencies to prepare shutdown layoffs. Used pocket rescissions in 2025 and again Sept. 25, 2026. Prepared the FY2027 budget. | Documented, Tier 1/2 |
| RESULT | USAID stopped carrying out foreign aid July 1, 2025. CFPB funding was set to zero, then restored by court order. Shutdown layoffs were reversed by Congress. A June 3, 2026, order moved about 8,000 employees in more than 4,800 positions into Schedule Policy/Career. | Documented, Tier 1/2 |
| GAP | Under oath he played down the "trauma" remark and praised "amazing career civil servants." He then oversaw one of the largest cuts to the federal workforce in modern memory. The Partnership for Public Service counted just under 200,000 departures by Aug. 26, 2025. | Documented (quotes, count); "largest" is Analysis |
| KNEW | Courts and GAO warned in 2025 that pocket rescissions and CFPB defunding were unlawful. He used both again. GAO's Sept. 29, 2026, letter repeated that pocket rescissions are illegal. | Documented, Tier 1 |
| SAID AFTER | On GAO: "GAO has become hyper partisan." To CNN's Dana Bash, he said his "trauma" quote had been "jerry-picked." | Documented, Tier 1 |
The ledger: Donald Trump
| Row | Entry | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| SAID | July 2024: "I know nothing about Project 2025." Sept. 10, 2024: "I have nothing to do with Project 2025." | Documented, Tier 1 |
| DID | Nominated Vought Nov. 22, 2024. Hired other Mandate authors, including FCC Chair Brendan Carr, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and border czar Tom Homan. | Documented, Tier 1/2 |
| RESULT | FactCheck.org counted 32 of the Mandate's 40 named authors with ties to Trump administrations or campaigns. Eight were working in or for the current administration. | Documented, Tier 2 |
| GAP | His Oct. 2, 2025, post names Vought "of PROJECT 2025 Fame" and asks him which agencies to cut. | Documented, Tier 1 |
| KNEW | CNN reported in July 2024 that at least 140 people who had worked for Trump helped write Project 2025. Whether Trump personally read it is not established. | Documented (ties); Unverified (his knowledge) |
| SAID AFTER | The White House has not explained the reversal. | Documented, Tier 2 |
Part Two: What has been done
The scorecard
Documented (advocacy tracker): The Center for Progressive Reform and Governing for Impact track 532 domestic executive-action recommendations in the Mandate. In February 2026 they reported that 283, or 53%, had been "initiated or completed" in Trump's first year.
Analysis: That tracker comes from the left and counts actions started alongside actions finished. Read 53% as a measure of activity, not finished results.
The Mandate's authors now run the government
Documented: Vought (OMB), Carr (FCC, author of the Mandate's FCC chapter), Ratcliffe (CIA) and Homan (border czar) are Project 2025 authors or contributors. So are SEC Chair Paul Atkins and OMB senior adviser Stephen Billy, both credited in the Mandate. Newsweek counted at least 31 Project 2025-linked people nominated, appointed or confirmed. Project director Paul Dans told the AP it had been "gratifying" to see the plan carried out.
Chapter to action
| Mandate proposal | Action taken | Status as of Oct. 19, 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| OMB controls agency spending and overrides agency bureaucracies (Ch. 2, Vought) | January 2025 grant-and-loan freeze memo; apportionment holds; shutdown cancellation of 321 Energy Department awards for 223 projects (about $7.56 billion, per DOE); hold on $18 billion for New York transit | Freeze blocked and rescinded; project cancellations largely stand |
| Presidential control of the career workforce, "Schedule F" (Ch. 1) | Day-one order creating "Schedule Policy/Career"; OPM final rule Feb. 6, 2026; June 3, 2026, order moving about 8,000 employees | In effect; challenged in court |
| Shrink USAID, fold aid into State | USAID stopped carrying out foreign assistance July 1, 2025 | Done in practice; not abolished by law |
| Close the Department of Education | March 20, 2025, executive order; staff cut from 4,133 to about 2,183; 14 agreements moving programs to other agencies | Under way; Congress has not abolished it |
| Rein in the CFPB | Vought, as acting director, requested $0 from the Fed | Blocked by three judges; on appeal |
| Presidential control of "independent" agencies | Fired FTC commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, among others | Won at the Supreme Court, June 29, 2026 |
| Cut climate science; restructure NOAA | FY2026 and FY2027 budgets propose deep NOAA cuts ($1.6 billion in FY2027) | Partly done through staffing; budget cuts depend on Congress |
| Rescind "woke and weaponized" spending | $9 billion rescissions package enacted, the first standalone package since 1992; pocket rescissions in 2025 and 2026 | Package stands; pocket rescissions disputed |
| Medicaid and SNAP restructuring | 2025 reconciliation law (H.R. 1): about $1 trillion in health cuts, including about $800 billion from Medicaid; new SNAP work rules and a state cost share | Phasing in through 2028 |
Analysis: The pattern is clear. Moves that need only a signature, such as executive orders, OPM rules, firings and spending holds, happened fast. Moves that need Congress, such as abolishing the Education Department, have stalled.
The 2025 shutdown as a tool
Documented: The shutdown ran Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, 2025, 43 days, the longest full shutdown in U.S. history. About 900,000 workers were furloughed.
Before it began, OMB told agencies to prepare permanent layoffs, not just furloughs. On Oct. 2, the Energy Department announced it was ending 321 awards for 223 projects, which it said saved about $7.56 billion. Vought posted that "nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding" was being canceled. OMB also froze $18 billion for New York City transit, including the Hudson Tunnel and Second Avenue Subway. The AP reported the administration was using the shutdown to target projects championed by Democrats.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Democrats had handed "the keys of the kingdom to the president."
Part Three: What is coming
1. Independent agencies after Trump v. Slaughter
Documented (Supreme Court): On June 29, 2026, the court ruled 6-3 that the Federal Trade Commission's removal protection is unconstitutional and overruled Humphrey's Executor v. United States (1935). Chief Justice John Roberts wrote: "If anything more is left of Humphrey's, the Court overrules it."
Analysis: The core of Vought's Chapter 2, a president in control of the whole executive branch, is now law. Congress built the National Labor Relations Board, the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, FERC and other agencies on the 1935 precedent. Expect firings and lawsuits there.
2. The Federal Reserve: the carve-out, and a second try
Documented: The same day, in Trump v. Cook, the court ruled 5-4 that Fed Governor Lisa Cook stays in office until she gets notice and a chance to respond.
On Oct. 7, 2026, Trump signed a memo creating a three-member "committee of inquiry" of his own appointees to examine mortgage-fraud allegations against Cook. It orders her to a closed-door White House hearing on Nov. 5. Her final written response is due Nov. 10. Cook's lawyers said they have "grave doubts" the hearing will be legitimate. The allegations against Cook are unproven; she has called the discrepancy an inadvertent error.
3. The FY2027 budget and the Dec. 11 deadline
Documented: The FY2027 budget, sent April 3, 2026, asks for $660 billion for non-defense agencies, a 10% cut, and roughly $1.45 trillion to $1.5 trillion for defense, depending on how reconciliation money is counted. The Union of Concerned Scientists tallies proposed cuts of about 55% at the National Science Foundation, 23% at NASA, 52% at EPA and $1.6 billion at NOAA. Vought wrote that the budget continues "to constrain non-defense spending and reform the Federal Government."
The government runs on a stopgap through Dec. 11, 2026, five weeks after the Nov. 3 midterms.
Analysis: A lame-duck funding fight gives OMB another shot at shutdown leverage. The 2025 playbook was layoffs, canceled projects and targeting Democratic states. Watch whether the next stopgap again bans layoffs.
4. Pocket rescission No. 2
Documented: On Sept. 25, 2026, the White House sent Congress a pocket rescission canceling $810 million in FY2026 money, including housing counseling and Education Department foreign-language programs. GAO's general counsel wrote Sept. 29 that it "subverts both the constitutional process for enacting federal law and Congress's constitutional power of the purse." A lawsuit was filed Sept. 30.
Context: In September 2025 the Supreme Court let the first pocket rescission of foreign aid stand at an early stage of litigation. Courts have said only GAO can sue under the Impoundment Control Act. GAO has not sued.
5. Schedule Policy/Career
Documented: The White House said in April 2025 that OPM expected to move about 50,000 positions, roughly 2% of the federal workforce, into Schedule Policy/Career. The June 3, 2026, order moved about 8,000 employees. Union and watchdog lawsuits are pending in federal court in Washington.
6. The Education Department's endgame
Documented: The FY2026 spending law bars covered agencies from using funds to reorganize programs. The department says it can still partner with other agencies. NPR reported Sept. 24, 2026, that two attempts to send Title I money through Labor Department systems were halted after states pushed back. A lawsuit by 21 state attorneys general is ongoing.
7. What's left
Analysis: What remains mostly needs Congress: formally abolishing departments, rewriting the Impoundment Control Act, and putting Schedule Policy/Career into law. A Republican loss of the House on Nov. 3 would close the legislative path. It would not undo the executive actions already in place.
Part Four: What they tried and failed
| Action | Who stopped it | Outcome | Reversed later? |
|---|---|---|---|
| IEEPA "emergency" tariffs | Supreme Court, Learning Resources v. Trump, Feb. 20, 2026 | 6-3: the law "does not authorize the President to impose tariffs" | Final; refunds being handled at the Court of International Trade |
| Firing Fed Governor Lisa Cook | Supreme Court, Trump v. Cook, June 29, 2026 | 5-4: Cook stays; notice and hearing required | Second removal effort under way; hearing Nov. 5 |
| Shutdown layoffs | Congress (stopgap law, Nov. 12, 2025); Judge Susan Illston, N.D. Cal. | Congress reversed shutdown layoffs; agencies rescinded notices for more than 3,600 employees; Illston: "Defendants must do what the continuing resolution says." | No |
| Earlier 2025 mass layoffs | Judge Illston | Blocked | Yes: Supreme Court lifted her order |
| Education Department layoffs | 21 states' lawsuit | Blocked | Yes: Supreme Court allowed the layoffs |
| Defunding the CFPB | Judges Amy Berman Jackson, Edward Davila, Ann Aiken | All rejected Vought's theory; Davila ruled he "has no authority to define or calculate the Federal Reserve's 'combined earnings'" | On appeal at the 9th Circuit |
| Pocket rescissions | GAO, August 2025 and Sept. 29, 2026 | Declared illegal | GAO opinions aren't binding; the 2025 rescission stood |
| Ending FEMA's BRIC disaster-mitigation grants | States' lawsuit, Judge Richard Stearns, D. Mass. | Ruled unlawful; FEMA reopened BRIC with $1 billion March 25, 2026 | No |
| January 2025 OMB funding freeze | Federal district courts | Blocked; memo rescinded | No |
Analysis: The Mandate's own trade chapter printed opposing essays rather than one policy, so the tariff ruling is a loss for Trump's agenda more than for a single Mandate proposal. The bigger backfire is the shutdown: the layoffs Vought promised as leverage ended in a bipartisan law ordering them reversed.
Reality of the Situation
What his defenders say: "Trump has nothing to do with Project 2025." The record: Trump nominated the author of the Mandate's White House chapter to run OMB, then called him "of PROJECT 2025 Fame" and asked him which agencies to cut. FactCheck.org found 32 of 40 named authors had Trump ties. False on personnel in 2024. False on policy now.
"It was just a think tank wish list." The record: Vought said on tape in 2024 his team was "writing the actual executive orders" and "the actual regulations." ProPublica reported the transition arm produced about 350 such documents. A wish list does not come with drafted orders and a budget director to sign them.
"It's just cutting waste." The record: Three federal judges found the CFPB defunding unlawful. Congress ordered the shutdown layoffs reversed. GAO, Congress's own auditor, twice found pocket rescissions illegal. Trump himself called the targets "Democrat Agencies." Cutting waste does not require breaking appropriations law.
"Vought meant bureaucracies, not workers." The record: The recording says "bureaucrats," the people, and "we want them to not want to go to work." He later predicted shutdown layoffs "north of 10,000."
"The courts have stopped it." The record: Partly. Lower courts blocked many moves, but the Supreme Court's emergency docket let the 2025 mass layoffs, the Education Department layoffs and the 2025 pocket rescission go forward. In June 2026 the court handed the president the removal power the Mandate sought. Courts slowed the plan more often than they stopped it.
Florida: where it lands
Federal workforce. State data cited by WLRN in March 2025 put federal employment in Florida near 160,000, three of every four in areas represented by Republicans. OpenFeds, a third-party tracker using OPM data, counts 8,194 federal separations in Florida in 2025, up from 4,423 in 2024. Separations are not the same as net job losses, and OpenFeds is not an official source.
Weather forecasting. As the 2025 hurricane season opened, the National Weather Service Employees Organization reported 28 vacancies across Florida's six forecast offices, including 7 of 25 jobs at Tampa Bay and 6 of 23 at Miami. The union said Miami and Key West lacked staffing for round-the-clock operations. FMNN has not confirmed 2026 staffing levels. The FY2027 budget seeks another $1.6 billion cut at NOAA.
Disaster money. In April 2025, FEMA canceled about $300 million in Florida mitigation projects under BRIC, including Jacksonville road elevations, a Key West hurricane safe room for first responders, and $150 million in canal flood work in Miami-Dade and Broward, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Florida did not join the states' lawsuit, but benefits from the court-ordered reopening.
Florida emergency management chief Kevin Guthrie sat on Trump's FEMA Review Council. CBS reported its May 2026 report signaled it was time to close the chapter on FEMA, and quoted Guthrie: "States, figure it out."
Hurricane Isaias hit near Destin as a Category 2 on Oct. 9, 2026. Trump approved a limited emergency declaration for 27 counties that day. Florida filed for a major disaster declaration on Oct. 15, seeking public assistance for 15 counties and individual aid for families in Bay, Escambia, Gulf, Holmes, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Walton and Washington counties. As of Oct. 19, it had not been approved. PolitiFact reported in January 2026 that 18 state disaster requests were waiting on Trump, some for months.
SNAP and Medicaid. The Florida Policy Institute reports Florida's SNAP rolls fell about 10%, or 277,513 people, after H.R. 1 passed. Starting in 2028, states with SNAP error rates of 6% or more must pay 5% to 15% of benefit costs; FPI says that could cost Florida $1 billion or more. Medicaid work-reporting rules begin Dec. 31, 2026.
Schools. Title I money for low-income schools, including Florida's, is being moved to Labor Department administration, and the handoff has already stumbled.
Reading the Pattern
Analysis:
- Written, denied, then carried out. The order is on the record: the Mandate in 2023, the recordings in 2023 and 2024, the denials in 2024, the appointments in late 2024, the embrace in 2025. FMNN does not claim a secret pact between the campaign and Heritage. The public record of shared people and matching policy is enough.
- OMB became the center of power. Vought wrote that OMB should be the "approximation of the President's mind." It now sets agency funding, ran the CFPB directly for 18 months, set shutdown layoff policy and wrote the budget.
- Speed beats courts. Layoffs, canceled grants and USAID's shutdown were often settled facts before judges ruled.
- The Supreme Court decides. It gave the Mandate its biggest structural win in Slaughter, its biggest loss on tariffs, and protected the Fed. On presidential power over the bureaucracy, it has mostly sided with the Mandate.
- Congress acts rarely, but it works. The shutdown-ending law reversed layoffs. The FY2026 spending law restricted Education reorganizations. Each pushback came through a must-pass funding bill.
Voices of Resistance
- U.S. District Judge Susan Illston blocked the shutdown layoffs and ordered reversals.
- U.S. District Judges Edward Davila, Amy Berman Jackson and Ann Aiken each rejected the theory used to starve the CFPB.
- GAO General Counsel Edda Emmanuelli Perez found both pocket rescissions illegal.
- Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chair of Senate Appropriations, said GAO had concluded pocket rescissions are unlawful.
- Fed Governor Lisa Cook and FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter sued instead of leaving. Cook won. Slaughter lost.
- Tom Fahy of the National Weather Service Employees Organization made Florida's forecast-office vacancies public before hurricane season.
- Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, called the layoff ruling a victory "for the rule of law."
Who Carried the Story
ProPublica, a nonprofit, and Documented, a nonprofit investigative outlet, published the "trauma" recordings. The Centre for Climate Reporting shot the hidden-camera video; CNN, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, broke it. The Associated Press, a nonprofit cooperative, documented Trump's Oct. 2 post and reversal. FactCheck.org, part of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center, counted the authors. Federal News Network, owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, and NPR tracked the workforce and Education Department changes. The Tampa Bay Times, owned by the nonprofit Poynter Institute, and Tegna's WTSP and First Coast News reported the Florida FEMA and Weather Service effects.
Viral claims that don't hold up
- "Vought wrote Project 2025." He wrote one chapter and led the transition's "second phase." Paul Dans directed the project.
- "Vought laid off 10,000 workers in the shutdown." He predicted "north of 10,000." Agencies rescinded notices for more than 3,600 after Congress acted. A final number is not established.
- "Project 2025 is two-thirds done." The best-documented figure is 53% started or completed, from an advocacy tracker.
- "Project 2025 has caused 700,000 excess deaths." A modeling claim circulating online. FMNN could not verify it.
- "Vought ran DOGE." Not verified.
- "The Mandate tells Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act." That planning came from Vought's private remarks reported by ProPublica, not the Mandate's text.
Closing
The American Dream did not die in one executive order. It is being taken apart office by office, by people who wrote down the plan, were caught on tape describing it, denied it in public, and then carried it out.
Russ Vought said he wanted federal workers "in trauma." He said the denials were politics. Trump proved him right when he called him "he of PROJECT 2025 Fame."
What happens next is not up to Heritage. The courts have drawn some lines. Congress drew one. Voters get their turn Nov. 3. Then comes Dec. 11.
This report will be updated as the Isaias declaration, the Cook hearing and the pocket-rescission lawsuit move forward. Corrections: TheFloridaManNewsNetwork@gmail.com.
Sources
- AP via PBS NewsHour, "Trump no longer distancing himself from Project 2025," Oct. 3, 2025: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/amid-shutdown-fight-trump-no-longer-distancing-himself-from-project-2025
- Axios, "Trump embraces Project 2025 after disavowing it," Oct. 2, 2025: https://www.axios.com/2025/10/02/trump-project-2025-russ-vought
- Heritage Foundation, Mandate for Leadership (full text): https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf
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- Mayer Brown, Supreme Court blocks firing of Lisa Cook, June 2026: https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2026/06/supreme-court-blocks-president-from-firing-federal-reserve-governor-lisa-cook
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- Roll Call, GAO says pocket rescission violates budget law, Sept. 29, 2026: https://rollcall.com/2026/09/29/trumps-funding-cancellation-violates-budget-law-gao-says/
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- COSSA, $810 million rescinded, lawsuits pending: https://cossa.org/trump-administration-rescinds-810-million-in-appropriated-funds-lawsuits-pending/
- Federal News Network, Education Department handing off programs, March 2026: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reorganization/2026/03/a-year-after-mass-layoffs-education-dept-keeps-handing-off-its-programs-to-other-agencies/
- NPR, Education Department dismantling, Sept. 24, 2026: https://www.npr.org/2026/09/24/nx-s1-5968605/education-department-dismantling-how-its-going
- National Law Review, Supreme Court IEEPA tariff decision: https://natlawreview.com/article/summary-supreme-court-decision-ieepa-tariffs
- NPR, shutdown layoffs and Congress, Oct. 15, 2025: https://www.npr.org/2025/10/15/nx-s1-5574111/government-shutdown-federal-employees-congress-rif
- Consumer Finance Monitor, Judge Davila CFPB funding ruling, March 20, 2026: https://www.consumerfinancemonitor.com/2026/03/20/federal-judge-rules-cfpb-must-continue-to-ask-federal-reserve-for-funds/
- Consumer Finance Monitor, CFPB appeals Davila ruling, May 12, 2026: https://www.consumerfinancemonitor.com/2026/05/12/cfpb-surprisingly-appeals-judge-davilas-funding-decision-to-the-ninth-circuit/
- The Hill, FEMA BRIC court order: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/fema-bric-grant-program-court-order/
- WLRN, Florida federal jobs, March 12, 2025: https://www.wlrn.org/business/2025-03-12/florida-jobs-federal-government-doge
- OpenFeds, federal separations by state: https://www.openfeds.org/impact
- WTSP, National Weather Service vacancies in Florida: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/regional/florida/national-weather-service-nws-job-vacancies-florida/67-5c99ef5b-bfb9-4d95-8d58-43954b3b110a
- Tampa Bay Times via Yahoo, FEMA cuts $300 million in Florida flood projects: https://www.yahoo.com/news/fema-slashes-300-million-flooding-151900738.html
- CBS News, FEMA Review Council report: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fema-review-council-federal-disaster-support-redesign/
- Office of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Isaias major disaster declaration request: https://www.flgov.com/eog/news/press/2026/governor-ron-desantis-announces-florida-requests-approval-major-disaster
- WINK News, DeSantis Isaias recovery update: https://www.winknews.com/news/state/gov-ron-desantis-delivers-updates-on-hurricane-isaias-recovery-efforts/article_80820a11-ad34-4843-8c5e-0212f82e761f.html
- PolitiFact, FEMA disaster declaration backlog, Jan. 28, 2026: https://politifact.com/factchecks/2026/jan/28/jared-moskowitz/FEMA-disaster-declaration-backlog-Trump/
- Florida Policy Institute, SNAP participation falls in Florida: https://www.floridapolicy.org/posts/participation-in-snap-falls-sharply-across-florida-after-congress-makes-drastic-program-cuts
- Florida Policy Institute, SNAP cuts and Florida's program: https://www.floridapolicy.org/posts/how-historic-cuts-to-snap-enacted-by-congress-jeopardize-the-food-security-of-floridians-in-need-and-the-states-entire-program