Is Trump following the "2025 Project"?

There must be some connection between the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, and Trump’s domestic and foreign policy.

I went back to review it, it’s about a thousand pages, and President Donald Trump was asked about it during his presidential campaign, and he said he knew about it but it wasn’t his. There are a lot of similarities, though, and it sounds like a conservative manifesto, done by the Heritage Foundation. Perhaps that explains how Trump has surprised the world with the speed of his actions, decisions, appointments, and the massive changes he is working on.

Since assuming the presidency, he has been moving mountains, and with premeditation and a vision intending to change the world, destroy the old order and build an alternative. His policy is retreating from the Atlantic alliance with Europe, and wants to embrace emerging political powers to reach power in allied countries such as Germany and Britain, and share influence and interests in the world with opponents such as Russia, and declare a coup against concepts that have guided American foreign policy for decades, such as imposing democracy and freedoms, and regressing from social laws and environmental protection at home. This means that the change project is systematic, institutional and broad, and can even continue after the end of his term.

The change reflects the feeling among most Americans that they need strong leadership, capable of solving the crisis of the ballooning deficit and government debt, stopping the invasion of millions of illegal immigrants, and confronting competitors such as China. These reasons led to the rise of Trump, who had never worked in politics before the presidency, did not belong to a party, and surprised everyone by winning twice, as he brought the presidency to the Republican Party, not the party that brought him.

Within it, the “2025 Project” recommends that Trump prioritize Africa and implement fundamental changes, including abandoning the aid policy, preferring instead to engage the American private sector, describing aid as a means of corruption and not serving American high policies, and that the most important thing is to focus on the growth of the free market. Trump called for confronting what he called harmful Chinese activities in the African continent, and recognizing the state of “Somaliland” to strengthen the American position there.

This is a small part of the ideas of conservatives who want the Trump era to not pass without making major changes in concepts, policies and leadership, both domestically and abroad. The desire for internal change is much greater and more difficult. Trump has popularity and a strong personality, and he has brought with him to the administration executives like him who have apparent enthusiasm, such as Elon Musk. However, governance in America is complicated even for someone like Trump, and the balances of the three institutions may slow him down.

*Quoted from Asharq Al-Awsat