By Hope Benjamin
Elm Staff Writer
With President-elect Donald Trump set to be back in the White House in just a few months, Americans are anxious regarding the implementation of Project 2025. The 900-page document has the country wondering about Trump’s plans for Project 2025, and what the next four years has in store.
The outline of policies was drafted by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative research institute that was established during Ronald Reagan’s presidency.
Based on a strong past relationship between Heritage and the Republican party, Americans should expect many of Trump’s policies to mirror those in Project 2025 come inauguration day.
Confusingly, Trump repeatedly denied any connection to Project 2025 throughout his 2024 presidential campaign.
“I have nothing to do with Project 2025,” Trump said during his debate with Kamala Harris.
However, his claims of ignorance are ridiculous, especially considering the substantial history between Heritage and himself.
According to the Guardian, “the project has the involvement of at least 140 former Trump Administration officials and is also endorsed by a constellation of oligarch-funded conservative groups.”
Not only is Project 2025 backed by Trump-affiliated Republicans, but it also has the support of Trump’s own running mate, JD Vance.
“The Heritage Foundation is not some random outpost on Capitol Hill. It is and has been the influential engine of ideas for Republicans from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump,” JD Vance said in foreword obtained by AP News.
If his own vice president advocates for the project, it is hard to believe that Trump has never read it.
According to The New York Times, Trump installed 64% of Heritage’s policy suggestions in 2016 — statistics which preface Republican hopes for another Trump presidency.
Trump’s evasive responses to questions about Project 2025 are troubling.
Based on many of the project’s proposals, which will predominantly affect minority groups, such as overhauling Medicaid, cutting federal funding for school lunches, and eliminating Head Start programs for low-income families, it is no wonder Trump wanted to distance himself from such plans.
Project 2025 is a direct attack on the livelihoods of all Americans.
According to page one, “the very moral foundations of our society are in peril.” The authors claim that Project 2025 will “rescue our kids,” constituting that “allowing parents or physicians to ‘reassign’ the sex of a minor is child abuse.”
The authors continue, claiming that the “noxious” tenets of “critical race theory” and “gender ideology” should be erased from public school curriculums in the country.
The blatant sexist, transphobic, anti-immigrant, and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and policies included in Project 2025 are a terrifying culmination of Conservative fears about changing racial and religious dynamics in the United States.
In terms of reproductive rights, Project 2025 states, “the next President has a moral responsibility to lead the nation in restoring a culture of life in America again,” and advocates for a no-exceptions procedure for rape and incest. Instead, the authors believe in the importance of recognizing “the heroism of every choice to become a mother” even in dangerous and tragic situations.
Make no mistake, if Trump’s previous policy decisions are anything to go by, 2025 is shaping up to be a disastrous year for marginalized and underrepresented Americans.
Project 2025 wants to ban protections against sex discrimination in workplace, as well as protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Echoing Trump’s 2018 bans, Project 2025 advocates for barring transgender people from the military to prevent the “toxic normalization of transgenderism.”
Many conservatives are under the assumption that Project 2025 is a leftist myth, a lie used by Democrats to tie Trump to disastrous policies, but it is very real and looming over the heads of millions of underprivileged Americans.
Under the guise of restoring traditional values and strengthening the nuclear family, Project 2025’s anti-LGBTQ+, anti-immigration, anti-abortion, and anti-human rights policies are a terrifying new reality for members who identify with these communities.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Photo Caption: Trump claimed he “has nothing to do with Project 2025”; the facts suggest otherwise.