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By Hollie Silverman
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The Heritage Foundation outlined its priorities for 2026 after Project 2025 received considerable backlash over its strategies for limited government, border security and tough immigration laws, among other conservative measures.
A spokesperson for the think tank referred Newsweek via email to a report from The Daily Signal announcing Heritage's "new strategy" for 2026, titled “The Golden Age is a choice.”
The foundation has shifted to a Heritage 2.0, focusing on four cornerstones: The American Family, The Dignity of Work and the Future of Free Enterprise, National Security and The American Heritage and Citizenship, according to the report.
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A representative from the foundation also told Newsweek via email Tuesday that there is no Project 2026, only the list of priorities for 2025-2026.
The list was originally published in February and recently gained traction on social media under the labeling Project 2026.
"Project 2025 was an effort of more than 100 organizations convened by Heritage to prepare for the next conservative administration. That administration is now in office, so all policy and personnel decisions are up to the president and his team," the spokesperson said, adding, "There is no Project 2026 and will not be, regardless of what leftist lunatics make up on BlueSky."
Why It Matters
The Heritage Foundation has played a pivotal role in shaping Republican policy since the 1980s, providing legislative blueprints that have influenced prior administrations.
The priority list signals an ambitious effort to consolidate executive power, overhaul federal agencies, and redefine federal policy in alignment with conservative and Christian nationalist principles.
Analysts and advocates on all sides are watching closely, as the plan’s implementation could dramatically affect civil service staffing, agency independence, and key government programs—policies that will impact millions of Americans.
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What To Know
The priorities listed for 2026 build directly off Project 2025, also known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, launched by The Heritage Foundation to provide a ready-to-implement policy manual, vetted personnel lists, and draft executive actions for the next Republican president.
The project’s central document, “Mandate for Leadership,” spans more than 900 pages and includes detailed plans to reorganize, reduce, or dismantle several federal agencies and programs. The overarching goal is to centralize presidential authority, eliminate perceived liberal influence from federal agencies, and implement widespread conservative changes across government, culture, energy, the economy, and health care.
What Is The Heritage Foundation?
The Heritage Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based conservative think tank founded in 1973. It has been instrumental in advising Republican presidents and lawmakers for decades, notably through its “Mandate for Leadership” documents released ahead of U.S. presidential elections.
The foundation’s influence expanded under President Ronald Reagan and saw renewed prominence under the Trump administration, where it was credited with shaping key policies. It describes its mission as advancing conservative values, restoring what it sees as self-governance, and opposing liberal or progressive policies in government and culture.
Project 2025 Tracker: How Much of It Has Been Completed?
After the 2024 presidential election, Trump was reported to have nominated several Project 2025 architects and supporters to positions within his administration. According to an analysis by Time magazine, nearly two-thirds of Trump’s executive actions within the first week of his second presidency "mirror or partially mirror" Project 2025 proposals.
Despite attempts by the Trump campaign to distance itself from the project, significant overlap in personnel and policy direction remains evident.
Many of the plan’s legislative recommendations, like shrinking the federal workforce, curtailing environmental regulations, and changing civil rights enforcement policies, are being tracked by advocacy groups and watchdogs.
However, the full implementation of priorities for 2025/2026 is expected to depend on congressional cooperation and potential legal challenges.
The Heritage Foundation's 2025/2026 Priorities:
Counter the CCP
"The Chinese Communist Party is the most persistent and consequential foreign threat facing the American people today. It is building a military to challenge the U.S., stealing American technology at an unprecedented rate, and hurting U.S. workers with predatory economic policies. America is falling behind in this New Cold War.
"Heritage will push for decoupling key supply chains and key sectors of the U.S. economy from Chinese influence. Heritage will also expose U.S. firms lobbying for Chinese clients and work to end the flow of fentanyl from China that is killing 100,000 Americans per year. We will advance policies to confront China’s attack on American interests and values, develop a China-resistant economy, and ensure our military is prepared to meet any threats China may pose in the future."
Eliminate Regulation, Inflation, and Spending
"Government spending, regulations, and inflation are a tax on all Americans, especially working families who struggle to make ends meet. Prudent fiscal decisions can enable American families to flourish without politicians and bureaucrats controlling our lives. Reforming environmental and energy regulations will result in more affordable electricity and transportation and attract manufacturing back to America.
"The Heritage enterprise will advance a blueprint to reduce the size and scope of the federal government, spend less of our money, and save us from falling off the fiscal cliff."
End the Border and Immigration Chaos
"Upholding the rule of law is paramount for a sovereign nation and orderly society. The American people deserve to live peacefully without incursions of illegal aliens across our borders. A strong immigration system enforces U.S. law, secures our borders, and preserves our national integrity. Yet, the Biden Administration intentionally and 'fundamentally transformed' America’s border and immigration system with lawlessness and incalculable and unsustainable costs, both human and fiscal.
"The Heritage enterprise will take steps at the federal and state level to restore the rule of law and provide messaging to encourage enforcement of the law."
Ensure Election Integrity
"The right to vote in free and fair elections is the most basic civil right. Americans can have confidence in election outcomes only if they trust that the process is fair.
"Heritage will restore faith in elections and protect the right to vote for all Americans by advocating for commonsense reforms at the state and federal level like requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to vote and ending the practice of ranked-choice voting. We will always oppose a federal takeover of our elections by Washington elites."
Expand Education Freedom
"The education system is failing our children—from the scourge of woke ideas like critical race theory and radical gender ideology to the lack of academic excellence and transparency. Parents, not bureaucrats, should be making decisions about their children’s education, aligned with their values. Heritage is focused on loosening Washington’s grip on K-12 and higher education. Heritage will work to safeguard parental authority over their children’s education, expand universal education choice, protect American taxpayers from bailouts of an academia wholly adrift, and reclaim institutions of higher education from the radical Left.
"Heritage will spearhead reforms at the state level to expand education choice while working to limit federal intervention in education, with the goal of ultimately eliminating the U.S. Department of Education."
Restore Digital Sovereignty
"American tech companies have been a source of amazing achievements for America, but in recent years, Big Tech has too often behaved as an enemy of the people, actively undermining American greatness. Big Tech has interfered with our elections, sought to groom and brainwash our children with perverted left-wing ideologies, engaged in anti-competitive behavior that stifles innovation, colluded with authoritarian governments, and sided with woke elites to suppress free speech and disproportionately silence conservatives.
"The Heritage enterprise will put power back in the hands of the American people by holding Big Tech accountable by enforcing antitrust and other laws and proposing new measures to end its abuses. We will advance laws and regulations that foster competition and cutting-edge innovation, making America’s tech sector the world’s strongest, most competitive, and most attractive for investment, while making it clear that the era of Big Tech impunity is over."
Put Family First
"Every child conceived deserves to be born to a married mother and father who will love, guide, and protect them throughout their lives. But family breakdown and rampant abortion tears at the soul of our country and saps it of strength and moral authority. Radical ideologies that deny social and biological truths about sexual embodiment, marriage, and unborn life poison our courts, our culture, and our laws.
"The Heritage enterprise will advance policies at the state and federal level to restore the nuclear family to the center of American life and to reduce both the demand and supply for abortion at all stages of human development with courage and compassion."
Root Out the Deep State
"A 'deep state' of unelected bureaucrats and special interest groups regularly bypasses the will of the people by undermining or overriding decisions made by elected officials. This erodes the American public’s trust in their own government. Heritage will support the new administration in its effort to assert effective control over the federal bureaucracy, rein in and reform the administrative state, end the abuses to Americans’ civil liberties, and restore excellence and efficiency in government operations.
"Heritage will work to reinvigorate the Constitution’s separation of powers and insist on democratic control and accountability in the federal government, for example by opposing any expansion of authority for independent agencies. Heritage will also fight the power of special interest groups that seek protection from competition in the form of government-created cartels and monopolies."
Unleash American Energy
"Energy fuels human flourishing and is the foundation of the modern economy. Policies that limit oil and natural gas production weaken America’s domestic energy production and make it more costly, while requiring the use of solar and wind energy makes America dependent on China, raises electricity costs, disproportionately harms poor people and farmers, and undermines America’s economic growth.
"A historic electricity scarcity crisis is looming on the horizon, threatening reliable and affordable electricity. To avert the crisis, Heritage will advance policies that streamline infrastructure permitting, repeal the toxic renewables subsidies of the Inflation Reduction Act, and reform electricity market regulations."
Correction 12/9/25, 6:15 p.m. ET: This article was corrected to clarify language used by The Heritage Foundation to describe its 2026 priorities.
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