Inside Trump world’s prep for a second term

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. WASHINGTON—As Donald Trump’s allies began staffing up the transition team that will lay the groundwork for his potential second term, they drew a line in the sand.

Anyone associated with the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which Trump and his advisers denounced after it became a political target for Democrats, would be barred from working on the team. Transition staff used “Control+F," a keyboard shortcut, to search through Project 2025’s 900-plus-page policy blueprint for the names of potential hires.

Even a brief mention of a name in an author’s note at the end of a chapter was enough to prevent that person from getting a job on the team. In several cases in recent weeks, informal discussions about working on the team came to an abrupt halt after a name was spotted in the document, according to people familiar with the matter.

The swift backlash to Project 2025 has left hundreds of conservative policy wonks on the sidelines as the election nears—and paved the way for the project’s biggest competitor, a nonprofit run by former Trump administration officials, to play a formative role in the official presidential transition operation that launched late this summer. The establishment of the transition team, which is meant to operate as a clearinghouse for Trump’s policy plans and personnel picks, hasn’t stopped outside groups and Trump associates from jockeying for influence, prompting confusion and frustration from some of the former president’s allies.

Trump’s friends regularly approach him directly with suggestions about who he should pick for top jobs if he wins, bypassing the transition team entirely. Several Trump economic advisers are developing their own lists of candidates