Directed by the Heritage Foundation, the 2025 Presidential Transition Project (or Project 2025) rests on "four pillars": a policy guide, a "conservative LinkedIn", a "Presidential Administration Academy", and a "playbook". The policy guide has been published in April 2024 as a volume of the Mandate for Leadership series, under the name The Conservative Promise. Edited by Paul Dans and Steven Groves, the more than 900-page volume features 30 chapters written by 40 primary authors.

More than 100 organizations, spanning from conservative to far-right, have helped produce the Conservative Promise, and Project 2025 more generally. The policy reforms promoted in it and its digest have gained traction during the 2024 US presidential election. Many collaborators of Donald Trump have been tied to the project.

Background Trump attended an event for Heritage in Amelia Island, Florida, on April 21, 2022, and praised its forthcoming Project 2025, saying:former U.S. President Donald Trump attending an event for the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation in Amelia Island, Florida, on April 21, 2022, shows him praising the foundation's plans for its just-announced 2025 Presidential Transition Project

During his 2024 political campaign Trump faced political pressure for his association with Project 2025; he started to disavow it by July. Soon after, Dans resigned from Project 2025, a symbolic gesture since it published its deliverables, including a database of 10,000 conservative job candidates. Dans later criticized senior advisors Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita for 'historic campaign malpractice'. LaCivita floated the idea that Project 2025 members would be barred from serving in the second Trump administration.

On August 15, 2024, CNN published a video in which British journalists made Russell Vought reveal his policy preparation for a Trump presidency, his views on unitary executive theory, and his Christian nationalism. While still distancing himself from Project 2025, Trump headlined a Moms for Liberty event sponsored by Heritage at the end of August.

Heritage stated that Trump has previously embraced many of the policy recommendations put forward by that organization. Several contributors to the project have held positions in one of Trump's political campaigns or his administrations.

Advisory board

The Conservative Promise has an "Advisory board" section in its front matter. Those featured in the Conservative promise with no collaborator are:

Heritage maintained a website from April 2023 to March 2025. The organizations listed during that time changed. The number listed in press releases varied from 21 in June 2022 to more than 100 in February 2024; after Trump's disavowal of Project 2025, many advisory board members were scrubbed from the website, including America First Legal, an organization founded by Stephen Miller.

Authors The 30 chapters of the Conservative Promise have been authored by 40 people. Many have contributed to chapters they have not authored. The Heritage president wrote the foreword, and one of its co-founders wrote the afterword. Of these authors and editors, the New York Times found that by October 2024, 18 have served in the first Trump administration. The Revolving Door Project counted that 25 of the 30 chapters have been written by former Trump officials. Since then other ties have been found.

Organizations marked with a dagger (†) are listed in the "Advisory board" section of the Conservative Promise.

Name Affiliations Chapter or matter Trump ties Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI); Heartland Institute; Federalist Society 10"Department of Agriculture" Heritage; Boyden Gray; Federalist Society 18"Department of Labor and Related Agencies" DOJ (2017–2018), DOL (2018–2020) transition team (2024); DOL (2025-) 27"Financial Regulatory Agencies / Consumer Financial Protection Bureau" Campaign director (2016), HUD (2017–2021), OPM, CFTC withdrawn nomination (2020) Heritage; EdChoice 11"Department of Education" ED (2025) Heritage; Federalist Society 22"Department of the Treasury"; 27"Financial Regulatory Agencies / Securities and Exchange Commission and Related Agencies"; 25"Small Business Administration" (contributor) Federalist Society; Michigan State University 30"Federal Trade Commission" DOC; DOJ deputy associate attorney general; FCC general counsel Heritage; Meta 7"Intelligence Community" DNI chief of staff Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 28"Federal Communications Commission" FCC (2017–2027) American Cornerstone Institute 15"Department of Housing and Urban Development" HUD secretary; Establishment of the Religious Liberty Commission Heritage, visiting fellow 5"Department of Homeland Security" USCIS director; DHS deputy secretary Heritage: Project 2025 director (stepped down) 3"Central Personnel Agencies: Managing the Bureaucracy" ; 6"Department of State" (contributor) HUD (2019); OPM chief of staff (2020) Cypress Group 1"White House Office" Transition team executive director (2016); deputy chief of staff (2017–2018) Mercatus Center; Cato Institute 23"Export-Import Bank / The Export-Import Bank Should be Abolished" The Fund for American Studies 3"Central Personnel Agencies: Managing the Bureaucracy" 1"White House Office" (contributor) OPM advisor during the first administration Heritage co-founder Afterword"Onward!" Transition team (2016) Heritage 19"Department of Transportation" Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology American Center for Law & Justice 21"Department of Commerce" DOC chief financial officer and assistant secretary for administration; Heritage 8"Media Agencies / Corporation for Public Broadcasting"; 21"Department of Commerce" (contributor) 1776 Commission appointee Independent Women's Forum 13"Environmental Protection Agency" EPA chief of staff and principal deputy assistant administrator for the Office of air and radiation America First Legal 17"Department of Justice" DOJ counselor to the attorney general; DHS senior counselor; ICE assistant chief counsel CNN and Fox News journalist 23"Export-Import Bank / The Case for the Export-Import Bank" Trump-Pence Georgia campaign Communications director (2016); DOS head of Public Affairs (2017); EXIM vice president (2017–2020); USAID deputy assistant administrator (2020–2021) Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council 25"Small Business Administration" Supported Trump's nomination of Linda McMahon Mindset 3"Central Personnel AgenciesManaging the Bureaucracy" OPM associate director; Merit Systems Protection Board chairman Competitive Enterprise Institute 26"Trade / The Case for Free Trade" McGuireWoods LLP 12"Department of Energy and Related Commissions" FERC Albers Aerospace, Highpoint Aerotechnologies 4"Department of Defense" DoD secretary (2020); NCC director (2020); NSC (2018–2019) FreedomWorks 22"Department of the Treasury" Member of President Trump's economic task force Namdar Law PLLC 8"Media Agencies / United States Agency for Global Media" NEA senior bureau official (2025); USAGM; CA assistant secretary (2020–2021) Paul Merage School of Business (gone emeritus) 26"Free Trade / The Case for Fair Trade" Assistant to the President; OTMP director; NTC director Federalist Society; Mountain States Legal Foundation 16"Department of the Interior" BLM de facto director (2019–2020) Heritage 9"Agency for International Development"; 6"Department of State" (contributor) USAID chief operating officer Heritage president Foreword"A Promise to America" Met with Trump; organized events around him. Ethics and Public Policy Center 14"Department of Health and Human Services" Office of Civil Rights director at HHS Heritage 6"Department of State" Member on the United Nations committee on contributions Pepperdine University School of Public Policy 6"Department of State" DOS director of policy planning United States Marine Corps (retired lieutenant) 20"Department of Veterans Affairs" VA assistant secretary for congressional and legislative affairs Heritage 29"Federal Election Commission" Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (2017) Center for Renewing America (CRA) 2"Executive Office of the President of the United States" OMB director (2018–2020, 2025-); 2024 Republican National Committee Platform Resolute Protector Foundation 22"Department of the Treasury" Transition team top economic advisor (2016) Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC);‌ Heritage 24"Federal Reserve"; 2"Executive Office of the President of the United States" (contributor) DPC; OMB; Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (2019–2022)

Other contributors The editors of Conservative Promise thank their 280 contributors in an "Acknowledgements" section, and lists them as "contributors". Other contributors have earned a special mention in the author's notes at the end of their chapters. Some contributors (like Atkins) have been thanked for having written portions of the chapters, but are not listed as author. Those who have not contributed to any specific chapter are identified as appearing in the "Contributors" section. The New York Times has traced back 307 authors and contributors to Project 2025; 182 of them are tied to Trump.

Organizations marked with a dagger (†) are listed in the "Advisory board" section of the Conservative Promise.