By William Johnston
It's a nearly 1,000-page blueprint for turning America into a fascist police state by purging civil servants and suppressing dissent. It would impose a far-right, extremist Christian nationalist agenda on our country by executive order and without an act of Congress.
Led by the right-wing think tank, the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 is a $22 million presidential transition operation—a government-in-waiting. "If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place."
If Trump becomes president, with the stroke of his pen:
The Department of Justice will no longer be independent—and there will be no one left to stop Trump from charging his political opponents with crimes.
The FBI's efforts to curb the spread of disinformation, including Russian propaganda, will be shut down.
The Insurrection Act will be used to shut down protests and to deploy red-state National Guard units against blue states—even over the objections of those states' governors.
Abortion will be banned nationwide using two approaches. First, through a radical right-wing interpretation of the Comstock Act, a long-dormant law from 1873. As one of Trump's lawyers says, "We don't need a federal ban when we have Comstock on the books. And second, by reversing the FDA approval of medication abortion.
The Plan includes firing federal employees that conservatives believe are preventing the implementation of right-wing policies. Also, it consists of a crackdown on abortion pills, which it called "the single greatest threat to unborn children in a post-Roe world." The handbook urged the FDA to reverse the approval of the pills, claiming the approval process was "politicized" and "illegal" (more than 100 scientific studies over decades have found both mifepristone and misoprostol, the two abortion-inducing drugs, safe.
The Associated Press called the handbook's language "apocalyptic." The handbook encourages the next presidential administration to "reexamine the balance between media demands and space constraints on the White House premises," saying there is "no legal entitlement" for the press corps to have permanent space on the premises.
Many critics have labeled Project 2025 as "authoritarian." The project relies on what legal scholars call the unitary executive theory, which dismisses the idea there are three separate branches of government.
This unprecedented effort represents a changed approach for conservatives, who traditionally have sought to limit the federal government by cutting federal taxes and slashing federal spending.
The goal is to avoid the pitfalls of Trump's first years in office when they were ill-prepared, Cabinet nominees had trouble winning Senate confirmation, and policies were met with resistance — by lawmakers, government workers, and even Trump's appointees who refused to bend or break protocol, or in some cases violate laws, to agenda achieve his goals.
The new president would accomplish most of his agenda by reinstating Schedule F. This executive order would reclassify tens of thousands of the 2 million federal employees as essentially at-will workers he could fire more easily.
Now, just 4,000 members of the federal workforce are considered political appointees who change with each administration. However, Schedule F could risk tens of thousands of professional careers.
Project 25 offers a how-to manual like the one produced 50 years ago, ahead of the Ronald Reagan administration. Authored by some of today's most prominent thinkers in the conservative movement, it's often sprinkled with apocalyptic language.
One chapter calls for redeploying office personnel with law enforcement ability into the field "to maximize law enforcement capacity."
Conservatives have long held a grim view of federal government offices, complaining they are stacked with liberals' intent on halting Republican agendas.
While presidents typically rely on Congress to put policies into place, this Heritage project leans into what legal scholars call a unitary view of executive power, suggesting the president has broad authority to act alone.
To push past senators who try to block presidential Cabinet nominees, Project 2025 proposes installing top allies in acting administrative roles to bypass the Senate confirmation process.
Congress would see its role diminished — for example, one proposal is to eliminate congressional notification on certain foreign arms sales.
There are theocratic elements in the Plan. The chapter on the Department of Health and Human Services urges to "maintain a biblically based, social science–reinforced definition of marriage and family."
An ACT passed last year with strong bipartisan support requires the federal and state governments to recognize same-sex and interracial marriages. The law is not religious or nonreligious; it is a constitutionally enacted law of the US.
Project 2025 calls for drawing distinctions between parts of this law as "religious" and "nonreligious." The Bible is not a higher authority than laws passed by Congress, and far-right groups do not have to like American laws to respect that those laws are not overruled by their personal interpretation of the Bible.
Another startling section concerns COVID-19 policies, which asks, "How much risk mitigation is worth the price of shutting down churches?" What is the proper balance of lives saved versus souls saved?" That is not a tough question: The federal government does not need to worry about saving souls.
It should not need to be said that the Bible does not negate American law, but during this campaign season it needs to be repeated, over and over again.
The contradictions of Project 25 are glaring: The authors claim to support equality while advocating for dismantling the government agencies that enforce laws ensuring equality, such as Title VII and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act.
They claim to support freedom and liberty while advocating for a total abortion ban, rolling back the rights of LGBTQ people, and closing the border.
They claim to support free speech while advocating for banning any mention of "critical race theory" and "gender ideology" from schools and other societal institutions.
They claim to support the working class while calling for tax cuts for the rich, elimination of labor protections, and deregulation of big business and the oil industry.
The irony is the Heritage Foundation and many of the organizations in their coalition are led and funded by billionaire capitalists, most of whom don't want to pay their fair share of taxes or be limited by labor laws or environmental regulations designed to protect the public from economic abuse, pollution, and climate change. The conservatives criticizing the elites are themselves the real elites.
They argue that "the Left" opposes equality and liberty." It's this radical equality—liberty for all—not just of rights but of authority—that the rich and powerful have hated about democracy in America since 1776. They resent Americans' audacity in insisting we don't need them to tell us how to live. It's this inalienable right of self-direction—of each person's opportunity to direct themselves, and their community, to the good—that the ruling class disdains." Yet this "inalienable right to self-direction" does not appear to extend to pregnant women or LGBTQ people.
They even invoke women's rights to call for the destruction of women's rights: "Left to our own devices, the American people rejected European monarchy and colonialism just as we rejected slavery, second-class citizenship for women, mercantilism, socialism, Wilsonian globalism, Fascism, Communism, and (today) wokeism." Yet banning abortion makes women second-class citizens.
They charge the left with trying to control other people's lives while they are the ones who propose and champion state and federal bans on abortion: "The Right does not believe all men are created equal. They think they are special. They do not think everyone has an unalienable right to pursue the good life. They think they have only the right and moral responsibility to make decisions for everyone else. They do not think any citizen, state, business, church, or charity should be allowed freedom until they first bend the knee."
Yet they want to use the force of law to impose their religious beliefs on others by determining intimate bodily decisions for pregnant women and LGBTQ people. Lawmakers who identify with the political left support laws to empower individuals to make decisions about their bodies and lives. In contrast, the political right is passing laws limiting people's ability to make these choices.
On immigration reform, they say, "The only direct impact of open borders on pro-open borders elites is that the constant flow of illegal immigration suppresses the wages of their housekeepers, landscapers, and busboys."
On "billionaire climate activists," they say their concern for the environment "is not a political cause, but a pseudo-religion meant to baptize liberals' ruthless pursuit of absolute power in the holy water of environmental virtue."
They say climate-changing oil and gas is not the problem; it is the solution: "America's vast reserves of oil and natural gas are not a problem; they are the lifeblood of growth."
Career employees of the federal government are not political appointees, and "The Conservative Promise" calls for removing any federal government employee who disagrees with the politics of the right. They boast about "how to fire supposedly 'un-fireable' federal bureaucrats and shutting wasteful and corrupt bureaus.
"The solution to all the above problems is not to tinker with this or that government program. We solve them by ripping out the trees, root, and branch."
Examples of the specific actions included in the Plan:
Department of Education:
Eliminate the Department of Education, which enforces civil rights law, including Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.
Revert to the Trump administration's Title IX sexual harassment and assault standards, which placed burdensome restrictions on the ability of survivors to report assault.
Reverse the Biden administration's definition of sex under Title IX to include sexual orientation and gender identity and redefine sex to mean biological sex assigned at birth!
Department of Health and Human Services:
Under threat of funding loss, require "liberal states" to report to the CDC "accurate and reliable statistical data about abortion, abortion survivors, and abortion-related maternal deaths."
Require treatment of "fetuses born alive" after abortion;"
Withdraw Medicaid funds for states that require abortion insurance or that discriminate in violation of the Weldon Amendment, which declares that no HHS funding may go to a state or local government that discriminates against pro-life health entities or insurers.
Audit states for Hyde amendment compliance.
Require the CDC to track "abortion across various demographic indicators to assess whether certain populations are targeted by abortion providers" (based on false allegations of eugenic motivations);
Reverse Biden administration support for travel to get abortion healthcare.
Prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds and allow states to defund Planned Parenthood in their state Medicaid plans.
Reverse FDA approval of mifepristone or at least go back to the pre-2016 limitation and prohibit the mailing of abortion pills.
Prohibit stem cell research and stop "the development and testing of the COVID-19 vaccines with aborted fetal cell lines."
Affirm "rights of conscience" to deny medical care.
Declare that abortion and euthanasia are not health care.
Reverse Biden's interpretation of The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) that requires treatment of women miscarrying.
Block gender-affirming health care.
End CDC's collection of data on gender identity.
Block National Institute of Health research on gender identity and transgender health care and instead fund studies into the "short-term and long-term negative effects of cross-sex interventions,"
Reverse the Biden administration's redefinition of "sex" to include gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy status.
Add work requirements to receive Medicaid.
Condemn single-motherhood and same-sex marriage.
"HHS should prioritize married father engagement in its messaging, health, and welfare policies."
Use welfare money to promote "Marriage, healthy family formation, and delaying sex to prevent pregnancy."
Child support in the United States should strengthen marriage as the norm, restore broken homes, and encourage unmarried couples to commit to marriage.
Led and funded by multi-billionaires, such as Charles and David Koch, conservatives have fought to cut taxes, deregulate business, ban abortion, eliminate civil rights protections as well as public health and regulations, privatize government institutions such as public schools and prisons, and eliminate welfare programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and food assistance.
With careful planning, conservatives today are working to make their policy priorities permanent, no matter what happens in future elections.
Conservatives often frame their policy crusades as part of an effort to expand "religious freedom," a narrative deployed to gut civil rights protections. But now "Project 2025" is saying the quiet part out loud: Right-wing groups do not want to ensure all Americans have religious freedom but want to impose conservative Christian views on our religiously diverse country.
Sources
"What Is Project 2025?" Time: June 9, 2024. https://act.moveon.org/go/194138?t=14&akid=394695%2E52983595%2Ecx_WMw
"Conservative groups draw up plan to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump's vision," AP News, August 29, 2023.https://act.moveon.org/go/193049?t=24&akid=394695%2E52983595%2Ecx_WMw
"The right's Project 2025 wants to make faith the government's job," MSNBC, September 8, 2023.https://act.moveon.org/go/194020?t=28&akid=394695%2E52983595%2Ecx_WMw
"Project 2025: The Right's Dystopian Plan to Dismantle Civil Rights and What It Means for Women," Ms., February 8, 2024.https://act.moveon.org/go/193050?t=32&akid=394695%2E52983595%2Ecx_WMw
"The right's Project 2025 wants to make faith the government's job," MSNBC, September 8, 2023.https://act.moveon.org/go/194020?t=34&akid=394695%2E52983595%2Ecx_WMw
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