Former US President Donald Trump has firmly denied any involvement with Project 2025, a comprehensive conservative agenda proposed by the Heritage Foundation. This denial comes as Democrats attempt to leverage the project as a political liability for Trump in the upcoming November election against President Joe Biden.
“I have no idea who is behind it,” Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social. “Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”
Project 2025, detailed in a 922-page document titled “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” is a blueprint for the next Republican presidency. The Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank with deep ties to previous Republican administrations, including several individuals who worked in Trump’s administration or supported his reelection campaign, is behind the project. The plan outlines four main goals: restoring the family as the centerpiece of American life, dismantling the administrative state, defending the nation’s sovereignty and borders, and securing God-given individual rights to live freely.
Despite Trump’s denial, several people linked to Project 2025 have close ties to him. Paul Dans, the project’s director, served as chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management under Trump. Spencer Chretien, an associate director, was a former special assistant to Trump and associate director of Presidential Personnel. Adviser Russell Vought worked in Trump’s Office of Management and Budget.
The Heritage Foundation unveiled Project 2025 in April 2023, and liberal opposition has intensified as Trump has gained a lead in polls following President Biden’s poor debate performance. In early July, Heritage president Kevin Roberts raised the prospect of political violence during a podcast interview, stating, “We are in the process of the second American revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” These remarks prompted the Biden campaign to accuse Trump and his allies of “dreaming of a violent revolution to destroy the very idea of America.”
Project 2025 proposes several controversial measures, including placing the entire federal bureaucracy, including independent agencies like the Department of Justice, under direct presidential control. This idea, known as the “unitary executive theory,” would streamline decision-making, allowing the president to directly implement policies in various areas. The proposals also call for eliminating job protections for thousands of government employees, who could then be replaced by political appointees. The document labels the FBI a “bloated, arrogant, increasingly lawless organization” and calls for drastic overhauls of this and other federal agencies, including eliminating the Department of Education.
On immigration, Project 2025 proposes increased funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border, a signature proposal of Trump’s 2016 campaign. It also suggests consolidating various US immigration agencies and expanding their powers, increasing fees on immigrants, and allowing fast-tracked applications for migrants who pay a premium.
In terms of climate and economy, the document proposes slashing federal money for research and investment in renewable energy and calls for the next president to “stop the war on oil and natural gas.” Carbon-reduction goals would be replaced by efforts to increase energy production and security. The economic advisers suggest that a second Trump administration should slash corporate and income taxes, abolish the Federal Reserve, and even consider a return to gold-backed currency.
On the issue of abortion, Project 2025 does not call for a nationwide ban but proposes withdrawing the abortion pill mifepristone from the market. The document also calls for banning pornography and shutting down tech and telecom companies that facilitate access to such content. It advocates for school choice and parental control over schools and aims to eliminate terms like “sexual orientation,” “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” “gender equality,” “abortion,” and “reproductive rights” from all laws and federal regulations.
Jared Huffman, a Democrat congressman from California, has launched a Stop Project 2025 Task Force, describing the project as “a dystopian plot that’s already in motion to dismantle our democratic institutions.” He warned that the project would “abolish checks and balances, chip away at church-state separation, and impose a far-right agenda that infringes on basic liberties and violates public will.”
In response, the Heritage Foundation has accused Biden’s party of scaremongering. “House Democrats are dedicating taxpayer dollars to launch a smear campaign against the united effort to restore self-governance to everyday Americans,” said Kevin Roberts in early June. “Under the Biden administration, the federal government has been weaponized against American citizens, our border invaded, and our institutions captured by woke ideology.”
The Heritage Foundation is one of the most influential think tanks producing policy papers designed to guide a possible second Trump presidency. Since the 1980s, Heritage has produced similar policy documents as part of its Mandate for Leadership series. Project 2025, backed by a $22 million budget, also sets out strategies for implementing policies beginning immediately after the presidential inauguration in January 2025.
In his speeches and on his website, Trump has endorsed several ideas included in Project 2025, although his campaign has stated that the candidate has the final say on policy. Many of the proposals would face immediate legal challenges if implemented.
Source: BBC News, CNN
