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Will Trump implement Project 2025? What does the “transition” plan contain?
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Will Trump implement Project 2025? What does the “transition” plan contain?

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During the 2024 campaign, Democrats tried to equalize former President Donald Trump to an unpopular policy plan called Project 2025, hoping it would scare voters. It clearly hasn’t worked well enough, and with Trump expected to return to power next year with a Republican majority in the Senate and perhaps the House of Representatives, he could have wide latitude to implement his preferred policies .

So what is Project 2025, and how might it influence Trump’s governing agenda after he takes office next January?

What is Project 2025?

Project 2025 is a “presidential transition project” launched by the Heritage Foundationa staunchly conservative think tank. The Foundation has released a “leadership mandate” document every election cycle for nearly 40 years since 1981, following Reagan’s first victory the year before.

Reagan then adopted or attempted nearly two-thirds of the 2,000 policy recommendations in the first “mandate” document, according to the Heritage Foundation.

Trump reportedly said five of the eleven justices he considered for nomination to the Supreme Court seat opened by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia were the Heritage Foundation’s choices.

The think tank, which advocates traditional conservative policies of “free enterprise, limited government…and a strong national defense,” describes the 2025 project as a conservative “action plan”.

The document outlining the plan contains more than 900 pages of right-wing policy recommendations aimed at expanding the president’s control over the Justice Department and the FBI, imposing nationwide restrictions on access to abortion, rolling back environmental regulations and eliminating entire federal departments.

The project “does not speak on behalf of any candidate or campaign,” according to a statement posted on. It is “a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups that advocate for policy and personnel recommendations for the next conservative president.”

Is Trump linked to the 2025 project?

The vast majority of authors and editors who worked on the 2025 project – 31 out of 38 – have ties to Trump or his previous administration. They understand Chris Millerformer acting secretary of defense to Trump, Ken Cuccinellihis acting assistant secretary of homeland security, and Peter Navarrohis former White House aide who served prison time for defying subpoenas of the committee investigating Trump’s efforts to steal the election.

Paul Dans, Trump’s former chief of staff at the US Office of Personnel Management, was Director of Project 2025. Trump adviser Stephen Miller and his spokesperson Karoline Leavitt appeared in a video from the “Presidential Administration Academy” project.

Vice President Kamala Harris tried to present Trump as in tune with the 2025 plan.

“What you are going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025, which the former president intends to implement if re-elected,” Harris said in his speech. single debate against Trump in September.

Trump distanced himself from the project, saying in a July statement Truth on social media of “knowing nothing about Project 2025”.

Representatives for the Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. The Heritage Foundation also did not return a request for comment.

What does Project 2025 propose?

Liberal think tanks and Democratic politicians have accused Project 2025 of seeking to upend government and dismantle checks and balances to support a right-wing agenda. The plan is “the most conservative, the most unbalanced and the most extreme program that we have seen in modern times,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said at a conference press. September press conference. This “threatens to erode our democracy,” according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

Project 2025 proposals to crack down on abortion access have received particular attention – the document says the Food and Drug Administration should reverse its approval of the drug mifepristone used in almost two thirds of abortions in the United States, and ban Planned Parenthood to receive Medicaid funding.

Asset said in August he would not rule out removing access to the drug. During the election campaign, he enthusiastically took credit for the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, that he led the way in appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court. But he also said he would veto a national ban on abortion.

Blueprint 2025 calls for a major overhaul of the Justice Department, including a “vast expansion” of the number of political appointees at the Civil Rights Division and the FBI.

Trump also said he would bend the Justice Department to serve him politically: “If I’m president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me real bad, I say, ‘Get off and charge him.” he told Univision in an interview last year. John Kelly, his former chief of staff, said Trump, often described “constant and obsessive” ideas of using the FBI and Internal Revenue Service to target his enemies.

Project 2025 supports reducing environmental protection regulations, from weakening the Clear Air Act to delisting grizzly bears and other species from laws protecting endangered species. The National Weather Service and five other offices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration “could be provided commercially, probably at lower cost and higher quality,” according to the plan.

Trump, who has sometimes declared climate change a “hoax”, promised to boosting fossil fuel production and reducing pollution regulations. During his previous term, he repealed more than 100 environmental rules, according to a New York Times analysis.

The plan calls for abolishing the Department of Education – Trump also said he I would delete the department at a rally in Wisconsin in September. It would be reduce regulations requiring employers to pay employees overtime – under Trump, the Labor Department made millions of workers ineligible for overtime pay.

On immigration, Project 2025 calls on Immigration and Customs Enforcement to implement “expedited removal” of immigrants without legal status – a process normally used only at the border – and to give the green light to ICE agents to enter “sensitive areas.” Congress should fund ICE to increase the number of beds available daily in detention centers to 100,000, according to the plan.

Trump has repeatedly promised to order National Guard troops to help mass deportations. He said he would activate the provisions of the Foreign Enemies Act, previously used to arrest people of Japanese, German, and Italian descent during World War II, and use other emergency provisions.

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Contact her by email at [email protected]. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.