Project 2025 by Liam Dargen

Written in November 2024

It’s election year and the presidential race is something everyone should be keeping an eye on. For the Democrats incumbent president Joe Biden has stepped down from re-election, so there will be a new candidate running for the nomination with vice president Kamala Harris as the frontrunner. For the Republicans, former president Donald Trump has accepted the nomination and seeks to be president again. The future of our country actually depends on this election because of one certain initiative; Project 2025

The 2025 Presidential Transition Project, or Project 2025, is an initiative put together by the conservative coalition, the Heritage Foundation, with four goals; “1. Restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children. 2. Dismantle the administrative state and return self-governance to the American people. 3. Defend our nation’s sovereignty, borders, and bounty against global threats.” (1). The project comprises a number of conservative and right wing policy proposals that would reshape the US Federal Government (2) and consolidate power for the executive branch should Trump win the election (3). The Project asserts that the entire executive branch is under the control of the president under the unitary executive theory which states that the president should have sole control over the executive branch, as supporters argue that this was the Founding Fathers had intended when they first created the government while opponents of that theory say that there has to be functional considerations and practice dispersing power widely (4).

The proposals would call for thousands of federal workers to be let go from their jobs and be replaced with political appointees who are more loyal to the conservatives, especially Trump (5). The proposals would infuse the government and society with Christian values. For example, the “Mandate for Leadership” at the start of the manifest states that “freedom is defined by God, not man” (6). The appointees would make some serious changes; the Department of Justice would be defunded as well as the FBI, the FCC, the Department of Commerce, and the Federal Trade Commission (7). The project would also pull back on the government’s funding on climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency would be downsized and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), “the greatest climate change alarm industry” would be abolished in favor of fossil fuel production. (8). The Department of Education was recommended that it’d be abolished and its agencies and services would be transferred to different departments such as the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Justice and even the Census Bureau (9). The policy would have the National Institutes of Health be reformed to meet conservative standards. In doing so, they would ban all abortion practices and contraceptive healthcare and prosecute anyone who sends and receives any of these under the Comstock Act (10). The Project proposes that pornography would be illegal and all who produce it would be arrested. The LGBTQIA+ community would lose their legal protection against discrimination, same-sex marriages would be over in order for the government to maintain a “biblically-based-social-science-reinforced definition of marriage and family (11). Programs that promote “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) and affirmative action would be eliminated from federal registration as the proposals claim they promote “anti-white racism” (12). The project proposes the arrest, detainment and deportation of all illegal immigrants in the United States, fulfilling Trump’s original primary goal as president (13). The project includes more aggressive and violent proposals such as getting the military involved in domestic protests and bringing back capital punishment to the country (14). These are the proposals of Project 2025 that would happen if Trump gets re-elected.

The project has received a lot of criticism from both left and right . It’s been called “an authoritarian, Christian nationalist plan from a democracy to an autocracy” by Associated Press, Politico, CNN, et cetera (15). Legal experts say this violates so many of the country’s principles. Michael Bromwich of the justice department says that “turning the DOJ and the FBI into a revenge machine goes against the rule of law” (16). John McEntee and Phillip Wallach say that the project goes against separation of powers in that it leans into the unitary executive theory and takes power away from Congress (3). The proposals about removing affirmative action, DEI, and legal protections away from minorities, this has been criticized as taking away civil liberties. There is also concern that Project 2025 would harm foreign aid as the project states it “prioritizes national interests” over foreign policy (1). With all the mentions of the Bible, god and Christian values, it goes against the separation of church and state according to the Constitution which includes a separation of church and state, as the Founding Fathers formed America to be free to express religion however they choose, not to be governed by it (10).

Trump dismissed claims that he is a part of the project since the proposals were announced, saying “he knows about it” and calling parts of it “ridiculous and abysmal” yet a great number of his associates, current and former, have contributed to this plan, including members of his administration from 2017 to 2021 (17). Plus there were reports of members of Trump’s campaign working alongside members of the Heritage Foundation and expecting to get large roles in a future Trump administration, attracting much criticism (18). However you feel about this project, stop and think, is this really the best option for the country’s future or a butterfly effect to its downfall?

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Project 2025 by Liam Dargen

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