According to plan: Despite denials, Trump’s team looks to be implementing Project 2025

Nine months after taking office, Trump stopped pretending that he did not know who was behind the document — and that he disagreed with its provisions. On Oct. 2, Trump posted an AI-generated video in which OMB director Vought is shown walking through Washington dressed as the Grim Reaper. He also published a post that read: “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. I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Trump’s team gained the ability to act more decisively thanks to the suspension of government funding. First, this made it possible to use procedures such as Reduction in Force (RIF) — mass layoffs in the event of budget cuts or lack of work. Second, it made it possible to carry out reforms with less resistance than would be faced from a government operating under normal circumstances.

Vought did not even conceal his intention to take advantage of this legal loophole. Even before the funding suspension, he issued a memo demanding that agencies prepare plans for mass layoffs in the event of a shutdown.

As a result, on Oct. 1, Vought announced the cancellation of funding for the Green New Deal climate program in 16 states, totaling $8 billion. In addition, during the shutdown he froze funding for construction of the Hudson River tunnel and the expansion of the New York City subway totaling $18 billion, as well as a $2.1 billion project to modernize Chicago’s subway system. The US Army Corps of Engineers was forced to suspend “nonpriority” projects totaling another $11 billion.

All of these cuts applied exclusively to projects promoting a “Democratic agenda” — for example, the development of “green” energy — or projects being implemented in states where Democrats had won elections.

In addition to freezing project funding, Vought moved aggressively to carry out mass layoffs. On The Charlie Kirk Show on Oct.15, he said that official layoff notices had already been sent to 4,100 employees across seven agencies, and that the total number of people dismissed would “likely exceed 10,000.”