Heritage Foundation, the conservative organization behind Project 2025, the policy document informing many of the second Trump administration’s initiatives, made a public plea to Congress this week.
The Foundation posted a letter on X: “Dear Congress, Slash federal spending, Sincerely, America” and provided the statistic: “83% of Americans support reducing government expenditures to reduce budget deficits.”
The statistic showing overwhelming support for spending cuts is unsurprising, perhaps, especially as promises of real returns to taxpayers have been floated in the form of “DOGE checks.”
(The DOGE checks scenario contemplates the federal government sending money to every American as a share of the alleged savings realized by Elon Musk‘s Department of Government Efficiency.)
As one astute commenter replied: “Sure, 83% of Americans want to slash federal spending, but it’s a miracle if 0.83% of Americans want to slash federal spending of which THEY are beneficiaries.”
Also interesting, in light of the Trump administration’s government cutbacks targeting elite American universities, is the source of the statistic Heritage cites.
The source of Heritage’s information is Harvard University, where it emerged from a February 2025 Harvard CAPS-Harris poll.
Dear Congress,
Slash federal spending.
Sincerely,
America pic.twitter.com/JRvaT5dff1— Heritage Foundation (@Heritage) April 21, 2025
(NOTE: CAPS is an acronym for the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard, which describes itself as “the leading source of funding at Harvard University for student scholarship in American politics” and notes that “grants and fellowships are available to undergraduate and graduate students for projects at a variety of stages.”)
This week Harvard filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, which has frozen billions of dollars in federal funding and grants to the university.
Harvard’s President Alan Garber called the freeze “unlawful and beyond the government’s authority.”
Trump’s Education Secretary Linda McMahon justified the freeze by saying: “Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from antisemitic discrimination—all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry—has put its reputation in serious jeopardy.”
Project 2025, in addition to recommending the dismantling of the Department of Education and privatizing federal student loans, states: “Taxpayers will not be funding schools that allow harassment and violate civil rights.”
The National Education Association (NEA) describes Project 2025 as “a radical blueprint for the second Trump administration (that) promises to make higher education in the U.S. more expensive and dangerous for some students, while also limiting what students and faculty can discuss and investigate on campuses.”
In March, Harvard — in a move to open its doors to students from more diverse financial backgrounds — announced a new expanded financial aid program which allows students from families with annual incomes of $100,000 or less to attend the Ivy League school for free.
The university will also be tuition-free for students from families with annual incomes of $200,000 or less. (The distinction largely means that the education, though not room and board, are free in the latter circumstance.)
With this new, expanded financial aid program, Harvard College will be free for students from families with annual incomes of $100,000 or less and tuition-free for students from families with annual incomes of $200,000 or less. https://t.co/AJvF8VV42X
— Harvard News (@harvardnews) March 17, 2025
Note: The Harvard CAPS / Harris Poll, which captures the responses of over 2,000 registered voters in the United States, says: “The results reflect a nationally representative sample. Results were weighted for age within gender, region, race/ethnicity, marital status, household size, income, employment, and education where necessary to align them with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.”