Project 2025 is a political blueprint for a second Trump presidential term. It is a roughly 900-page draft of policy priorities and proposals created by a coalition of several conservative organizations under the overall management of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. The plan has been created over the past few years but has only recently been put in the spotlight and turned into a campaign issue.

Critics cite its incorporation of religious beliefs, its increasing powers given to the president, and other provisions viewed as draconian and extreme. Here is an overview of what it contains:

• Social policy—proposals such as implementing and enforcing laws that criminalize mailing abortion pills between states, outlawing pornography, eliminating the Department of Education, removing terms like “sexual orientation”, “gender equality”, and “reproductive rights” from federal laws and regulations, and having the Department of Health and Human Services adopt a “biblically-based, social science-enforced definition of marriage and family.”
• Climate/environment—proposals such as reducing federal funding for renewable energy research and investment, implementing a sweeping repeal of environmental regulations including vehicle efficiency standards, and replacing carbon-reduction goals in exchange for emphasizing energy production and security.
• Immigration—proposals such as increased funding for a US-Mexico border wall, mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, eliminating the Department of Homeland Security to combine its resources and function with other enforcement agencies in a larger, stronger border security plan, eliminating visas for human trafficking victims, and increasing fees on immigration applications.

The blueprint also lays out priorities to restructure the government itself to remove obstacles to implementing Trump’s policies.

• Project 2025 proposes the entire federal government bureaucracy be under the direct control of the president, including independent agencies like the Justice Department—it also calls the FBI a “bloated, arrogant, increasingly lawless organization.”
• The plan also suggests removing job protections for many government employees.
• Project 2025’s creators have built a list of thousands of conservative candidates for politically appointed roles at the start of the administration, as well as drafting regulations and executive orders to implement.

These ideas aim to accomplish both the right-wing idea of reducing government oversight and avoiding the obstacles Trump faced previously when he was unprepared to actually become the president, clearing a path for him to obtain his goals.

Project 2025 is not popular with potential voters – 39% have an unfavorable opinion, while 48% don’t know whether they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion. That may be why the Trump campaign has recently distanced itself from Project 2025 and its proposals. The campaign has offered assurances that organizations like these and initiatives like Project 2025 don’t represent Trump or his campaign, and that the campaign has its own agenda—named Agenda 47—as well as the Republican party platform.

Trump himself said that he “knew nothing” about Project 2025, that he didn’t know who was behind it, and that some of its proposals are “ridiculous and abysmal.” But this statement is hard to believe, due to the sheer number of connections between Trump’s sphere and the Project’s creators. They include six former Trump cabinet secretaries, four Trump nominees for ambassadors, and overall nearly 140 people who previously worked in his administration. The connections include people who work in organizations writing the Project and who served as staff in Trump’s government or were involved in his attempts to thwart the 2020 election. Research from CNN found almost 140 people in total who were affiliated with both Project 2025 and Trump.

Project 2025 is a clear signal that Trump and other conservative elements learned lessons from his first term and do not intend to repeat apparent mistakes made before. Restructuring government and expanding the powers of the President are designed to clear a path for a swift and long-term right-wing agenda.

Voters should take time to research more about Project 2025 themselves and learn what else it involves—despite Trump’s claims, it may well become active policy if he were elected again.

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