republican
“Project 2025”: A radical plan for Trump
Updated on 17.07.2024 – 07:00Reading time: 4 min.
When Trump moved into the White House after the 2016 election, he was unable to implement many ideas – he lacked a proper plan. That could be different with a possible second term.
If you want to know what the USA could expect if Donald Trump wins the election, you can simply read it. You do have to take a little time, though, because the manifesto “Mandate for Leadership. The Conservative Promise” is more than 900 pages long.
The handbook of the right-wing conservative think tank Heritage Foundation is better known as “Project 2025”. It is a radical policy blueprint for the next Republican president. Trump is officially trying to distance himself from the text. But the foundation and the Republican Party are closely linked – it is one of the sponsors of the party convention in Milwaukee.
“It is not enough for the Conservatives to win the election,” the project’s slogan reads. “If we want to free the country from the grip of the radical left, we need both a government program and the right people who are ready to implement that program on day one of the next Conservative government.” Numerous conservative organizations have joined “Project 2025.” It offers a blueprint for shaping the first 180 days after taking office.
It is not Trump’s plan, but it is a plan that was made for Trump. The Heritage Foundation has published such strategy papers in the past – even before Trump’s election victory in 2016. After the Republican took office, however, there was chaos in the White House. If Trump wins the presidential election in November, the think tank believes things will be different this time.
The plan sets out four main objectives:
1. “Restoring the family as the centerpiece of American life and protecting
our children”
The “Project 2025” represents extremely conservative sociopolitical positions. The authors reject abortion, call for a ban on pornography and advocate for measures that promote “marriage, work, motherhood, fatherhood and the nuclear family.”
2. “Abolition of the administrative state and return of self-government to the American people”
The authors of “Project 2025” want to largely replace civil servants in federal agencies and ministries with political employees. Behind this is the deep state myth that government officials who supposedly opposed Trump during his term in office are actually ruling in secret in Washington. The president’s power is to be expanded and Congress weakened. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which also includes the weather service and the US hurricane center, is to be dissolved because it is “one of the most important driving forces of the climate change alarm industry”. Its functions are to be transferred to other agencies or privatized.
3. “Defending our nation’s sovereignty, borders and wealth against global threats”
Protecting the US border is named as a priority in the manifesto. Trump’s border wall is to be completed on the southern border with Mexico and immigration laws are to be tightened. The detention and deportation of illegal immigrants is “crucial if we want to regain control of the border.”
4. “Securing our God-given individual rights to a free life”
The authors advocate so-called religious freedom. Contrary to what it may sound, this actually means that Christian values should be promoted with public funds and should play a central role in everyday life. The Ministry of Health and Social Services should stand for a “biblically based, social science-based definition of marriage and family.”
US President Joe Biden’s Democrats are warning urgently about “Project 2025” during the election campaign. The blueprint gives Trump more power over people’s daily lives and eliminates democratic control mechanisms. This has brought the Republican into action. He knows nothing about “Project 2025,” the 78-year-old wrote on his online mouthpiece Truth Social. “I disagree with some of the statements, and some of the statements are absolutely ridiculous and catastrophic.”