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The government shutdown that began in October has handed President Trump a rare lever of executive power, and savvy conservatives see it as a chance to force the federal machine to be remade in the interest of taxpayers and liberty. On Glenn Beck’s show Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts argued Project 2025 offers a blueprint to shrink the administrative state and prioritize constitutional government while the budget fight exposes which agencies are truly essential.
Project 2025 is more than a policy pamphlet; it is a detailed roadmap compiled by conservative thinkers to overhaul sprawling bureaucracies, reprioritize spending, and populate Washington with officials committed to limited government. Critics have tried to paint it as extreme, and controversies over staffing and rhetoric have dogged aspects of the effort, but the core ambition is simple: return authority to the people and end decades of administrative overreach.
What’s happened in recent days is not subtle. After months of keeping distance, the president publicly signaled he will work with budget director Russ Vought and allies associated with Project 2025 to identify which agencies and programs to cut or restructure during the shutdown. That pivot is exactly the kind of bold leadership conservatives have been asking for — using a moment of crisis to enact long-awaited reforms, not to surrender to the status quo.
Washington establishment types are squawking about “too much power” in the executive while conveniently forgetting how the administrative state has been weaponized against conservatives for years. House allies have pointed out that when Congress fails to fund government operations, the executive branch effectively becomes the arbiter of which functions continue — and that reality hands the president leverage to enforce accountability and cut waste. Conservatives who want a leaner, more constitutional government should recognize that leverage and press it hard.
Kevin Roberts and other Project 2025 proponents are arguing for practical moves: rescinding unnecessary programs, reforming personnel systems to end bureaucratic cronyism, and dismantling woke initiatives that have hijacked mission-driven agencies. These are not fever dreams; they are policy prescriptions designed to restore agency purpose to core constitutional functions and to stop federal dollars from subsidizing ideological agendas. It’s time conservatives stop apologizing for wanting a limited, effective federal government.
Yes, the shutdown will hurt people and the economy if it drags on, and responsible leaders should move to minimize disruption, but that reality does not mean conservatives must cede every leverage point to maintain a broken system. Treasury officials are already warning about real economic costs as the stalemate continues, and that fiscal pain should be the spur for Congress and the White House to bargain from principle rather than capitulate to permanent overreach. If Republicans use this moment to enact meaningful reforms, the shutdown could become the turning point that finally forces Washington to live within its means.
