This week, GOP delegates are meeting behind closed doors to draft a platform for the upcoming convention; several of these delegates have been heavily involved in drafting Project 2025.
Project 2025 – Mandate for Leadership (pdf) was produced largely by members of the conservative Heritage Foundation and outlines a proposal for a Trump presidency. It’s about 900 pages and calls for sacking thousands of civil servants, expanding the power of the president, dismantling many federal agencies, and sweeping tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.
It also proposes to abolish checks and balances among the 3 branches of government, chip away at church-state separation and impose a far-right agenda that infringes on basic freedoms. Some of it sounds like motherhood and apple pie, but would have far reaching implications. If enacted it would:
- Make Medicare Advantage the default program for all newly eligible Medicare participants.
- Prioritize Christian values throughout government and public life – “Christian nationalism” is one of the bullet points.
- Invoke the Insurrection Act on Day One to quash protests
- Allow the President to refuse to spend authorized congressional funds on projects he doesn’t support, a practice banned by lawmakers in the Nixon era. This takes away the power of the people when their elected representatives can be undermined.
- Overturn same-sex marriage
- Institute a Federal abortion ban and reduce access to contraceptives
- Reinstate Schedule F, a Trump-era executive order that Biden rescinded, to reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees who could more easily be fired and replaced with his supporters.
Trump is now trying to distance himself by saying “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. 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.” If he knows “nothing” then how can he state some proposals are ridiculous and abysmal?
These proposals undermine key principles in the Constitution and put our way of life at risk.