Project 2025 keeps coming up this election. What is it?

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A copy of Project 2025 is held during the Democratic National Convention in August. / AP

This story originally appeared as part of NPR's live coverage of the 2024 election. For more election coverage from the NPR Network head to our live updates page.

One phrase you've probably heard a lot this election cycle is "Project 2025."

It refers to a controversial plan drafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation to overhaul the U.S. government. The 900-page document lays out a roadmap for reorganizing the federal government to promote a conservative agenda.

Democrats have repeatedly sought to tie Trump to the most controversial aspects of the plan, while Trump has sought to distance himself from it.

While Trump has sought to deny a connection, there is plenty of overlap between Project 2025 and his agenda. It proposes mass deportations of millions of undocumented immigrants. So does Trump.

Trump has called for cuts to the federal agencies like the Department of Education. Project 2025 calls for its elimination.

"He's expressed an interest in adopting certain parts of it and in other parts, he believes that it is too extreme for the nature of his future potential administration, and we at Heritage Foundation find that to be sufficient," Sarah Parshall Perry, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told NPR.

But, there are also differences. On abortion, for example, Project 2025 goes farther with restrictions than Trump has said he would go.

"If President Donald Trump is a successful candidate here and wins the general election, that there are certain parts that he would be keen to adopt based on representations he's already made within public context," Perry said. "And there may be other parts that he doesn't want to have anything to do with."

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