With head-spinning speed, President Donald Trump has targeted and reoriented key areas of American society through a barrage of executive orders and other administrative actions in his first three months in office.
Trump denied during his presidential campaign last summer any connection to the Heritage Foundation’s conservative policy agenda Project 2025 and ridiculed some of its proposals. But now, many of his early directives echo or are outright lifted from the 900-plus page plan.
In fact, Project 2025’s director Paul Dans recently told Politico the president and Elon Musk’s moves to shut down programs that combat climate change, encourage diversity, equity and inclusion and eliminate the deep state through mass federal worker firings are “actually way beyond my wildest dreams.”
KPBS reached out to several conservative and Republican groups for their perspectives. They either declined to comment or did not reply. Those include:
- Paul Dans, former director of Project 2025
- The Heritage Foundation
- Jessica Millan Patterson, Chairwoman of the California Republican Party
- Ron Nehring, Republican strategist
- Judicial Watch
As a follow-up to a series published in the fall, KPBS set out to report on the impact so far of Trump’s policies rooted in Project 2025 on major sectors in San Diego: education, criminal justice, science and libraries.
Some San Diego educators, legal watchers and community leaders agree a massive societal pivot is under way. They expect more shifts ahead and don’t know if it’s possible to prepare for them.
One scientist, who did not want to be named, told KPBS, “It’s like a tsunami coming your way. You’re waiting for it to crash and see what’s left over.”
Meanwhile, the San Diego U.S. Attorney’s Office is signaling its prosecutions are in step with Trump’s policy priorities. Since February, the office has started publicizing how many border-related cases it files each week, signalling its commitment to Trump’s key policy priority.
The Trump Justice Department has made other moves, such as dropping bribery and fraud charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. It also ordered an investigation into two people who worked in Trump’s administration during his first term – Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor – because they criticized his 2020 election denialism.
Former San Diego U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said the acts are a cautionary tale for every federal prosecutor in San Diego and across the country and every elected official who disagrees with the president.
“This is all part of an intimidation campaign,” Lam said. “It's part of a retribution campaign. It seems to me that the two words you don't want affiliated with the Department of Justice of the United States are intimidation and retribution.”
Project 2025 also pays tribute to generations of American scientific preeminence. But it also argues the field has been overtaken by leftist agendas. President Trump has cut billions in research money, which has wiped out funding for pandemic, HIV and AIDs studies at UCSD.
UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla says the school can’t predict exactly what the losses will be “but our initial scenario planning models indicate possible reductions ranging from $75 million to more than $500 million annually."
One scientist says the very foundation of biomedical research in the United States is being altered. His graduate students are asking him whether they should find another career.
The overall loss of money has left many scientists in San Diego shell shocked and they wonder what the president’s ultimate goal is for research in the United States, long considered the envy of the world.
“We are hoping cooler heads will prevail and there will be an articulation of what the new vision is,” said Sumit Chanda, who studies viral and immunological diseases at Scripps Research. “Tear things down. Fine. But what will you build in its place?”
Project 2025 accuses the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, of helping to lead the “climate change alarm industry” and says it should be disbanded. The Trump Administration hasn’t broken up the agency yet. But it wants to eliminate a key research arm responsible for studying climate change and predicting the weather. This move, if carried out, would be devastating, according to San Diego researchers.Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientist Ralph Keeling, whose father Charles David Keeling created the Keeling Curve—a graph showing the daily CO2 atmospheric concentration—said Trump's cuts are not just about scientists.
“It’s about all of society,” Keeling said. “What bears emphasis is that the development of human talent in these areas is so dependent on research dollars coming from the government. It's fertilizing our economy in all sorts of ways. Why is the U.S. such a prosperous country over the last 40, 50 years? Well, it has a lot to do with building on a science enterprise for which we were the leaders.”
Just as scientific research is America’s crown jewel, its libraries are highly regarded globally. The industrialist Andrew Carnegie helped fund the construction of libraries, called them Palaces of the People. He considered them an essential part of any community.
Project 2025 views librarians as peddlers of pornography and transgenderism and its authors have long advocated for the shutdown of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. That wish may be coming true. In the last month, President Trump has ordered “maximum” cuts to the agency and put all of its employees on leave. Both are expected to severely impact adult literacy programs, job training and homework centers at San Diego libraries.
Library Foundation SD Chief Executive Officer Patrick Stewart said local literacy and job training programs will be affected by the funding reductions.
“I think the goal is to reassert cultural dominance that certain people feel has been lost since the mid 1960s, since the Civil Rights Act was passed,” Stewart said.
Click on the buttons to learn more about the local impact.
Libraries
Just as scientific research is America’s crown jewel, its libraries are highly regarded globally. The industrialist Andrew Carnegie helped fund the construction of libraries, called them Palaces of the People. He considered them an essential part of any community.
Project 2025 views librarians as peddlers of pornography and transgenderism and its authors have long advocated for the shutdown of the Institute of Museum and Library Services. That wish may be coming true. In the last month, President Trump has ordered “maximum” cuts to the agency and put all of its employees on leave. Both are expected to severely impact adult literacy programs, job training and homework centers at San Diego libraries.
Library Foundation SD Chief Executive Officer Patrick Stewart said local literacy and job training programs will be affected by the funding reductions.
“I think the goal is to reassert cultural dominance that certain people feel has been lost since the mid 1960s, since the Civil Rights Act was passed,” Stewart said.
Courts
Project 2025 throws down the gauntlet to both state and federal prosecutors, stating plainly their cases must align with the president’s agenda or they will face consequences. But President Trump has also gone after past cases filed by the Justice Department and purged prosecutors who worked on cases involving Jan. 6 rioters.
Meanwhile, the San Diego U.S. Attorney’s Office is indicating its prosecutions are in step with Trump’s policy priorities. Since February, the office has started publicizing how many border-related cases it files each week, signalling its commitment to Trump’s key policy priority.
The Trump Justice Department has made other moves, such as dropping bribery and fraud charges against New York Mayor Eric Adams. It also ordered an investigation into two people who worked in Trump’s administration during his first term — Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor — because they criticized his 2020 election denialism.
Former San Diego U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said the acts are a cautionary tale for every federal prosecutor in San Diego and across the country and every elected official who disagrees with the president.
“This is all part of an intimidation campaign,” Lam said. “It's part of a retribution campaign. It seems to me that the two words you don't want affiliated with the Department of Justice of the United States are intimidation and retribution.”
Schools
In March, President Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, following through on a key Project 2025 goal. Conservatives claim the department has failed at improving student outcomes and peddles woke ideology.
For now, the demise of the department has triggered delays in funding for San Diego Unified School District services that help its vulnerable populations such as students with disabilities. In the words of School Board President Cody Petterson, “there’s a bit of a constitutional crisis going on.”
“If the administration is refusing to spend the money, that means they're really implying that they are refusing to implement the services and programming that the money was supposed to fund and have been appropriated by Congress,” Petterson said.
But some local school leaders are in favor of the changes. Lakeside Union School Board member Andrew Hayes supports moving more control to the local level.
"I always have believed, and I've maintained, that local control is the best form of control on education," he said. "Local school boards are elected locally. We are elected in Lakeside. I know Lakeside better than Washington DC folks, and certainly better than Sacramento."
Science
Project 2025 pays tribute to generations of American scientific preeminence. But it also argues the field has been overtaken by leftist agendas. President Trump has cut billions in research money, which has wiped out funding for pandemic, HIV and AIDs studies at UCSD.
Dr. Davey Smith, an infectious disease doctor at UCSD, says the very foundation of biomedical research in the U.S. is being altered. His graduate students are asking him whether they should find another career.
UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla says the school can’t predict exactly what the losses will be “but our initial scenario planning models indicate possible reductions ranging from $75 million to more than $500 million annually.”
The overall loss of money has left many scientists in San Diego shell shocked and they wonder what the president’s ultimate goal is for research in the United States, long considered the envy of the world.
“We are hoping cooler heads will prevail and there will be an articulation of what the new vision is,” said Sumit Chanda, who studies viral and immunological diseases at Scripps Research. “Tear things down. Fine. But what will you build in its place?”
Climate
Project 2025 accuses the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, of helping to lead the “climate change alarm industry” and says it should be disbanded. The Trump Administration hasn’t broken up the agency yet. But it wants to eliminate a key research arm responsible for studying climate change and predicting the weather. This move, if carried out, would be devastating, according to San Diego researchers.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientist Ralph Keeling, whose father Charles David Keeling created the Keeling Curve—a graph showing the daily CO2 atmospheric concentration—said Trump's cuts are not just about scientists.
“It’s about all of society,” Keeling said. “What bears emphasis is that the development of human talent in these areas is so dependent on research dollars coming from the government. It's fertilizing our economy in all sorts of ways. Why is the U.S. such a prosperous country over the last 40, 50 years? Well, it has a lot to do with building on a science enterprise for which we were the leaders.”
Video coming soon
