Project 2025 doesn’t propose reinstating draft for public school seniors | Fact check

The claim: Project 2025 proposes military draft for all public school seniors with two-year commitment

A Sept. 16 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) claims the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 proposes instituting a military draft for certain students.

“Project 2025 opens up the draft to all public school seniors for a 2 year commitment,” reads the post. “Private school kids are exempted.”

It was shared more than 11,000 times in nine days.

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Our rating: False

No such policy proposal appears in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 document, and a spokesperson said the claim is false.

Project 2025 includes reforms meant to spur recruitment, but no draft

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., worked with over 100 other conservative groups for Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project. The result was a nearly 900-page document with policy proposals for the next Republican president that adhere to the organization’s goal of rescuing "the country from the grip of the radical Left.”

But it doesn’t include a proposal to begin drafting all public school seniors into the military. The claim is “entirely false and ridiculous,” Ellen Keenan, a Heritage Foundation spokesperson, told USA TODAY.

“We do not call for the reinstatement of the draft anywhere in Project 2025,” Keenan said.

There is one mention of the draft in the document, but it’s a historical reference and not a proposal for a future draft. It appears on Page 109 and reads, “The Army no longer reflects national demographics to the degree that it did before 1974 when the draft was eliminated.”

Fact check: Project 2025 is an effort by the Heritage Foundation, not Donald Trump

A list of proposed reforms meant to improve military recruitment includes one that would require all students at federally funded schools to complete the military’s entrance exam. But it wouldn’t force them to enlist or involve a draft.

There hasn’t been a draft in the U.S. since Jan. 27, 1973, when the Paris Peace Accords were signed, ending the Vietnam War. The Selective Service announced an end to the draft that same day. To bring back the draft, Congress would need to amend the Military Selective Service Act to allow the president to induct people into the military, according to the Selective Service System.

USA TODAY has previously debunked other false claims about the draft, including that the U.S. reinstituted a draft for the Israel-Hamas war, that women are required to register for the draft and that a bill required men ages 18 to 26 to join the military.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Snopes also debunked the claim.

Our fact-check sources:

• Ellen Keenan, Sept. 25, Email exchange with USA TODAY

• Project 2025, accessed Sept. 26, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise

• Selective Service System, accessed Sept. 26, Return to the Draft

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No, Project 2025 doesn’t propose bringing back draft | Fact check