Good morning. Today we’re explaining why President Trump has yet to achieve parts of Project 2025.
But first, here’s what else is going on:
- Weight-loss drugs are helping lots of people shed pounds, but the surging demand has caused Massachusetts' two biggest health insurers to lose, too: nearly $800 million last year.
- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a big missile deal for Ukraine and a plan to end the war with Russia in coordination with European allies after Trump had a contentious meeting with Ukraine’s president.
- “Anora” was the big winner at the Oscars last night, taking home five awards, including best picture, director, and actress.
TODAY’S STARTING POINT
Reducing the federal workforce. Deploying soldiers to the southern border. Abolishing diversity, equity, and inclusion offices within the government.
All are moves President Trump has made in his first six weeks back in the White House. They’re also key goals of Project 2025, a roughly 900-page conservative blueprint for governing that Trump’s far-right allies published in 2023. Despite insisting that he had “nothing to do with” it during the campaign, Trump is now borrowing heavily from the project and has installed several of its architects to important roles.
So if Project 2025 is a blueprint, what might Trump do next? My colleague Alyssa Vega has been trying to answer that question. She published a story this morning that highlights several of the project’s goals that Trump has yet to achieve. Today’s newsletter gives four reasons why Trump hasn’t yet gotten them done — and, in some cases, why he may never.
1. He needs help
Most of Trump’s actions so far have been unilateral. He has issued scores of executive orders, more than any other recent president. But if Trump wants to achieve other Project 2025 goals, he will need Congress’s help. Yet Republicans control Congress by narrow margins. In the House, just two “no” votes can scuttle a bill. In the Senate, at least 60 are needed to pass most legislation, which will require Democratic support.
That could make it hard to fulfill several of the project’s tenets. Both the project itself and Trump’s nominee to lead the federal Department of Education say that abolishing it would take an act of Congress. So would cutting Head Start, which aids low-income children. And while House Republicans have advanced legislation that could add work requirements to Medicaid and food stamps, disagreements with the Senate mean those provisions may not become law.
Trump may also need help from the third federal branch if he hopes to outlaw pornography and jail its producers, another Project 2025 goal. Under a Supreme Court case from 1973, most pornography is protected by the First Amendment. But if the justices were to overturn that ruling, the landscape could change.
2. Passing the buck
Polls show that some of the provisions Trump has enacted, like targeting transgender athletes and seeking to build a border wall, are fairly popular. Others are not. Some experts think Trump is dodging those less-popular policies or trying to shift responsibility for them elsewhere.
Take abortion. Project 2025 calls for restricting mifepristone, an abortion pill. But so far, Trump hasn’t done so, despite pro-life groups’ pleas. “I think he is being strategic in terms of the ways in which he is looking to Project 2025,” said Tatishe Nteta, who teaches political science at UMass Amherst. “He knows that there may be some third rails that may be in that playbook.”
Still, there could be other ways to check off the project’s more controversial goals. Republican state attorneys general have sued to revoke mifepristone’s FDA approval, even though the drug is safe, and the case remains active.
3. Just wait
The wheels of American politics grind slowly, and it may only be a matter of time before Trump achieves more of Project 2025.
The project calls for letting adoption and foster care services refuse to work with LGBTQ couples. Doing so, it says, would mean having the assistant secretary for Financial Resources at the Department of Health and Human Services overturn a federal rule from 2016.
But right now, there is no assistant secretary for Financial Resources. The Senate hasn’t yet confirmed the administration’s nominee for that position, or hundreds of others. Once it has, unrealized provisions of Project 2025 could move forward. “Oftentimes you want to get your secretaries, your administrators in place before you are making these kinds of sweeping policy changes,” said Colin Seeberger of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.
4. Divided attention
The world throws up endless distractions and crises that administrations must manage, and presidential attention is a finite resource. So even if Trump wanted to become a Project 2025 completist, he may run out of bandwidth.
Events often waylay presidents’ best-laid plans. Barack Obama and Joe Biden both tried to pivot US attention away from the Middle East, only to be sucked back in by the Arab Spring, the rise of ISIS, and the war in Gaza. In 2020, as Trump tried to focus on his re-election, he instead faced a once-in-a-century pandemic and the largest racial-justice protests in US history.
“It’s very much like Mike Tyson said: ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face,’” said Nteta. “That is the presidency in a nutshell.”
Already, Trump has spent significant time on other priorities, like tariffs, the war in Ukraine, and trying to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal. So don’t be surprised if events overwhelm his focus on Project 2025.
What’s next?
Even if Trump doesn’t tick off every one of its provisions, the ethos behind Project 2025 — limiting government’s size and scope while increasing the president’s power — remains a roadmap to a future many conservatives want. “ The reality of where the United States is, and where it’s going, can be seen in that document,” Nteta said. “It is the culmination of decades of discussion, decades of debate, decades of fighting within the conservative movement.”
In some cases, Trump has gone above and beyond. Project 2025 outlines a surgical approach to trimming, streamlining, and reorganizing specific government agencies. Instead, Trump and Elon Musk have wantonly slashed federal spending and fired federal workers.
For now, it seems likely that the project’s fingerprints will continue to show up in the administration’s actions. “You can’t surround yourself with the tentacles of Project 2025, and effectively copy and paste plans from the playbook, and pretend that you have nothing to do with it,” Seeberger said.
Read more: I recommend exploring Alyssa’s tracker of Project 2025 goals Trump hasn’t yet achieved.
🧩 6 Down: Stuff sold in bars | ☀️ 30º More bitter cold
POINTS OF INTEREST
Boston and New England
- I remember that white stuff: Yes, New England really was colder when you were a kid. Today, climate change has made snowy winters a treat.
- Music vs. housing: Patrons of The Burren in Somerville’s Davis Square worry that the iconic Irish bar may be at risk because of a developer’s plans to build an apartment tower. (WBUR)
- But is it rent control? On the campaign trail, Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft likes to talk up rent control. Here’s what he really means.
- Speaking of Wu foes: City Councilor Ed Flynn is one of the mayor’s harshest critics. But his colleagues are baffled by his moves to stall millions of federal dollars from coming to Boston.
- Lousy housing: Boston’s public housing is neither safe nor sanitary, according to a 2023 federal audit of the Boston Housing Authority, the city’s largest housing provider.
- Running for their lives: Security footage shows patrons running out of the Chick-fil-A in Copley Square to escape a man with a knife who police say was trying to stab people. An off-duty officer fatally shot him.
Trump administration
- Spirit of ’25: Historic sites in Massachusetts expecting millions of visitors for the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution are reeling from the administration’s staffing cuts to the National Park Service. On Saturday, people marched Boston’s Freedom Trail protesting the cuts.
- Pod Save USAID: After a Pod Save America podcast host criticized Elon Musk over cutting federal aid, Musk said funding had been restored to a Rhode Island nonprofit that feeds malnourished children. No word on a Georgia plant with a similar issue.
- About face: Last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s vaccine-skeptical health secretary, called a measles outbreak in Texas that killed an unvaccinated child “not unusual.” Yesterday, he praised the measles vaccine in a Fox News op-ed. (Axios)
- Fort Trump? The president announced a US “crypto strategic reserve” that will stockpile bitcoin and ethereum, boosting cryptocurrency prices. Critics say it risks losing billions in taxpayer money. (Forbes)
- “I heard somebody who thinks he’s king:” Gov. Maura Healey recounted witnessing Trump’s confrontation with Maine Gov. Janet Mills over transgender athletes.
- Standing down: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered Cyber Command to stop planning offensive cyber operations against Russia. (The Record)
- “Go ski in Russia:” Hundreds protested Vice President JD Vance at Sugarbush, where he and his family skied on Saturday, over Vance’s treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “Saturday Night Live” also satirized the contentious Oval Office meeting.
The Nation and the World
- “Me too” redux: Even as Andrew Cuomo started campaigning for NYC mayor Sunday, one of the women who accused him of harassment while he was governor penned an essay saying that the city “deserves better.” (Vanity Fair)
- Pope improving: Francis was in stable condition without mechanical ventilation Sunday as he recovers from a respiratory crisis and pneumonia. (AP)
- Gaza stalemate: Israel said it wouldn’t let aid into Gaza, accusing Hamas of refusing to extend the ceasefire and threatening a return to fighting. (Times of Israel)
BESIDE THE POINT
🗓️ Boston at a bargain: Among this week’s events, you can watch a reenactment of the town hall after the Boston Massacre or count down the minutes to Lady Gaga’s new album.
❤️ Love Letters: They haven’t talked in 13 years. Is it too late to reach out?
🍳 Shell game: Egg prices are up. But in some ways it’s weird they were ever cheap. (The Atlantic)
🏷️ No labels: High grocery prices have shoppers opting for generics, benefiting chains like Costco that have in-house brands. (Quartz)
😋 Eat it and freeze it: These ingenious molds make batch cooking a breeze. (Slate)
📽️ Watch this: Want more Oscars? These nominees have New England ties.
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Ian Prasad Philbrick can be reached at ian.philbrick@globe.com.