PROJECT 2025: Cauldron of Chaos
A lie destroys the foundation of everything. -- Proverb
Project 2025 is a 900-page document of policy proposals spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation--a conservative "think" tank. You can download the entire document for free here.
Project 2025 explicitly calls itself a ready-to-go “presidential transition plan” ( page xii, xv, and page 1).You can find how great it is from Right Wing websites and how terrible it is from Liberal Democratic ones. A more or less objective view of it from America’s longest and closest ally can be found here.
We only take this up from the standpoint of truthfulness. Although politicians as a class have been known to stretch the truth when politically expedient, in this regard President Trump is in a class by himself. According to Wikipedia, Mr. Trump is a rock star of perfidy, duplicity, and deceit. He will lie even when the truth will serve him better. (Wikipedia cites over 30,000 Trump lies, a number that increases almost every day.)
Project 2025 was the backbone of Trump's 2024 campaign until some of its more extreme proposals and propositions started becoming known to the general public. And they didn't like it. So, Trump went on television and denied he had anything to do with it or that he had even read it. His exact words: “I have nothing to do with Project 2025. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it, purposely. I’m not going to read it.” Thirty million people heard him make that statement, and as election day drew nearer, he and his campaign repeated it regularly. His outright denial about his connections to Project 2025 was a major factor in putting him over the top in the vote counting.
Was he telling the truth or lying? You may decide.
Within days of his inauguration, Trump had appointed a key Project 2025 architect (Russell Vought) to lead the White House Budget Office, and Trump's executive directives began mirroring the Project 2025 themes. As of this writing, Trump has tapped over 200 people listed as either contributors, authors, instructors or founders of the Project 2025 Advisory Board (America First Legal Foundation) for important jobs in his administration to act as henchmen. (See list below.)
Within hours of his inauguration, he began implementing every one of the Project 2025 major policies. Eleven of the most widely unpopular ones (according to survey) include:
1. Mass Reclassification of Federal Employees so they could be fired more easily: Trump reclassified tens of thousands of federal employees, and as of this writing has fired, forced out or pressured to leave, over 200,000 persons from the Federal work force—10% of the total, with over a million years of experience and expertise between them.2. Consolidation of Executive Power over independent agencies: Since taking power Trump has exerted unprecedented presidential pressure and control over previously independent agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, NASA, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Reserve Bank. He has also disbanded important watchdog functions over the Executive Branch, the Military, and the Department of Justice. 3. Dismantling the Administrative State: Trump, at this writing, has almost completely eliminated the Department of Education and the EPA while drastically reducing the federal bureaucracy’s ability to regulate crimes perpetrated by politicians and those polluting the country’s air and water, plus gutted the government’s ability to respond to pandemics or natural catastrophes.
4. Rescinding LGBTQ+ Protections: Exactly as demanded in Project 2025, Trump immediately reversed policies protecting LGBTQ+ individuals in the workplaces and the in the military, reinstating the ban on transgender military service,
5. Drastic Immigration & Border Measures: Trump exactly followed the 2025 blueprint of deploying the military for border enforcement, ending birthright citizenship, demanding mass deportations, and resumed border wall construction.
6. Climate Policy Reversal: Trump again, for the second time, withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement and dismantled most federal climate initiatives while promoting maximal fossil fuel production.
7. Restructuring the Justice Department: Trump exactly followed the Project 2025 blueprint to fire large numbers of career attorneys and use the DOJ more overtly to pursue political opponents and purge anyone in the DOJ or FBI perceived to be “ideological opponents” of their extreme measures.
8. Anti-Abortion & “Family” Policies: Project 2025 advocated using an 1873 law to justify implementing a federal abortion ban and remove FDA approval for abortion pills, which is exactly what Trump did. As of this writing Roe vs. Wade has been overturned by Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justices, and abortion has been made illegal in 13 states and highly regulated in many others.
9. Ending Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Efforts: As required by Project 2025, Trump initiated the wholesale elimination of DEI initiatives across the entire Federal government and Armed Forces, which opponents say reverse efforts to address systemic inequalities and result in less-representative institutions.
10. Withdrawing from International Institutions: As per Project 2025’s move toward unilateralism, Trump has drastically reduced cooperation with international organizations such as the World Health Organization, the United Nations and NATO, a trend seen by many as reducing U.S. leadership role in international affairs.
11. Waging War in the Middle East: Project 2025 urged a confrontational policy against Iran, a shift away from diplomacy towards an assertive "maximum pressure approach" to counter Iran's power and influence. It also strongly promoted removing and replacing the Iranian regime.
We do not here advocate for or against any of the above measures. We only point out Trump’s obvious and very significant lie in order to secure the White House. When telling the truth about his connections to Project 2025 would have cost him the election, Trump lied about them.
Beware the liar whose mouth is full of promises. – AESOP AND MATTHEW
Trump Project 2025 Appointees
Cabinet-level positions included :Russell Vought (for Director of Office of Management and Budget) and John Ratcliffe (Director of the Central Intelligence Agency). Troy Edgar (nominated for the position of deputy Secretary of Homeland Security) and Jon Feere (appointed Chief of Staff at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency) were both contributors to Project 2025.
At least ten Project 2025 contributors were nominated to positions at the Executive Office of the President. Five have Department of State nominations; four at the Department of Defense; three each at the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Transportation; two each at the Department of Veterans Affairs and Federal Communications Commission; one each at the Central Intelligence Agency, Department of the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, Securities and Exchange Commission, and Small Business Administration.
A partial list of individuals directly connected to Project 2025 and their nominated or confirmed roles in the administration follows: Michael Anton, Department of State Director of the Secretary's Policy Planning Staff Paul Atkins, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman James Baehr, Department of Veterans Affairs General Counsel Steven Bradbury, Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary James Braid, Executive Office of the President Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs Adam Candeub, Federal Communications Commission General Counsel Brendan Carr, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Elbridge Colby, Department of Defense Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Monica Crowley, Department of State Chief of Protocol Michael Duffey, Department of Defense Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Troy Edgar, Department of Homeland Security Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Jon Feere, Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Peter Hoekstra, Department of State Ambassador to Canada Thomas Homan, Executive Office of the President "Border Czar" Roman Jankowski, Department of Homeland Security Chief Privacy Officer Paul R. Lawrence, Department of Veterans Affairs Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Karoline Leavitt, Executive Office of the President Assistant to the President and Press Secretary Earl Matthews, Department of Defense General Counsel of the Department of Defense BrianvMcCormack, Executive Office of the President Chief of Staff to the National Security Adviser StephenvMiller, Executive Office of the President Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor CaseyvMulligan, Small Business Administration Chief Counsel for Advocacy PetervNavarro, Executive Office of the President Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing Caleb Orr, Department of State Assistant Secretary of State (Economic and Business Affairs) JohnvRatcliffe, Central Intelligence Agency Director Reed Rubinstein, Department of State Legal Adviser of the Department of State Matthew Schuck, Department of Transportation Director of Communications and Senior Governmental Affairs Officer Kathleen Sgamma, Department of the Interior Director Loren Smith, Department of Transportation Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy Aaron Szabo, Environmental Protection Agency Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation Anthony Tata, Department of Defense Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Russell Vought, Executive Office of the President Director of the Office of Management and Budget