Who is behind Project 2025?
In 2022, the Heritage Foundation publicly released documents for something conservatives have dubbed “Project 2025.” This extensive manifesto is over 900 pages long, and documents plans to be enacted during the second Trump administration, although Trump claimed on social media that he had nothing to do with the project, and is clueless as to who is behind it.
Over 100 conservative groups put the document together, and among them, at least 140 of them have previously worked in the Trump Administration. In the first few pages of the plan, where it lists authors and contributors, six of Trump’s former Cabinet secretaries, along with his impeachment attorney, former chief of staff, and ambassadors nominated by Trump himself. In fact, a review by CNN, it was found that over half of the people who contributed to the project were previously associated with Trump in some professional degree.
What does this plan spell out?
The plan opens with four promises to the American people, with the first being to “restore the family as the centerpiece of American life and protect our children.” (pg. 36.) This includes long-standing Republican goals of eliminating marriage penalties in federal welfare programs and setting work requirements for food stamps programs. Alarmingly, on the very same page, it calls for;
“Deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion
(“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.” (pg. 37-38.)
This is a planned, government-sanctioned erasure of the LGBT community. Full stop. A common theme found within this document is the use of the First Amendment, (aka the Freedom of Speech, Press, and Religion,) for censorship, while citing things conservatives disagree with as not protected by it. It seems that the First Amendment only applies to things the Heritage Foundation agrees with. The following is a list of things the Foundation wishes to change in order to further their first promise, as well as the legal consequences;
- Pornography: Imprisonment for distribution and production, as well as being placed on a sex-offender registry
- Schools that teach “critical race theory” or “gender ideology”: Immediate cut-off of federal funding
- Gender-Affirming Care: Parents or physicians who permit minors to receive gender-affirming care will face imprisonment
- Abortion Rights: Women who undergo abortion procedures along with physicians will face imprisonment
Project 2025 cites “pro-family” values in order to “restore a culture life in America again.” This is all documented on pages 37-39.
The Second Promise: “DISMANTLE THE ADMINISTRATIVE STATE AND RETURN SELF-GOVERNANCE TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.”
This promise seems to focus on putting “the federal government back to work for the American people is to reduce its size and scope back to something resembling the original constitutional intent.” (pg. 39.) Conservatives who worked on this document seem to be under the impression that the House and the Senate have pawned off their responsibilities to government agencies, while Congress passes vague laws in order to avoid constitutional responsibilities.
These are the government agencies, along with unaccounted federal spending, the plan is alleging contribute to something dubbed the “secret lifeblood of the Great Awokening.” (pg. 41.)
- Department of Education: Injecting “racist, anti-American, ahistorical propaganda” in American classrooms
- The Pentagon: Forcing troops to attend training seminars about “white privilege.”
- The State Department: Infusing U.S. foreign aid programs with woke extremism about “intersectionality” and abortion
- Department of Justice: Forcing school districts to undermine girls’ sports and parents’ rights to satisfy transgender extremists
While the project is against the funding of these agencies, it is very into the idea of increased funding for national defense. In fact, it claims that the next conservative president must restore the strategy of “warfighting”, which according to the US Marine Corps is a strategy involving “organized application or threat of violence by military force”, specifically with the defeat of the Chinese Communist Party as a top priority.
(Note: According to the official US Senate website, The Fiscal Year 2025 Defense Appropriations Act provides $852.2 billion in total funding—a $27.2 billion, or 3.3% increase over fiscal year 2024.)
The Third Promise: “DEFEND OUR NATION’S SOVEREIGNTY, BORDERS, AND BOUNTY AGAINST GLOBAL THREATS”
This promise tackles environmental issues, the “open-border” issue, as well as foreign policy. It’s important to note the rhetoric used in this entire document overall reeks of bigotry, however this section seems to be the most blatantly xenophobic. First it chalks up the “Left’s” support of the border to maintain a “constant flow of illegal immigration [that] suppresses the wages of their housekeepers, landscapers, and busboys.” (pg. 44.) This strongly points at hateful stereotypes the Hispanic and Latino communities face.
It also cites “environmental extremism” as entirely “anti-human”, claiming that environmental conservation efforts only seek to “ban the fuels that run almost all of the world’s cars, planes, factories, farms, and electricity grids.” Interestingly enough, the document claims that these efforts are “abandoning confidence in human resilience and creativity in responding to the challenges of the future,” as if almost predicting that without these conservation efforts, there will be challenges in the future, and that the prevention of things like climate change will actually be a detriment to the nation.
April 11, 2023
(Andrej Lišakov)
“America’s vast reserves of oil and natural gas are not an environmental problem; they are the lifeblood of economic growth” is stated in this document as if the mass consumption of oil and natural gas are not scientifically proven to be harmful to the environment. It’s important to note that the only positives attributed with this quote are economic growth and billions of dollars in domestic investment, while not mentioning at all the environmental impacts nor how much it will cost to clean everything up.
The Fourth Promise: “SECURE OUR GOD-GIVEN INDIVIDUAL RIGHT TO ENJOY “THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY.”
This promise first starts off by quoting the founding fathers in which they stated “all men are created equal,” which interestingly enough contradicts the rhetoric used in the first promise, in which they strongly oppose many civil rights. It seems to be mostly centered around turning away from “socialism—Communism, Marxism, progressivism, Fascism, whatever name it chooses” (pg. 48.) It claims that all of these ideologies are not only equivalent but also expressed during the COVID-19 pandemic, in which citizens were encouraged to wear masks and self-quarantine as advised by the CDC (Center of Disease Control.)
It values economic freedom at the center because “in countries with a high degree of economic freedom, elites are not in charge because everyone is in charge.” This once again seemingly contradicts the earlier promises in which they wish to make the government smaller, putting less people in charge, as well as stripping away long-held individual rights.
Later on the same page, it once again preaches the value of freedom, not just economically, but freedoms of press and religion.
What does this mean for Americans?
Project 2025 clearly spells out the future conservatives have planned for this country. It’s fair to say that a lot of these promises are against the current “woke era” of civil rights, and applies the Consitution only in ways the Heritage Foundation sees fit for their vision. This project clearly spells out plans to strip away rights from marginalized communities deemed unfit to exist in a country by a group of people who think they get to decide what the only way to be American is.
It’s important to note that the dinner in which Project 2025 was unveiled was not an open dinner, and was only accessible to people who could afford to consistently donate large amounts of money to the Heritage Foundation. While this document claims to be saving the country from the corrupt elite, it reflects values that would be seen in a cartoonish depiction of what a corrupt elite would look like.
