Project 2025: 'a second American Revolution'?
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America's biggest right-wing think-tank, The Heritage Foundation, has set aside $22m for Project 2025, a detailed blueprint for the next Republican presidency. It aims to provide "both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on day one of the next conservative administration". Its 922- page main document, "Mandate for Leadership", gives specific action plans for many parts of the federal government.
This was actually published last April, to little fanfare. Now, though, with Trump the favourite to win the election, Project 2025 is receiving a lot of attention from the Democrats, the liberal media, and social media. It "offers a terrifying vision for America", wrote one critic; on TikTok, it has been called "a far-right manifesto that would destroy the federal government as we know it", and "a 1,000-page bucket list of extremist policies".
What are the proposals?
The Mandate is a grab-bag of policies, including permanent, sweeping tax cuts; sharp limits on abortion; a ban on pornography; the rejection of transgender rights; the curtailing of clean-energy projects and promotion of fossil fuels; the removal of employment quotas for racial minorities; the use of the military to suppress crime and protest; and the mass internment and expulsion of illegal migrants. It advocates the abolition of federal agencies such as the Department of Education.
It's not one unified document: 38 writers contributed, and they're divided on economic policy (some favour protectionism and others free trade). But they're united in wanting to dismantle or take over the federal bureaucracy, and to put the Department of Justice and the FBI under the direct control of the president. The Heritage Foundation's president, Kevin Roberts, called it a plan for "a second American Revolution" that would be "bloodless, if the Left allows it to be".
Why do the authors deem this necessary?
In part it stems from a long-standing aversion to big government on the US Right, but it is also a reaction to Trump's first term in office. His transition to power in 2016 is generally agreed to have been chaotic; Trump also believes that his plans were repeatedly thwarted by the liberal-leaning "deep state".
The New Yorker recently reported a former White House official saying: "Trump was constantly enraged that his cabinet wouldn't break the law for him. He wanted the Department of Homeland Security to shoot migrants crossing the Rio Grande, the Defence Department to draw up plans to invade Mexico, and the Internal Revenue Service to audit his critics." He also wanted to fire large numbers of federal workers to remove resistance to his agenda. The second time around, Trump is determined that there'll be no such impediments.
So is Trump behind Project 2025?
On the face of it, no. After it started receiving negative press, he explicitly disavowed it, saying: "I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it." He added that some of it was "absolutely ridiculous and abysmal". However, the team that created it is, in fact, full of former senior Trump staffers, many of whom would be very influential if he returned to the White House.
For instance, Russell Vought, a former Trump administration official who wrote a key chapter, doubles as the Republican Party's policy director. And there is a lot of crossover between Project 2025's aims, official Republican policy, and Trump's own "Agenda 47".
Which bits is Trump likely to adopt?
He is likely to ignore some proposals. Trump is against federal restrictions on abortions, as he is aware that the issue could cost him votes. On immigration, however, Republican policy and Project 2025 are closely aligned: the party promises the "largest deportation programme in American history".
Trump has also repeatedly declared that he will take control of the administrative state. "Either the deep state destroys America or we destroy the deep state," he said at a recent rally. In 2020, the Trump administration issued an executive order that stripped protections from civil servants perceived as disloyal to the president. Trump has also stated that he would use the FBI and the Justice Department to "go after" political rivals. So it's not unreasonable to describe Project 2025 as a plausible plan for the next Trump administration, drawn up by the people who'd staff it. And the question of staffing may turn out to be critical.
Why is staffing important?
Trump has little interest in the granular detail of policy; he relies on staffers for that. And each incoming president has to fill around 4,000 government roles with political appointees. In his first term, Trump struggled to do this, causing parts of the government machine to break down. The Heritage Foundation's team has tried to fix the problem by assembling a database of pre-vetted potential appointees, excluding, for example, anyone who blamed Trump for the Capitol riot in 2021.
They also have plans to replace tens of thousands of civil servants with Trump loyalists, by reissuing Trump's 2020 executive order (which Joe Biden rescinded). Paul Dans, the director of Project 2025, said the team was "systematically preparing to march into office and bring a new army – aligned, trained, and essentially weaponised conservatives ready to do battle against the deep state".
Is all this affecting the election?
It is providing a rallying call for liberals. In Kamala Harris' first statements as the leading Democratic candidate, she vowed to defeat two enemies: Donald Trump and "his extreme Project 2025 agenda". Trump's advisers acknowledge that the issue is hurting them. Paul Dans unexpectedly resigned this week, and the Trump campaign issued a warning to "any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign – it will not end well for you".
