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Project 2025

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“”Unfortunately, this Project 2025 agenda is brimming with extremely outside-the-mainstream ideas that threaten to roll back many Americans' fundamental rights and cause grave and perhaps permanent damage to our democratic system of government. Even if you agree with the far-right ideology this report espouses, the policies it advocates will very likely plunge the American economy into a death spiral.
—Jeff Raikes in Forbes[1]
“”Project 2025 is essentially a death sentence for federal climate and environmental protections. Everything from rules to curb hazardous air pollutants to programs that help make cleaner and more energy-efficient purchases affordable would be on the chopping block. Agencies like the EPA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) could be gutted. Peer-reviewed science would be sidelined, and polluters' economic interests would be prioritized in government decision-making.
—Dana Drugmand in The Sierra Club magazine[2]

Project 2025 is the master plan by the Heritage Foundation to be enacted should a Republican win the upcoming 2024 presidential election.[3][4] It aims to "march into office and bring a new army, aligned, trained, and essentially weaponised conservatives ready to do battle against the deep state”.[5] What they actually mean is to turn the United States into a Christian nationalist "utopia"[6] led by none other than the four-times indicted former...and future president, Donald Trump.[7][8] Pursuing a controversial "unitary executive theory", the plan would expand direct presidential control over federal agencies, including the Department of Justice.[9]

The plan includes the culmination of 50+ years of unadulterated unfiltered hatred and scorn for pretty much every LGBTQIA+, non-white, non-Trumpist, and non-Christian individual under the sun, leading to what can be described as Trumpism in its purest form.[10] Historian Bruce Gourley has argued that the project is rooted in Confederate apologism and the dominionism of R. J. Rushdoony.[11] Building on the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, it aims to restrict contraceptives or abortion pills access and institute "abortion surveillance" (whatever that means).[12][13] Also of interest are the proposals for deregulating select parts of the government. This brings onboard the oil billionaires, who want to strip environmental protections, climate change mitigation efforts, and climate science research.[14][15][16][17][18] Project 2025 also targets public education; proposing to abolish the federal Department of Education,[9] to cut subsidized school meals for impoverished children, and to eliminate the Head Start program,Wikipedia[19][1] and to phase out Title I funding to low-income schools.[20]

The plan is led by Paul Dans, who was chief-of-staff at the Office of Personnel Management during the Trump administration.[21] A slew of conservative think tanks and other organizations collaborated on the agenda, including everything from Alliance Defending Freedom and the Competitive Enterprise Institute to Turning Point USA and the Family Research Council.[4][22] As of July 2024, Project 2025 was backed by a budget of $22 million.[9]

The plan consists of four pillars which consist of policy, a personnel database, training for would-bes, and a 180-day playbook, all of which will be described in detail.

According to Paul Dans, the director of Project 2025 and co-editor of the Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise book, the project was inspired by the 1981 1093-page tome A Mandate for Leadership: Policy Management in a Conservative Administration that inspired the so-called Reagan Revolution.[23][24]

The 2023 book describes 4 pillars of Project 2025:[25]:xiv

  • Pillar I: the book itself
  • Pillar II: a personnel database for candidates to review and choose from
  • Pillar III: "the Presidential Administration Academy, an online educational system taught by experts from our coalition."
  • Pillar IV: the Playbook, for drafting transition plans should their candidate become president

Trump himself says he has no idea about any of this, but also has an (ambiguous ink blot testWikipedia of an) opinion about it somehow, so that's just bullshit.

In July 2024, the president of Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, referred to this project by saying "We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be."[26] Nearly concurrently, the far-right-dominated Supreme Court (with 3 Trump appointees) "invented a new rule" that gave wide-ranging immunity from prosecution to unscrupulous presidents, specifically with Trump in mind.[27] Given that Trump has said that he will be a dictator 'only' on "day one" of his second presidency,[28] it leaves little doubt that the a second coup attempt is being planned, bloodless or not, by the far-right in the US.

The right-wing's brazen and transparent approach to Project 2025, namely Roberts' statement along with the fact that the Heritage Foundation publicly posted the damn 900+-page mandate in the first place, is widely seen as a display of gross, self-destructive overconfidence under the assumed belief that they're winning (or have already won) the "culture war", and that anyone sounding the alarm would be dismissed by the mainstream as a conspiracist kook.[note 1] As such, public interest in and awareness of Project 2025 skyrocketed after Roberts' threat,[29] and it became a discussion topic for multiple celebrities and talking heads such as Taraji P. Henson, John Oliver, and Stephen Colbert. Following President Joe Biden ending his 2024 re-election campaign, his VP and heir apparent Kamala Harris vowed to "decimate" Project 2025 if she were to get elected as President that November.[30] In response to this, Roberts published a propaganda an opinion piece in USA Today about how Project 2025 would actually be good for the country, months after the PR fiasco.[note 2][31]

In a sign of just how far the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 was out of step with America, in September 2024, an NBC News / Hart Research Associates poll asked how people felt about Project 2025. While many (23%) had no opinion about Project 2025, of those who had one, just 4% viewed Project 2025 positively. In contrast, 57% had a negative opinion (most of this being very negative).[32][33] This means Project 2025's net approval rating (-53%) is worse than the net approval rating for spiders (-38%) and only moderately better than for wasps (-68%).[34]

And now, a moment from our sponsors…[edit]

“”This is preposterous if you look at the collaborators and the authors of this plan, a lot of these people … served in Trump's cabinet during his administration. There are people that I worked with. I sat in those policy meetings with them.
—Olivia Troye, former Mike Pence adviser[35][36]

The advisory board of the project consists of a list of far-right groups that Americans United for Separation of Church and State considers to be part of the Shadow Network of Christian Nationalism:[37][25]:xi-xii

One thing that becomes apparent with these organizations is the duplicity of some of their names, e.g.:

Connections to Donald Trump[edit]

“”Trump's very bought in with this.
—Paul Dans, director of Project 2025[45]

In April 2022, Trump spoke before the Heritage Foundation annual leadership conference, in which he said:[46][47][48]

Already we have shown the power of our winning formula, working closely with many of the great people at Heritage over the four incredible years that we've worked with you a lot and we were just discussing it with Kevin [Roberts] … The critical job of institutions, such as Heritage [is] to lay the groundwork. And Heritage does such an incredible job at that. And I'm telling you, with Kevin and the staff, and I met so many of them now, I took pictures with among the most handsome, beautiful people I've ever seen. I didn't like that picture. If you could lose that picture, please would you Kevin? But this is a great…[ellipsis in original transcript] No, he says I won't do that. But this is a great group. And they're going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America and that's coming. That's coming.

In 2024, Russell Vought confirmed that Trump was completely on board with Project 2025 in a covertly filmed discussion with journalists from the Centre for Climate Reporting. Vought is a chapter author of and president of Mandate for Leadership, one of the main architects of Project 2025, a former director of the Office of Management and Budget under the Trump administration, and the founder and president of Center for Renewing America, one of the advisory organizations for Project 2025.[25] In the discussion, Vought said:[49][50][51]

It's interesting, he's in fact not even opposing himself to a particular policy. He's been at our organization. He's raised money for our organization. He's blessed it from the you know, I remember walking into our last, you know, office and told him what I was going to do. So, he's very supportive of what we do. …

So, I am very happy with the JD [Vance] pick. I think it's transformative, for sure. And he's you know, he's — think of him as a member version of what we do. So there's no think tank, no policy organization, no battle plan creator other than us for the worldview that I think Donald Trump has and that, JD has.

Trump during a 2024 campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona.

In April 2024, Roberts confirmed that Trump knew about Project 2025, stating, "I personally have talked to President Trump about Project 2025 because my role in the project has been to make sure that all of the candidates who have responded to our offer for a briefing on Project 2025 get one from me."[52]

Twenty-seven former Trump White House officials authored or edited the project's main document,[note 3] and at least 140 people from the former Trump administration were involved overall (including six cabinet secretaries), as well as nearly 240 people with any kind of ties to Trump.[53] Trump has claimed multiple times[54] to have no knowledge of it, "who is in charge of it" or "who is behind it".[55][56][57] Despite "knowing nothing" about it, he bizarrely added in the same post, as if he had familiarity, that "some" completely unspecified parts of it are "ridiculous and abysmal". He also wished them "luck" with the plan.[58][59]

As Trump denied any knowledge of Project 2025, his top super PAC MAGA Inc.Wikipedia ran ads promoting it as "Trump's Project 2025".[60] Since the publication of the report, Trump praised Kevin Roberts, the president of The Heritage Foundation twice by name.[61] The Trump 2024 campaign reportedly held an "entirely off-the-record, private, invite-only" meeting with the Heritage Foundation's "Action" wing.[62] Among other ties, Trump's national press secretary as of July 2024 was Karoline Leavitt, who featured prominently in Project 2025 the year prior,[63] and was a spokesperson for the aforementioned MAGA Inc. super PAC the same year.[64]

Project 2025 set up shop at the 2024 Republican National Convention to promote its proposals, and there, Kevin Roberts revealed he's "good friends" with Trump's running mate J. D. Vance, and that the foundation had been privately pushing for Vance to be Trump's running mate.[65] Vance wrote the violent foreword for Roberts's violent 2024 book, originally titled Dawn’s Early Light: Burning Down Washington to Save America, renamed to Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America after the publisher got cold feet.[66] The book had been scheduled for release on September 24, 2024,[67] apparently calculated to have influence on outcome of the November 5 presidential election, but some time after Vance being chosen as a vice presidential candidate and the shit hitting the fan over the contents of Project 2025, the publication date was changed to a few days after the election.[68]

People associated with the project and its corollaries — The Heritage Foundation, the publisher, the donors, and Trump are concerned about the negative publicity about the project (fueled by media coverage and the Kamala Harris presidential campaign), and not concerned about the far-right undemocratic ideas of project. Paul Dans, the director of Project 2025 left the project after the uproar, leaving the project in Robert's hands.[69]

It is absurd to suggest the country's most influential conservative think tanks came together with former high-ranking Trump administration officials (who wrote much of the document[70]) to develop nearly 1,000 pages of policy proposals without the expectation that they would be implemented, at the very least, in large proportion.

Trump was already president before, and just one year after he became president, the Heritage Foundation reported that by then, the administration had already adopted 2/3rds of Heritage's over 300 policy proposals in an earlier document from the exact same series as Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership.[71][72][73] The Heritage Foundation was very influential in the selection of Trump's 2016-2017 transition team,[74][71] cabinet appointments,[71][75] and nominations to the Supreme Court.[76][77] The Trump 2020 campaign was previously quick to tout the foundation's influence over judicial appointments in particular.[77]

It is conceivable Trump would again take advice on appointments from the Heritage Foundation and other groups linked to Project 2025; his former senior advisor Stephen Miller sits on an advisory council for Project 2025, and according to Reuters is "widely expected to be tapped for a top job in a second Trump administration".[57] The same applies for some of Project 2025's authors.[78]

While Trump's 2024 Vice Presidential running mate J. D. Vance is not known to have had a role in Project 2025, he did write the foreword to Roberts' 2024 book, Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America.[79]

Rather than continuing to feign ignorance of Project 2025, as he initially did, Trump was the headliner in August 2024 at a Moms for Liberty annual summit that had the Heritage Foundation as one of its 10 key sponsors. The focus of the summit was notably one of Project 2025's key 'mandates', dismantling the Department of Education.[80] Rather than discuss education, he continued insulting his opponent in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Kamala Harris, during his speech.[80]

Pillar I[edit]

Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation and mastermind behind Project 2025.

Pillar I is mainly the policies and agendas that Project 2025 has in store, all of which is contained in a book called Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise.[25] The 920-page document begins with a foreword claiming that Cultural Marxism allegedly affecting our institutions has come to pass and that the federal government "is a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before". I.e the usual weasel words and guilt by association used by wingnuts and Trump supporters. For an example of the latter, Roberts falsely conflated "drag queens and pornography" and transgenderism with pornography.[25]:1,5

Roberts' Foreword goes on to claim that pornography "has no claim to First Amendment protection."[25]:5 This was despite the fact that even the Supreme Court had difficulty precisely defining pornography in the landmark 6-3 ruling in the 1964 Jacobellis v. OhioWikipedia ruling, with Justice Stewart's vague "I know it when I see it"Wikipedia opinion. This case was followed by the less vague 5-4 ruling in the 1973 Miller v. CaliforniaWikipedia "utterly without redeeming social value" and therefore not protected by the First Amendment. Roberts shows by his conflation of pornography with transgenderism that he disagrees with both rulings, resulting in the idea that pornography is anything he doesn't like.

Department of Defense[edit]

Miller as Acting Secretary of Defense during the Trump administration

Christopher Miller wrote this chapter.[25]:91-131 Miller wrote, "Gender dysphoria is incompatible with the demands of military service, and the use of public monies for transgender surgeries or to facilitate abortion for servicemembers should be ended."[25]:104

Miller proposed having a minimal contribution to NATO, primarily as a nuclear deterrent. Similarly, he proposed that the US minimize its role in South Korea's defense while in contrast sustaining support of Israel.[25]:94

Department of Homeland Security[edit]

Cuccinelli as Acting Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services during the Trump administration

Ken Cuccinelli wrote this chapter.[25]:133-169 Cuccinelli advocated for completing Trump's border wall.[25]:166 In the forward Roberts wrote, "Illegal immigration should be ended, not mitigated; the border sealed, not reprioritized."[25]:12 Cuccinelli has called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA or "Dreamers") program illegal. Cuccinelli has also called illegal the parole of large numbers of refugees from wars and conflict (Afghans, Ukrainians, Venezuelans).[25]:145 Such refugees would be subject to mass detention and deportation under Cuccinelli's plan.[25]:135,142,167

Department of Health and Human Services[edit]

Severino as Director, Office for Civil Rights, DHHS in the Trump administration

Roger Severino, Vice President of Domestic Policy at The Heritage Foundation, wrote this chapter on how that federal department should function.[25]:449-502

Abortion policy[edit]

“”Abortion pills pose the single greatest threat to unborn children in a post-Roe world.
—Roberts[25]:457

According to Vice President on domestic policy, Roger Severino, the plan wants the Department of Health and Services to ensure that "every state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence, and by what method."[25]:455 The project also seeks to remove HIPAA patient privacy protection for people receiving abortions, claiming that "patients in the womb" (fetuses and blastocysts) are also protected by HIPAA.[25]:497 The removal of HIPAA privacy protection would facilitate interstate prosecution of abortion recipients, providers and facilitators, something that Texas is already intending to do.[81]

Considering that many Republicans, and The Heritage Foundation specifically, want a nationwide abortion ban,[82] it's not exactly hard to see that this essentially translates to reporting anyone who gets an abortion to authorities.

While Project 2025 does not explicitly call for an abortion ban, the various invasive restrictions that Roberts calls for could be called ban adjacent (prosecuting anyone mailing abortion pills, criminalizing anyone providing abortion care by tracking miscarriages, stillbirths and abortions),[83] and rescinding the Food and Drug Administration approval of abortion pills such as Mifepristone.[25]:457-459

Sexuality, marriage, family and LGBTQIA+ rights[edit]

See the main articles on this topic: Sexuality, Marriage, and LGBT rights

Severino wants HHS to "follow the letter and spirit of religious freedom and conscience-protection laws.[25]:450 Simultaneously he argued against what he calls "subjective notions of 'gender identity'" and called for an end to collection of gender identity data by the government, which he falsely called unscientific.[25]:450,456 The effect of this would be the restoration of the Denial of Care Rule that Severino was blocked by courts from implementation when he was Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Health and Human Services (2017-2021).[37] The rule would have allowed any medical provider to deny health care for anyone else based solely on the provider's personal religious beliefs. The rule was written so broadly that anyone could be denied health care, but was clearly aimed at LGBTQ people.[37]

Severino wants the Trump-era contraceptive mandate to allow health care providers "religious and moral exemptions" to not provide contraceptives to patients.[25]:483

Severino wants Congress to pass the Child Welfare Provider Inclusion Act that would exempt the federally-funded and primarily religious organizations that provide foster care services from being charged with discrimination.[25]:478 This would mean that a foster care agency could prevent a qualified family from fostering a child solely based on having a different religion than the fostering agency.[37]

Severino has insisted that gender is binary ("men and women are biological realities"), thus he denies the reality of transgender people.[25]:489 He also wants to prioritize a "biblically based, social science–reinforced definition of marriage and family", thus allowing discrimination against gay marriages for fostering and adopting children ("Protect faith-based grant recipients from religious liberty violations and maintain a biblically based, social science–reinforced definition of marriage and family").[25]:481 Severino also states that "Working fathers are essential to the well-being and development of their children…",[25]:451 thus his worldview is clearly that of Kinder, Küche, Kirche.

Vaccines and masking[edit]

See the main articles on this topic: Anti-vaccination movement and Face masks

Severino, while not himself overtly antivax, has written that the Centers for Disease Control should not be allowed to ever say what people should do:[25]:454

…or example, never again should CDC officials be allowed to say in their official capacity that school children “should be” masked or vaccinated (through a schedule or otherwise) or prohibited from learning in a school building.

Euthanasia[edit]

Severino wants to eliminate physician-assisted suicide for people near the end of life, something that is legal in 10 states.[25]:482

Department of Education[edit]

The people behind Project 2025 consider the Department of Education "a convenient one-stop shop for the woke education cartel…"[25]:285 Lindsey M. Burke, author of the chapter on the Department of Education, wants it to be abolished,[25]:319 and want control of education "returned" to the states.[25]:319-362 Severino wants to eliminate the federally-funded Head Start preschool program based on the false claims that it is ineffective and "fraught with scandal".[25]:482[84][25]:326

This chapter includes a section on "parental rights", which focuses on the rights of parents to cover up child abuse effectively, force transgender and queer children to present as cisgender, and prevent their children from being taught whatever the Heritage Foundation thinks critical race theory is. This section also states that "Federal lawmakers should not allow public school employees to keep secrets about a child from that child’s parents."[25]:346 How this would be accomplished is unclear.

Ultimately, Severino advocates for reducing the Department of Education to "a statistics-gathering agency that disseminates information to the states."[25]:325 This would mean no federal funding of education, and no enforcement of sex- and gender-based anti-discriminatory policies such as is currently mandated under Title IX.Wikipedia[25]:331[20]

Department of Labor[edit]

Jonathan Berry wrote the chapter on the Department of Labor,[25]:581-617 filling it with frequent references to Christian nationalist rhetoric (e.g., "The Judeo-Christian tradition, stretching back to Genesis, has always recognized fruitful work as integral to human dignity, as service to God, neighbor, and family.")[25]:581 Berry wants Congress to clarify Title VII of the Civil Act of 1964 such that "religious organization exemptions to make it more explicit that those employers may make employment decisions based on religion regardless of nondiscrimination laws."[25]:586 This would essentially eviscerate the act, removing the right of any person to utilize services that are open to the public.

Department of Energy[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Climate change
“”If the American people elect a conservative president, his administration will have to eradicate climate change references from absolutely everywhere.
—Bethany Kozma, former deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Trump administration in a previously-secret Project 2025 training video[85]
McNamee as Federal Energy Regulations Commissioner during the Trump administration

Bernard McNamee wrote the section "Department of Energy and Related Commissions".[25]:363-416 Project 2025's plan on climate can essentially be considered as a massive "fuck you" to the Earth's biosphere and every single effort done by anyone to reduce climate change over the last 50 years, as the plan recommends increasing usage of more natural gas (such as methane), convince allied nations to use more fossil fuels, and shuttering the loans program office at the Department of Energy. They also intend to reverse the 2009 EPA finding on carbon dioxide affecting human health. McNamee was previously an advisor at several fossil fuel companies, so this shouldn't come off as exactly surprising. Pretty much making the climate worse for everyone to "own da libs."[86]

Department of Commerce[edit]

Gilman as Assistant Secretary of Commerce during the Trump administration

Thomas F. Gilman wrote the chapter on the Department of Commerce.[25]:663-689 Gilman advocated for the elimination of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), while claiming that AccuWeather is more reliable than those of the National Weather Service (NWS is part of NOAA).[25]:675 Gilman cited AccuWeather itself for this claim but the citation leads to an Accuweather PR release[87] The link to the full report from the PR release just redirect to the main AccuWeather website, and no archive of the full report seems to exist. Not coincidentally, Accuweather's CEO, Barry Myers, was appointed by Trump to lead the NWS in 2017 despite lacking any relevant academic qualifications.[88] Despite the claims of being most accurate, AccuWeather depends heavily on NWS data, and independent sources have reported on the inaccuracy of AccuWeather forecasts.[89][90][91]

Hypocrisy[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Hypocrisy

In parts of the document, a strictly textualist and originalist view of laws and treaties is advocated.[25]:6,496,826,847 However when it suits them they take fanciful view of what the disparate Founding Fathers actually meant, as when Roberts wrote in the forward regarding United States Declaration of Independence:Wikipedia[25]:13

When the Founders spoke of "pursuit of Happiness," what they meant might be understood today as in essence "pursuit of Blessedness."

Other[edit]

  • Through unitary executive theory, an expansion in the President's power over the executive office.
  • A major purge in government employees involving Schedule F and replacing them with nothing but yes-men.

Pillar II[edit]

“”Pillar II is a personnel database that allows candidates to build their own professional profiles and our coalition members to review and voice their recommendations. These recommendations will then be collated and shared with the President-elect’s team, greatly streamlining the appointment process.[25]:xiv

The database is being assembled by Oracle CorporationWikipedia under contract.[92] Candidates for the Presidential Administration Academy as its called are required to answer leading questions on:[92]

Pillar III[edit]

Pillar III is described by Project 2025 as:[25]:xiv

Presidential Administration Academy, an online educational system taught by experts from our coalition. For the newcomer, this will explain how the government functions and how to function in government. For the experienced, we will host in-person seminars with advanced training and set the bar for what is expected of senior leadership…

In August 2024, 23 training videos with 14 hours of content were leaked to Propublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism organization. Apart from the more mundane information about how government works, the videos give advice on thwarting non-political administrator ("bureaucrats") fighting the so-called "deep state", avoiding Freedom of Information Act disclosures, and assuring that their policies are not struck down by "left-wing judges". The speakers in the videos are careful not to mention political parties or candidates, referring instead to conservatives and the left-wing, mostly likely hoping not to lose The Heritage Foundation's lucrative non-profit status.[85][93] But it's clear that they had Trump and Joe Biden in mind.

Low-lights from former Trump administration appointees in the videos include:[85]

  • Bethany Kozma, former deputy chief of staff of USAID, saying that climate references needed to be eliminated from the entirey of the Federal government, and calling gender fluidity "evil".
  • Katie Sullivan, former acting assistant attorney general saying "The noxious tenets of critical race theory and gender ideology should be excised from curriculum in every single public school in this country."
  • Michael Ding, a lawyer from Stephen Miller's America First Legal Foundation seems especially paranoid about law enforcement, something rather peculiar for allegedly pro-police MAGA diehards. In a training segment titled "Oversight & Investigations" with Mike Howell (Director of Oversight for the Heritage Foundation) and Tom Jones (founder of The American Accountability Foundation), Ding says:[94]

As Tom mentioned, they're [Inspectors' General office and Government Accountability Office] supposedly nonpartisan independent and also Congress and not Executive Branch you know, which certainly present some trickier Constitutional law issues there. So on the one hand you have OIG [Office of Inspector General], and you know as Tom mentioned they're they're hardcore investigators, right. Some of these guys have badges and guns so you don't want to be in their crosshairs, and it's in in some ways harder to push back on those investigations it's almost you know like dealing with law enforcement but GAO.

Pillar IV[edit]

Pillar IV are transition plans based on the assumption that Trump will win the election, by ballot or by coup as (Vance[66] and Roberts[26] have implied elsewhere). Pillar IV is "the Playbook — we are forming agency teams and drafting transition plans to move out upon the President’s utterance of 'so help me God.'"[25]:xiv

Preparing for the purge[edit]

A few days before the 2024 election day, one organization funded by Heritage Foundation listed several members of the Department of Homeland Security who were being targeted for purge on a website, the "DHS Bureaucrat Watch List".[98][99] The watch list criticized employees for such things as celebrating the legalization of same-sex marriage and touting the contributions of undocumented immigrants. the list has been compared to blacklisting during the McCarthy era.[98]

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑ This narrative did ultimately end up being pushed by Trump's supporters, who believed him at his word (or who simply went along with his lie) when he claimed that he had no affiliation with Project 2025 -- albeit not as successfully as they may have hoped.
  2. ↑ Bear in mind that the piece was also published after multiple sources corroborated a neighbor's story about Roberts killing their dog with a shovel, just to show what kind of person we're dealing with here.
  3. ↑ Twenty-seven of the 36 authors and editors of Project 2025 were appointed officials during the Trump presidency:[25]:xv-xxiii
    1. Lindsey M. Burke — Chief Counsel for the Trump transition
    2. Adam Candeub — acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce and Deputy Associate Attorney General at the Justice Department during the Trump Administration.
    3. Brendan Carr — Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, General Counsel of the Federal Communications Commission
    4. Ben Carson — Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
    5. Ken Cuccinelli — Acting Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2019 and then, from November 2019 through the end of the Trump Administration, as Acting Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
    6. Paul Dans — Chief of Staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, as OPM’s White House liaison, and as a senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
    7. Rick Dearborn — Deputy Chief of Staff for President Donald Trump and was responsible for the day-to-day operations of five separate departments of the Executive Office of the President. He also served as Executive Director of the 2016 President-elect Donald Trump transition team.
    8. Diana Furchtgott-Roth — Deputy Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology at the U.S. Department of Transportation
    9. Thomas F. Gilman — Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Administration and Chief Financial Officer of the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Trump Administration.
    10. Steven Groves — Chief of Staff at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Assistant Special Counsel, White House Deputy Press Secretary
    11. Mandy M. Gunasekara —Chief of Staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as well as Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation
    12. Gene Hamilton — Counselor to the Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice; Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Homeland Security
    13. Jennifer Hazelton — Deputy Assistant Administrator of Public Affairs at USAID
    14. Dennis Dean Kirk — senior positions at the Office of Personnel Management and was nominated by President Trump to be Chairman of the Merit Systems Protection Board
    15. Bernard L. McNamee — Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
    16. Christopher Miller — Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Combating Terrorism, and Senior Director for Counterterrorism and Transnational Threats at the National Security Council.
    17. Mora Namdar — perform the duties of the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs. She also served as Vice President of Legal, Compliance, and Risk at the U.S. Agency for Global Media
    18. Peter Navarro — 2016 Trump campaign, Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy and Defense Production Act Policy Coordinator
    19. William Perry Pendley — leader of the Bureau of Land Management
    20. Max Primorac — Chief Operating Officer and Assistant to the Administrator, Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, USAID
    21. Roger Severino — director of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
    22. Kiron K. Skinner — Director of Policy Planning and Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of State, member of the Defense Business Board at the U.S. Department of Defense
    23. Brooks D. Tucker — 2016 transition team
    24. Hans A. von Spakovsky — Advisory Commission on Election Integrity
    25. Russ Vought — Director of the Office of Management and Budget
    26. William L. Walton — 2016 transition team as Agency Action Leader for all the federal economic agencies
    27. Paul Winfree — 2016 transition team, Deputy Assistant to the President, Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council, and Director of Budget Policy at the White House, Chair of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board

References[edit]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jeff Raikes (July 1, 2024). "Project 2025 Is A Blueprint For Business Disaster" Forbes.
  2. ↑ Dana Drugmand (May 30, 2024). "Inside Trump’s Plan to Bulldoze American Climate Policy". The Sierra Club.
  3. ↑ Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision AP News
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Conservatives aim to restructure U.S. government and replace it with Trump’s vision PBS News Hour
  5. ↑ US hard-right policy group condemned for ‘dehumanising’ anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric The Guardian
  6. ↑ Project 2025: A Heightened Threat of Christian Nationalism and Authoritarianism Global Project Against Hate and Extremism
  7. ↑ Lulu Garcia-Navarro (January 21, 2024). "Inside the Heritage Foundation’s Plans for ‘Institutionalizing Trumpism’". The New York Times.
  8. ↑ Analysis Exposes Trumpian Project 2025 as 'Far-Right Playbook for American Authoritarianism' Common Dreams
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Mike Wendling (July 7, 2024). "Project 2025: A wish list for a Trump presidency, explained". BBC News.
  10. ↑ Conservatives aim to restructure U.S. government and replace it with Trump’s vision by Lisa Mascaro, August 29, 2023, PBS
  11. ↑ Legislating inequality: The Christian Confederate roots of Project 2025 by Bruce Gourley (June 28, 2024) Church & State Magazine, Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
  12. ↑ Vivian Salama (July 5, 2024). "Trump Distances Himself From Conservative ‘Project 2025’ Agenda". The Wall Street Journal.
  13. ↑ Gram Slattery (July 12, 2024). "Project 2025: What is it? Who is behind it? How is it connected to Trump?". Reuters.
  14. ↑ Mike Soraghan (July 8, 2024). "Meet the Christian oil mogul spending big to elect Trump". E&E News (Politico).
  15. ↑ Dharna Noor (July 27, 2023). "‘Project 2025’: plan to dismantle US climate policy for next Republican president". The Guardian.
  16. ↑ Katherine Doyle (March 21, 2024). "Leonard Leo, Koch networks pour millions into groups prepping for potential second Trump administration". NBC News.
  17. ↑ "Conservatives gear up for EPA revamp in 2025". E&E News (Politico).
  18. ↑ Arianna Skibell (April 15, 2024). "A deep dive into energy plans for Trump 2.0". Politico.
  19. ↑ Rob Schofield (May 14, 2024). "The Trump team’s radical plan to gut American public education". NC Newsline.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Project 2025: rightwing manifesto’s key proposals and how they could affect you: Blueprint outlines extreme, conservative policies for a potential second Trump term and beyond by Rachel Leingang (1 Aug 2024 06.00 EDT) The Guardian.
  21. ↑ About Project 2025 Project 2025 | Presidential Transition Project
  22. ↑ What is Project 2025 and what does it have to do with a second Trump term? Conservatives have created a guide for how Trump and allies could dismantle the US government if he wins the election by Rachel Leingang (26 May 2024 08.00 EDT) The Guardian.
  23. ↑ Inside the Next Republican Revolution: Whether Trump wins or not, the GOP plans a renewed assault on his nemesis, the “deep state.” Can conservatives train enough loyalists to actually get the job done? by Michael Hirsh (09/19/2023) Politico.
  24. ↑ Mandate for Leadership: Policy Management in a Conservative Administration by Charles L. Heatherly (1981) The Heritage Foundation. ISBN 0891950281.
  25. ↑ 25.00 25.01 25.02 25.03 25.04 25.05 25.06 25.07 25.08 25.09 25.10 25.11 25.12 25.13 25.14 25.15 25.16 25.17 25.18 25.19 25.20 25.21 25.22 25.23 25.24 25.25 25.26 25.27 25.28 25.29 25.30 25.31 25.32 25.33 25.34 25.35 25.36 25.37 25.38 25.39 25.40 25.41 25.42 25.43 25.44 25.45 25.46 25.47 25.48 Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, edited by Paul Dans & Steven Groves (2023) The Heritage Foundation. ISBN 9780891951742.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Biden assails Project 2025, a plan to transform government, and Trump’s claim to be unaware of it by Adriana Gomez Licon (6:05 PM PDT, July 6, 2024) Associated Press.
  27. ↑ Legal expert: SCOTUS "invented a new rule" that could even give Trump immunity for "unofficial acts": Under Supreme Court ruling, prosecutors can't use evidence of "official" conduct to try "unofficial" acts by Marina Villeneuve (July 8, 2024 3:34PM EDT) Salon.
  28. ↑ Trump’s vow to only be a dictator on ‘day one’ follows growing worry over his authoritarian rhetoric by Jill Colvin & Bill Barrow (4:58 PM PDT, December 7, 2023) Associated Press.
  29. ↑ "What is Project 2025, and why are people Googling it more than Taylor Swift right now?" by Alfred Lubrano (July 11, 2024 11:12AM EDT) The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  30. ↑ "Kamala Harris' opening argument: Vote for me and I'll decimate Project 2025" by Aditi Bharade (July 22, 2024 12:15 AM EDT) Business Insider.
  31. ↑ "Opinion: Harris is wrong about Project 2025. Our plan is good for America." by Kevin Roberts (Sept. 29, 2024 5:05 AM EDT) USA Today.
  32. ↑ "September 2024 NBC News survey", Hart Research Associates/Public Opinion Strategies, page 9
  33. ↑ Aaron Blake (September 23, 2024). "Project 2025 is a huge blunder from Trump's allies". The Washington Post.
  34. ↑ (June 2024). "YouGov Survey: Insects and Bugs". YouGov.
  35. ↑ Robert Tait (July 8, 2024). "Republicans call Trump’s move to distance himself from Project 2025 ‘preposterous’". The Guardian.
  36. ↑ Nick Robertson (July 8, 2024). "Ex-Pence adviser: ‘Just ludicrous’ for Trump to try to distance himself from Project 2025". The Hill.
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 37.2 37.3 Project 2025: A Christian Nationalist playbook outlines a broad scheme to overthrow American democracy and install a theocracy by Liz Hayes (May 29, 2024) Church and State, Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
  38. ↑ Former Trump Advisor Stephen Miller Denies Involvement With Project 2025, Ad Says Otherwise: As Donald Trump cynically tries to make space between himself and Project 2025, his allies are following suit, even if they can’t. by Owen Lavine (Jul. 06, 2024 4:12PM EDT) The Daily Beast.
  39. ↑ Threats to Democracy Come From the Left and the Right by Linda Chavez (October 28, 2021) Real Clear Politics.
  40. ↑ FreedomWorks Is Closing — And Blaming Trump by Luke Mullins (05/08/2024 11:04 AM EDT) Politico.
  41. ↑ Aleksandra Wrona and Nur Ibrahim (July 8, 2024). "Project 2025: What To Know About the Pro-Trump Plan To Overhaul US Government". Snopes.
  42. ↑ Boards: YAF Board of Directors Young America’s Foundation.
  43. ↑ This conservative group helped push a disputed election theory by Hansi Lo Wang (August 12, 2022 5:01 AM ET) NPR.
  44. ↑ Conservative ‘dark money’ network rebranded to push voting restrictions before 2020 election by Anna Massoglia & Sam Levine (May 27, 2020 9:14 am) Open Secrets.
  45. ↑ Eric Hananoki (July 11, 2024). "Unearthed video: Project 2025 director said project has “great” relationship with Trump and he’s “very bought in with this”". Media Matters for America.
  46. ↑ Alex Griffing (July 11, 2024). "'Exactly What Our Movement Will Do': Unearthed Clip Shows Trump Endorsing Work on Project 2025 — He Now Claims He Knows Nothing About". Mediaite.
  47. ↑ "Donald Trump Delivers Keynote Speech in Florida 4/21/22 Transcript. Rev. (Alternate link).
  48. ↑ Vaughn Hillyard and Alexandra Marquez (July 11, 2024). "Trump disavows Project 2025, but he has long-standing ties to some key architects". NBC News.
  49. ↑ Undercover in Project 2025 (Aug 15, 2024) Centre for Climate Reporting via YouTube.
  50. ↑ Hidden-camera video shows Project 2025 co-author discussing his secret work preparing for a second Trump term by Curt Devine et al. (August 15, 2024) CNN.
  51. ↑ On MSNBC’s The Reid Out, Angelo Carusone explains how the Supreme Court and GOP-led states have laid the groundwork to implement Project 2025 (08/15/24 8:54 PM EDT) Media Matters for America.
  52. ↑ Trump took a private flight with Project 2025 leader in 2022: Trump took the flight to speak at a Heritage Foundation conference, where he said, “They’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do." by Isaac Arnsdorf et al. (August 7, 2024 at 5:50 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  53. ↑ Steve Contorno (July 11, 2024). "Trump claims not to know who is behind Project 2025. A CNN review found at least 140 people who worked for him are involved". CNN.
  54. ↑ Sierra Tufts (July 11, 2024). "'I know nothing about Project 2025'; Trump posts on his social media site". WANE-TV.
  55. ↑ Adriana Gomez Licon (July 6, 2024). "Biden assails Project 2025, a plan to transform government, and Trump’s claim to be unaware of it". The Associated Press.
  56. ↑ Donald Trump claims to ‘know nothing’ about Project 2025 by Maya Yang (Jul 2024 19.22 EDT) The Guardian.
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 Nathan Layne (July 5, 2024). "Trump seeks to disavow 'Project 2025' despite ties to conservative group". Reuters.
  58. ↑ Philip Bump (July 8, 2024). "The impossibility of separating Trump from Project 2025". The Washington Post.
  59. ↑ Noah Rothman (July 5, 2024). "What Exactly Are the ‘Ridiculous and Abysmal’ Parts?". National Review.
  60. ↑ Alex Woodward (July 5, 2024). "Trump wants to distance himself from far-right Project 2025 plan while his PAC pushes ads promoting it". The Independent.
  61. ↑ Trump Praised President of Project 2025 Parent Group by Name Twice This Year: Trump now claims: "I have no idea who is behind it." by J.D. Wolf (Jul 5, 2024) MeidasTouch Network.
  62. ↑ Alex Isenstadt (April 26, 2024). "Trump camp plans sit-down with outside groups after FEC relaxes coordination rules". Politico.
  63. ↑ Will Steakin and Soo Rin Kim (July 9, 2024). "Trump is trying to distance himself from Project 2025 -- but its architects helped shape his RNC party platform". ABC News.
  64. ↑ Alex Isenstadt and Meridith McGraw (January 6, 2024). "Trump and his MAGA allies turn their fire on Haley". Politico.
  65. ↑ Nicholas Riccardi (July 15, 2024). "Outside RNC, conservative group defends its Project 2025 guidebook as Democrats ramp up critiques". The Associated Press.
  66. ↑ 66.0 66.1 Read J.D. Vance’s Violent Foreword to Project 2025 Leader’s New Book: Trump’s running mate writes that “it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets.” by Alex Shephard (July 30, 2024) The New Republic.
  67. ↑ Dawn's Early Light: Burning Down Washington to Save America by Kevin Roberts, HarperCollins Publishers (archived from 24 Jul 2024 20:58:31 UTC).
  68. ↑ Dawn's Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America by Kevin Roberts, Foreword by J. D. Vance HarperCollins Publishers (archived from 14 Aug 2024 17:48:53 UTC).
  69. ↑ Project 2025 to end policy work after Democratic attacks angered Trump: The Trump campaign grew furious with the Heritage Foundation over media coverage tying the candidate to unpopular policy proposals. by Isaac Arnsdorf & Josh Dawsey (July 30, 2024) The Washington Post.
  70. ↑ Here's a graphic: "Project 2025 Authors and their roles in the last administration", Reddit.
  71. ↑ 71.0 71.1 71.2 Derek Kravitz, Al Shaw and Isaac Arnsdorf (March 7, 2018). "What We Found in Trump’s Drained Swamp: Hundreds of Ex-Lobbyists and D.C. Insiders". ProPublica.
  72. ↑ Peters, Jeremy W. (2018-01-22). "Heritage Foundation Says Trump Has Embraced Two-Thirds of Its Agenda". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. 
  73. ↑ "Trump Administration Embraces Heritage Foundation Policy Recommendations". January 23, 2018. 
  74. ↑ Katie Glueck (November 22, 2016). "Trump's shadow transition team ". Politico.
  75. ↑ Jonathan Mahler (June 20, 2018). "How One Conservative Think Tank Is Stocking Trump’s Government". The New York Times.
  76. ↑ Lawrence Baum and Neal Devins (January 31, 2017). "Federalist Court". Slate.
  77. ↑ 77.0 77.1 (September 9, 2020). "Trump Campaign Press Release - President Trump's Historic Judicial Appointments", archived by The American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara). The campaign's press release references a New York Times report that the administration took advice from Heritage and the Federalist Society on judicial appointments.
  78. ↑ Laura Barrón-López and Shrai Popat (July 9, 2024). "A look at the Project 2025 plan to reshape government and Trump’s links to its authors". PBS NewsHour.
  79. ↑ Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America by Kevin Roberts, foreword by J. D. Vance (2024) Broadside Books. ISBN 0063353504.
  80. ↑ 80.0 80.1 Trump speaks at Heritage-sponsored event after disavowing Project 2025: Trump spoke at the Moms for Liberty summit, an event hosted by the parental rights group that counts the Heritage Foundation among its key sponsors. by Abbie Cheeseman (August 30, 2024 at 5:53 p.m.) The Washington Post.
  81. ↑ Texas conservatives test how far they can extend abortion and gender-transition restrictions beyond state lines by Eleanor Klibanoff & William Melhado (Feb. 9, 2024) The Texas Tribune.
  82. ↑ Anti-Abortion Extremists Want to Use the 150-Year-Old Comstock Act to Ban Abortion Nationwide: The dangerous legal theory endorsed by one of Trump's top anti-abortion strategists by Andrew Beck (May 30, 2024) ACLU.
  83. ↑ What is Project 2025? It’s a blueprint for what a second Trump administration could look like, dreamed up by his allies and former aides. by Amber Phillips (July 12, 2024 at 1:19 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  84. ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Head Start.
  85. ↑ 85.0 85.1 85.2 Inside Project 2025’s Secret Training Videos by Andy Kroll & Nick Surgey (Aug. 10, 5 a.m. EDT) ProPublica.
  86. ↑ A Republican 2024 Climate Strategy: More Drilling, Less Clean Energy by Lisa Friedman (August 4, 2023) The New York Times.
  87. ↑ Latest Study of 120 Million Forecasts Proves AccuWeather Forecasts Are Most Accurate (Jan 14, 2020, 13:42 ET) PR Newswire.
  88. ↑ White House nominates AccuWeather CEO to head climate agency by David Shepardson (October 11, 20178:12 PM PDT) Reuters.
  89. ↑ Accuweather: You cannot be serious (new 45-day forecasts) by Jason Samenow (August 6, 2013 at 4:14 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  90. ↑ Students put AccuWeather long-range forecasts to the test by Jon Nese (December 26, 2013 at 12:15 p.m. EST) The Washington Post.
  91. ↑ Zoë Schlanger (July 16, 2024). "The MAGA Plan to End Free Weather Reports". The Atlantic.
  92. ↑ 92.0 92.1 Why is Oracle assembling a secret database of Trump loyalists? Oracle Corp., a software company started in the Bay Area, is reportedly helping the Heritage Foundation vet thousands of conservative candidates for a second Donald Trump term. by Raheem Hosseini (Aug 14, 2024 9:01 p.m.) The San Francisco Chronicle.
  93. ↑ Watch: 14 Hours of Never-Before-Published Videos From Project 2025’s Presidential Administration Academy by Andy Kroll & Nick Surgey (Aug. 10, 4:55 a.m. EDT) ProPublica.
  94. ↑ Project 2025 Private Training Video: Oversight and Investigations ProPublica via YouTube. t=14:41-15:17.
  95. ↑ Team Athos.
  96. ↑ Approach Athos.
  97. ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Mount Athos.
  98. ↑ 98.0 98.1 Conservative group’s ‘watch list’ targets federal employees for firing: Donald Trump has pledged, if reelected, to purge the government of ‘rogue bureaucrats and career politicians’ by Jonathan O'Connell, et al. (November 2, 2024 at 5:27 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  99. ↑ DHS Bureaucrat Watch List
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