Though Donald Trump promised otherwise, Project 2025 appears to be part of his political agenda.
Project 2025 — the brainchild of the right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation tank that outlined a plan to turn the United States into an ultra-conservative dystopia — wasn’t supposed to happen under Trump. “We have nothing to do with Project 25,” Trump told reporters while on the campaign trail. “They know it, but they bring it up anyway,” he said. Trump’s comments were a bid to publicly distance himself from the plan for his second term. Though Trump denied any official involvement, many of the plan’s creators worked in the president’s first administration, and many more have been tapped for roles in his second.
Despite Trump’s denials, the internet isn’t surprised.
Project 2025 is a sweeping initiative designed to give Trump a legal roadmap to consolidate power in the executive branch and reshape American society to align with a hyper-conservative vision. On day one in office, Trump had already begun the process. As this user points out, Trump has reversed 78 Biden-era executive orders related to everything from DEI initiatives to healthcare services.
Many of Trump’s Cabinet appointees were personally involved in the construction of Project 2025, including Russell Vought, the man tapped to head Trump’s Office of Management and Budget again (he served during Trump’s first administration). In an undercover interview with Vought, the potential OMB-chair described his intention to turn America into a “Christian nation,” and believes that the Trump administration can “save the country” by carrying “largest deportation in history.” Trump has used that phrase himself, promising to carry out “the largest deportation” America has ever seen in his second term. Vought’s nomination has been advanced in the Senate.
Trump’s recent executive orders mandating the federal government recognize only two biological sexes, along with his order to curtail DEI initiatives at the federal level, are directly in line with the goals of Project 2025, which aims to roll back rights for LGBTQ people and eliminate racial equity initiatives.
The Trump administration has removed the Spanish language version of the White House’s website, and deleted the Health and Human Service’s page on reproductive rights. Project 2025 has long planned on removing minorities from American society, with a particular focus Central and South American immigrants. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, Project 2025 will “destroy abortion access” by criminalizing numerous abortion procedures, prosecuting healthcare professionals, and establishing a “surveillance system” forcing states to provide “personal details” on patients looking to obtain an abortion.
As this user points out, Project 2025 is a sweeping, extreme measure to effectively eliminate decades of progressive legal framework from American society.
Trump’s inauguration speech was sobering to say the least. After telling listeners that he was “saved by God” from an assassin’s bullet in order to usher in a “golden age” for America, he outlined his Project 2025-esque plans, which included declaring a “national emergency” that would allow him to send military personnel to the southern border to assist in deportation efforts of “millions and millions of criminal aliens,” as well as roll back Biden-era policies made to combat climate change.
Of the many Biden-era executive orders that Trump trashed, one was an initiative meant to ensure “educational and economic equity for Black and Hispanic-Americans” — directly in line with Project 2025’s intention to eliminate DEI efforts across American society. Trump also aims to revise the 14th Amendment by ending the longstanding U.S. practice of granting birthright citizenship to children born in America, which is in line with Project 2025’s anti-immigrant stance.
While Trump may claim to know nothing about Project 2025, his polices scream otherwise.
Published: Jan 21, 2025 04:42 pm