Extract from The New Daily
Source: X
A radical plan to transform America if the Republicans win the coming election has caused such a stir that even Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from it.
First released last year, Project 2025 is a blueprint of action for the next Republican presidency, which the authors believe will be Trump.
It has been decried as “hellishly authoritarian” by critics for proposals such as dismantling the US Department of Education and replacing thousands of non-partisan federal employees with political appointees aligned with Trump’s policies.
Project 2025 was developed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank headed by key staffers from the previous Trump administration. It has an advisory board of more than 100 conservative groups.
The Heritage Foundation previously created a ‘Mandate for Leadership’ in 2015, and boasts that Trump instituted more than half of its policy recommendations within the first two years of his presidency.
These ranged from the US leaving the Paris Agreement on climate to increased military spending.
Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts made headlines last week for insurrectionist comments he made during an appearance on TV show Real America’s Voice.
“We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” he said.
Project 2025 envisions a complete overhaul
Project 2025 is a plan for the next Republican government, encompassing policy agenda, personnel, training, and a playbook for the first 180 days in office.
Across more than 900 pages, the Heritage Foundation’s The Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise details the plan, which targets “woke culture warriors” and aims to give conservatives “a fighting chance” to reform the US federal government.
Some of the most controversial proposed changes include:
- Replacing non-partisan federal employees with political appointees
- Eliminating the Department of Education and other federal departments
- Dismantling the Department of Homeland Security, and move its departments to other federal departments
- Reducing abortions through measures such as banning the “week-after” pill, ensuring medical professionals aren’t trained to perform abortions, and seeking assurances that international organisations such as the United Nations and the World Health Organisation will remove language “promoting abortion” from documents, policy statements, and technical literature
- Banning use of terms such as “sexual orientation and gender identity”, “diversity, equity, and inclusion”, “abortion”, “reproductive health”, and “reproductive rights” in any federal rule, contract, regulation or piece of legislation
- Banning pornography, including jailing those who produce and distribute it, and closing telco and technology companies that facilitate its spread
- Eliminating energy-efficiency standards for appliances
- Ending the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s focus on climate change and green subsidies
- Reinstatement, including back pay, of active duty military personnel who were discharged for not receiving the Covid vaccine
- Rescinding regulations prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, and sex characteristics
- Issuing an executive order that religious employers are free to run their businesses according to their religious beliefs, “general nondiscrimination laws notwithstanding”.
These proposed changes have led to fears for the future of education, environmental protections, women’s rights, LGBTQI+ rights, and overall reduction of freedoms in the US.
Trump claims ignorance
Convicted felon Trump is not afraid of controversy, but even he recently publicly distanced himself Project 2025.
However, he did wish the people behind the “abysmal” plans luck.
“I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social network.
“I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.
“Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”
Trump’s claimed lack of knowledge about Project 2025 and its architects was met with disbelief, given he worked closely with several people from the Heritage Foundation during his administration.
This includes the think tank’s director, Paul Dans, who was chief of staff at the US Office of Personnel Management, and associate director Spencer Chretien, who was Trump’s special assistant and associate director of presidential personnel.
In a recent speech, Trump also said he would bring back Tom Homan if he wins the election; Homan, former acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is currently a visiting fellow with the Heritage Foundation and a contributor to the 2025 mandate.
The Trump campaign told Axios last year that although it was “appreciative” of suggestions, its agenda was not a collaboration.
“The campaign’s Agenda47 is the only official comprehensive and detailed look at what president Trump will do when he returns to the White House,” the campaign said.
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