Recently, there’s been a lot of talk about Project 2025 in the news and by some politicians. It was a major talking point at the DNC, where Democrats both mocked and warned about the dangers of the more than 900-page document.
What exactly does Project 2025 mean for you?
Project 2025 was written by the Heritage Foundation, a “conservative think tank that opposes abortion and reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrants’ rights, and racial equity,” according to the ACLU. This document could impact nearly every aspect of your life from civil rights to your economic future.
The Project 2025 website lists out the goals that the foundation wishes to enact on the first day of what they hope will be Trump’s second term: January 20th, 2025. The authors foresee the document as a playbook for his first 180 days in office. Trump has publicly disavowed the document, however. A UMass Amherst poll found mass disapproval of many of the ideas. This may be why Republicans (and Trump) are trying to distance themselves from it, while Democrats have been tying the GOP to it in campaign ads and speeches.
Donald Trump hasn’t offered much in the way of policy goals during his campaign, but some of his advisors have ties (his Chief of Staff, his Special Assistant, his acting Defense Secretary, Director of the Civil Rights Subdivision of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Director of Presidential Personnel) to the highly controversial, far-right playbook, Project 2025.
Politico describes Project 2025 as having a “Christian Nationalist” perspective, which means “to create or maintain a legal fusion of Christian religion with a nation’s character” according to Britannica. In practice, this means that Project 2025 wants to adapt the nation into one belief system with explicitly Christian Nationalist-based policies. Critics of Christian Nationalism have cited the United States’ longstanding emphasis on religious freedom, as cited in the 1st amendment.
The most pertinent issue for students might be the education portions of the document. The Department of Education would be eliminated, funds that support low-income students would be cut, and the ability to demand schools follow civil rights law would end, according to Education Week.
Another goal of Project 2025 is to severely limit abortion access and reinstate a 19th-century law, known as the Comstock Act. Opponents have dubbed it a“zombie law” (as well as “unconstitutional and unenforceable”). This law could also be used to limit access to both birth control and Plan B.
The authors of the agenda also aim to reduce SNAP by forcing work requirements to receive these benefits and ending federal loan forgiveness programs (a hallmark of the Biden administration’s campaign promises back in 2020, according to Forbes). They also plan to severely curtail Medicare and Medicaid affectability and repeal the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), according to Boston University.
As it was for the Trump campaign in 2016, Project 2025 takes a harsh view on immigrants coming into America (specifically those coming from Central and South America). In their own words, the agenda aims to “secure the border, finish building the wall, and deport illegal aliens”. The aim seems to be to make it more difficult to legally establish residence in the US.
A way they plan to establish all these policies is to aim to replace thousands of government workers with loyalists. Specifically, it threatens to destroy the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, “eliminate the independence of various commissions, including the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission,” and de-fang the Environmental Protection Agency by taking away climate change regulations, CNN reports.
Additionally, funding for research on climate change will be revoked.
Project 2025 envisions family being at the center of American life, but only heterosexual, nuclear families. PBS reports that the goals of Project 2025 concerning LGBTQ+ rights are to re-ban transgender people from joining the military, slashing LGBTQ+ protections across the board (something they also hope to do with other marginalized groups), and ask Congress to define gender as strictly either male or female which will be determined at birth.
They also aim to eliminate DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programs, claiming “affirmative discrimination”.
The election takes place on November 5th of this year; seniors, please register to vote in the upcoming election if you will be 18 by election day. If you are 16 or 17, you can pre-register to vote, which will make you automatically registered when you turn 18. Lastly, remember to research and vote for every position, not just the president.
Even if you aren’t old enough to vote, it is still important to know what Project 2025 is because it is your future, too.