Presidential elections 2024: what is Trump’s “Project 2025”?

Jane Anderson
Jane Anderson
Presidential elections 2024: what is Trump’s “Project 2025”?

The “Project 2025”, this is Donald Trump’s new plan if he manages to win back the White House. Among the 900 pages it contains, we find authoritarianism and ultraconservatism, themes known to the candidate. He plans to expand the powers of the president and appoint officials according to their ideology.

Trump has been in the news a lot lately, especially after the assassination attempt he suffered during a rally in Pennsylvania two days ago. The Republican Party convention, during which the former president must be officially designated as the conservative candidate for the White House, begins Monday July 15 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Donald Trump’s allies did not wait to prepare for his return to Washington. Among them is The Heritage Foundation, an ultra-conservative association. This think tank, which influenced the ultraliberal policies of President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, this time developed a plan of more than 900 pages entitled “Project 2025”. This plan is designed in anticipation of a possible return of the candidate to the White House and could be implemented as early as January 20, 2025, the date of the inauguration of the next American president.

In what context does Project 2025 fit in?

Project 2025 was developed by the Heritage Foundationa neoconservative think tank, created in 1973 to support both Ronald Reagan candidacies. The movement radicalized in the 1990s. Today, he aligns himself with the ideology of the Trumpists of the Republican Party and their slogan: “Make America Great Again”. It was with people close to Donald Trump that this project was written. It is online, accessible to everyone.

How did this think tank get closer to Trump’s ideas? We have to go back to 2016. Before his election in 2000, Donald Trump, was rather progressive democratic. He had tried to run for the Democratic Party for the first time. He ultimately sided with the Republicans. The former president realized that some of the people who supported him in the establishment and in the American population, many leaned more to the conservative side. The billionaire also quickly understood that he would never have had his place among the Democrats. It is after his 2016 election he transformed. He became more or less the embodiment of what he already represented to a large part of the American population.

The main ideas of this program

900it is the number of pages which constitute this document which presents itself as a ultraconservative program. If implemented, the United States could experience a “Second American Revolution” says the president of the think tank, Kevin Roberts, on CBS.

Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation, at the World Economic Forum on January 19, 2024.

A crucial point of “Project 2025” concerns the dismantling of the administrative state. The authors of this plan consider that the current administrative power is authoritarian and acts “against American citizens and conservative values”. They therefore propose to ending the independence of several federal agenciesincluding the Environmental Protection Agency. Adhering to climate skeptic positions, the authors assert that the country’s “vast oil and gas reserves” “are not an environmental problem” but are “the lifeblood of economic growth.”

The Heritage Foundation wants reform the Ministry of Justicewhich she accuses of being run by “bureaucrats” of “radical left” who care more about “the way they will be perceived in the next article of the Washington Post only in the interests of the Americans. The organization even distances itself from the FBI. The latter is according to them “arrogant and increasingly anarchic”.

Immigration is also at the heart of their concerns. For them, this“facilitates the criminal entry of migrants”. Still according to the foundation, the education put in place today “inject in classrooms racist, anti-American and anti-historical ».

An ultraconservative program

Another very conservative point of “Project 2025”, LGBTQIA+ rights. The authors defend a “family diary”based in particular on “marriage, children, Thanksgiving meals”. They claim that the union “one man and one woman is the ideal family structure”, demanding that the future Department of Health promote a definition of family consistent with “the Bible”. Without relying on any data, they ensure that “fatherlessness is a leading cause of poverty, crime, mental illness, adolescent suicide, drug abuse, church rejection, and school dropouts in the United States. »

Other proposals attack sexual identity. The project calls for ending “transgender activism” and to only recognize biological sex on administrative documents. They also wish remove from laws terms like “sexual orientation and gender identity, diversity, equity and inclusion”.

The right to abortion is also back on the agenda. The “2025 Project” intends ban medical abortion and monitor the shipment and transportation of abortifacient medications. Its authors also wish stop federal subsidies to Planned Parenthood. A threat to American women who have already seen this right reduced since the “Ron v. Wade.”

Expand the powers of the president

“Project 2025” may represent a threat to democracy. In fact, the program designs to grant “many executive tools” For “handcuff the bureaucracy. “This opens the door to serious abuses, particularly in the context of the latest decision of the Supreme Court on the partial immunity of the president in the exercise of these functions”explains Ludivine Gilli, director of the North American Observatory at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation for franceinfo.

Another measure included in this plan is to replace civil servants disloyal to the new government with agents chosen by the executive. These agents are trained within the Presidential Administration Academy, a conservative group created specifically for this purpose. According to Paul Dans, one of the directors of “Project 2025”, there are already 10,000, grouped under the name “Conservative LinkedIn”, as reported by Society magazine in its April 2024 issue. The project provides that in the event of Donald Trump’s return to power, 40,000 civil servants would be replaced.

Trump and the Heritage Foundation

Yet very close, the Trump team seeks to distance itself from “Project 2025”. The candidate even claims that he is not aware of this program. “I have no idea who is behind this project (…) Whatever they do, I wish them well, but I have nothing to do with them.” he certified on Truth Social, Donald Trump’s social network. However, in 2017, the Republican president described several members as the Heritage Foundation of “fantastic people” And “true friends”. So it’s hard to deny the connection between the Heritage Foundation and Donald Trump.

The think tank played an essential role in preparing for Donald Trump’s arrival at the White House in 2016. During the transition, a vice-president of the foundation oversaw recruitment in around ten federal agenciesreports the New York Times Magazine. Over the past year, hundreds of Americans recommended by this think tank have joined various government agencies, according to the magazine.

After Trump’s defeat in 2020, the ideas laboratory launched its “Project 2025”. These are approximately 140 former members of his administration who contributed directly or indirectly to the project, according to CNN. Paul Dans, the director of the initiative, was chief of staff in the Office of Personnel Management under Donald Trump. In other words, the agency responsible for human resources for federal workers.

Another senior official of “Project 2025” has been special assistant to the former president. Two of the co-authors, Ben Carson and Christopher Miller were his Ministers of Housing and Defense. Russ Vought, another contributor to the program, headed a major executive branch office.

If Donald Trump wins, there is a strong chance that certain measures will be applied.

Also read: Who is JD Vance, Trump’s running mate?