Project 2025 Threatens American Democracy
Jennifer Li
July 27, 2024
As recent polling reflects former President Donald J. Trump’s lead in the upcoming presidential election, the 2025 Presidential Transition Project— “Project 2025” —, a far-right organization working to establish the blueprint for the next Trump presidency, poses an imminent threat to American democracy. Among a myriad of conservative policies listed in a 900-page document, the project’s plans include expanding the president’s control over the federal government, removing the Department of Education, and outlawing abortion and related medication; the radical left’s worst nightmares. Indeed, the taut adversary language used in Project 2025’s official website projects the left as a threat to be dismantled by the future Republican president. However, independent of its political affiliation, this extremist project teeters the very foundation of democracy. The high likelihood of the manifestation of its plans, which center around funneling more power into the president’s hands and undoing many hard-won societal advances, makes Project 2025 a force to be feared.
Project 2025’s book “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” spells out the innumerable policy proposals that will undo important societal advancements of the past decades. For one, it calls for a hard ban on abortion in all 50 states. The project wishes to resurrect the Comstock Act’s nationwide ban on abortion as well as related medication, including abortion pills and contraception access. To limit the latter, it proposes to defund Planned Parenthood, a prominent organization providing sexual healthcare in the US. On top of that, it will also strip away women’s rights to life-saving healthcare. Proposals in the book include removing student debt forgiveness, restructuring the tax code in favor of the wealthy, abandoning the attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increasing fees for asylum seekers, and promoting Christian nationalism. Evidently, these policies are closed-minded, and more importantly, they would alter existing policies that past generations have made immense progress on.
Another warning siren of the project, as a threat to democracy, is its call to extend the power and influence of the president, a decision that diminishes the very base of democracy in the US. A large motive of the project is to reduce the power of the federal government which their book describes as “a behemoth, weaponized against American citizens and conservative values.” Paul Dans, as director of the project, expressed the desire to “flood the zone with conservatives.” The plan proposes to fire as many as 50,000 federal workers and replace them with the president’s loyalists, creating a conservative “army” of a government that would allow easy access to abuse of power and political corruption. Project 2025’s blueprint also suggests placing the FBI and Department of Justice under the president, removing their independent status to become an “attack dog for conservative causes,” a Reuters article writes. If given the power, Project 2025 could turn the White House into a playground for conservatives while expanding presidential power. Such power is heavily anti-democratic; democracy strives to represent citizens’ opinions in their government, but this scenario may see the realization of extremist policies that far from represent the beliefs of the masses. This power concentrated in the hands of the president is dangerous and would pose great issues in the coming term.
In recent weeks, Trump has disavowed the project. He tweeted on July 5th, 2024 that he “[knows] nothing about Project 2025… [has] no idea who is behind it” and “some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.” However, his past collaboration with some of Project 2025’s key administrators discredit this disavowment. Project 2025 is organized by the Heritage Foundation, a leading conservative think tank founded in 1973 which was widely influential in the previous Trump administration. Within one year in office, the Trump administration adopted almost two-thirds of Heritage’s plans. Some individuals who were in the Trump administration also played key roles in Project 2025. The Director of Project 2025, Paul Dans, once served in the Trump Administration as The Chief of Staff of Personnel Management amongst other roles. Associate Director of the project, Spencer Chretien, was a Special Assistant to Trump and Associate Director of Presidential Personnel. In 2022, Trump commented about the Heritage Foundation: “This is a great group, and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detailed 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.” This quote completely undermines more recent comments denying affiliation with or knowledge of the individuals behind the project.
Project 2025 could feed Trump’s proclivity to eliminate opposition, and his far-right beliefs, presenting a worrisome projection of the future. The changes that will ensue over the next four years are still uncertain. But, one thing is for sure: the realization of Project 2025 would represent a colossal, shameful step back for America. Let us do our best to protect the nation from this extremist movement and their wishlist for the next Trump presidency.