Which Project 2025 authors hold current federal positions and what offices do they lead?
Executive summary
Several authors of Project 2025 now occupy senior roles in the federal government: Russell Vought is serving as Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Brendan Carr is leading the Federal Communications Commission as its chair, and multiple other contributors have been placed in senior White House, agency, or nominated posts including the CIA and Homeland Security [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Confirmed agency heads: Vought at OMB and Carr at the FCC
Russell Vought, a co‑author and reported “architect” of Project 2025, was confirmed by the Senate to serve as Director of the Office of Management and Budget and is overseeing the federal budget and related executive implementation [1] [2] [5], while Brendan Carr — who authored the Project 2025 chapter on the Federal Communications Commission — is serving as the chair of the FCC after being tapped to lead that agency [1] [6] [2].
2. Senior statutory or agency leadership tied to Project 2025: CIA and border roles
John Ratcliffe, credited in reporting as a Project 2025 author, has been named to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, a senior national security post cited by multiple outlets as filled by a Project 2025 contributor [2] [3], and Tom Homan — listed as a Project 2025 contributor — is serving inside the White House as a border czar with responsibility for immigration‑enforcement coordination, according to news reporting [2] [6].
3. Nominations and Senate‑pending picks with Project 2025 ties
Several Project 2025 contributors were nominated by the administration for major agencies but, in some cases, remained pending confirmation in reporting: Paul Atkins was reported as the president’s pick to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission but had not yet been formally confirmed in the cited coverage [1] [6], and Newsweek and other outlets documented additional nominations from the Project 2025 contributor list for roles across the departments, including nominations for deputy or senior posts at Homeland Security and other agencies [4].
4. Appointments, staff placements and White House advisors drawn from the Project 2025 network
Reporting shows an array of contributors placed as senior advisers, chiefs of staff, or departmental deputies — for example, Jon Feere was reported appointed as chief of staff at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Troy Edgar was identified as a nominee for deputy secretary at DHS — reflecting a broader pattern of staffing the administration with people tied to Project 2025 [4] [6].
5. Scope, count, and limits of public reporting
Multiple outlets and watchdogs have cataloged that dozens of Project 2025 authors and contributors were nominated, appointed, or consulting in the new administration — one count found eight authors already working or consulting for executive agencies and other analyses reported dozens of contributors holding or being tapped for roles — but public reporting varies on who is “confirmed” versus “nominated,” and available sources do not provide a single, definitive list of every author currently holding federal office [7] [1] [4].
6. What this placement means and how reporting frames it
News organizations and advocacy groups frame the placements as evidence Project 2025 has served as a personnel pipeline for an administration seeking to implement the document’s blueprint, with critics noting continuity between the project’s prescriptions and policy moves and defenders portraying appointments as typical ideological staffing of an administration; reporting explicitly links Project 2025 authors to a set of cabinet, agency and White House roles while also noting the administration’s prior public distancing from the project [8] [1] [2] [6].