How Popular Are Project 2025’s Proposals? We Asked Americans

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a 900-page document of proposed policies for a future conservative administration, has drawn headlines and controversies for its radical ideas to reshape the federal government.
In recent polling by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, conducted exclusively for Newsweek, respondents were asked about their support for specific policies central to Project 2025.
The results show that a majority of Americans support proposals like reorganizing the Department of Homeland Security (53 percent in favor) and increasing funding for the border wall (51 percent). However, closing the Department of Education, another prominent proposal, was opposed by 51 percent of respondents.
The poll was conducted on August 15. It surveyed 1,500 eligible U.S. voters and has a margin of error of +/- 2.53 percent. Of the respondents, 76 percent said they were at least slightly familiar with the proposals.
One of the most popular proposals from Project 2025 is the reorganization of the DHS, with 53 percent of Americans in favor of the idea.
The proposal seeks to dismantle the DHS into separate agencies, close down some of its sections, and combine the DHS Customs and Border Security unit with other immigration enforcement units in other agencies, creating a much larger and more powerful border policing operation.
Support for this initiative is particularly strong among the oldest respondents. According to the poll, 56 percent of those aged 59 and older back the reorganization plan, compared to 50 percent among those aged 43 to 58. The plan is supported by 52 percent of those aged 27 to 42 and 54 percent of the youngest respondents aged 18 to 26.
The partisan divide is evident with regard to the project’s popularity. The majority of people who intend to vote for Donald Trump (Republicans) favor a DHS overhaul (67 percent). By contrast, people who intend to vote for Kamala Harris (Democrats) largely oppose the measure, with 41 percent supporting the reorganization.
Project 2025’s proposal to increase funding for the U.S.-Mexico border wall, a flashpoint of political debate in recent years, garnered majority support, with 51 percent of respondents in favor. It was supported by 75 percent of Republicans but only 29 percent of Democrats.
One of the more controversial proposals of Project 2025—shutting down the Department of Education—is opposed by a slim majority of Americans (51 percent).
Project 2025 seeks to dramatically reduce the role of the federal government in education, instead allowing states to set curricula and to have more room for a “diverse set of school options” for parents to choose from.
This proposal sees the most pronounced partisan split of all the policies surveyed. The vast majority of Democrats (71 percent) are opposed to shuttering the department. Republicans, meanwhile, are split on the issue, with 38 percent supporting the policy and 38 percent opposed to it.
The policies continue to be a major subject of Democrat attacks against Trump, who has denounced Project 2025 as having “nothing to do with him.” However, many of its contributors are former members of his administration, and his own platform, called Agenda 47, shares broad policy similarities on several issues.