Which Project 2025 contributors later took federal positions, and what roles did they assume?

1. Key architect elevated to run the federal budget and OMB

Russell Vought, described in multiple reports as a co‑author or chief architect of Project 2025, was nominated and confirmed to lead the Office of Management and Budget, a position that places him at the center of implementing presidential priorities across the executive branch — a move outlets tied directly to his work on Project 2025’s playbook for the first 180 days .

2. Intelligence and national security figures plugged into senior posts

John Ratcliffe, previously Trump’s director of national intelligence and credited as a Project 2025 contributor, was nominated and confirmed as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, with reporting noting Project 2025 cited his experience in the document’s intelligence chapter . Other reporting groups list additional former contributors tapped for intelligence or national‑security advisory roles, underscoring alignment between the blueprint’s authorship and personnel choices .

3. Communications and regulatory control: FCC and SEC nominations

Brendan Carr, who wrote Project 2025’s chapter on the Federal Communications Commission, was chosen to chair the FCC; his chapter argued for stronger unilateral authority for the chair and interventions against “Big Tech,” a linkage reporters flagged when the nomination was announced . Paul Atkins, named by Forbes and other outlets as a contributor to Project 2025’s regulatory chapters, was nominated by the administration for the Securities and Exchange Commission, a move critics tied to Project 2025’s call for broad deregulatory reforms .

4. Trade, homeland security and immigration: advisers and czars

Peter Navarro, author of Project 2025’s trade section, resurfaced as a top trade adviser in the new administration, a placement PBS and BBC explicitly connected to his role in crafting Project 2025 trade proposals . On immigration and homeland security, the administration elevated contributors including Tom Homan — described in reporting as a Project 2025 contributor and appointed to act as a border czar — and nominees such as Troy Edgar for deputy secretary of Homeland Security and Jon Feere into senior ICE and DHS staff roles, all identified in Newsweek and Forbes coverage .

5. Scale, patterns and partisan framing in the reporting

Analyses vary in scale but converge on a common pattern: dozens of Project 2025 contributors were nominated, designated, appointed or confirmed to administration posts — Newsweek’s tally identified at least 31 such individuals across Cabinet, EOP and agencies, with concentrations at OMB, State, Defense, DHS and agency chairs . Watchdogs and unions framed these moves as the operationalization of a Heritage‑led blueprint to remake the executive branch, while Project 2025’s own personnel pages and Heritage promotional material present the project as planned training and staffing for a conservative administration .

6. Caveats, competing narratives and limits of available lists

Contemporaneous reporting documents clear linkages between contributors and nominations, but the sources differ on exact counts and on whether every listed contributor assumed a federal role; some outlets emphasize ideological danger and central planning , while Project 2025/Heritage present the effort as routine transition planning . This synthesis relies on reporting from Forbes, AP, Newsweek, PBS, BBC and Project 2025’s own materials; it does not claim a comprehensive roster beyond those named in those sources and acknowledges that different outlets used different methodologies when compiling lists of linked personnel .