The Democratic National Convention spent a good deal of time exposing and excoriating Trump’s plan for a second term, “Project 2025.” By now, I suspect that any observant person who listens to a broad range of news sources and subscribes to this newsletter (thank you very much) knows a lot about Project 2025.
If you want a good primer on Project 2025, I recommend this report and review from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. It is a well-organized description and rebuttal of the main goals of the Project, which has as its ultimate target the implementation of an authoritarian, Christian-Nationalist oligarchy. I encourage my readers to spend some time on those pages if they really do want to read th
e whole 950-page document itself. You can access the Project 2025 here. If you want a good one-page summary of Project 2025, you can get it here.
So many people have now learned about the goals and objectives of the Project that even Trump himself has had to back away from it in his usual transparent and deceptive way. He fools no one except for his core MAGA base, who suspend critical thought and accept every word uttered out of Trump’s mouth, which, if you have heard any of his recent ramblings and meanderings, might cause a severe case of vertigo.
Even with all the exposure and examination of Project 2025, there are still a few things that even the most astute reader/observer might not know. For this article, I want to unveil Four Things You May Not Know About Project 2025. These observations are not just interesting but crucial in fully understanding the nature of the MAGA threat to our democracy. Your concern and engagement in this issue are very important.
Here we go….
#1 – There Is More Than One Project 2025
The Heritage Foundation, the source of Project 2025, has existed for decades and now is home to many of the most ardent MAGA supporters and former Trump administration officials anywhere. The Director, Kevin Roberts, made these comments about his own position regarding Trump and the 2020 election. In January 2024, Roberts said he did not believe that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.
He also said that he saw Heritage’s role as “institutionalizing Trumpism,” and”the Trump administration, with the best of intentions, simply got a slow start. And Heritage and our allies in Project 2025 believe that must never be repeated.”
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, another organization is creating a transition plan for a second Trump term. This organization is called the America First Policy Institute (AFPI).
Founded in 2021 by former Trump administration officials Linda McMahon (yes, the wife of World Wrestling Federation CEO Vince McMahon), Larry Kudlow, and Brooke Rollins, AFPI has positioned itself as a formidable rival to the long-e
stablished Heritage Foundation, creating a divide in conservative policy-making spheres. All three AFPI leaders served in the first Trump administration.
Beyond those three, AFPI boasts an impressive roster of nearly 200 policy experts, including nine former Cabinet members, 20 White House senior staff, and almost 50 senior administration officials from the Trump era. With that sort of policy expertise and ties to th
e Trump world, AFPI has quickly risen as a voice of the “new conservative movement” which is not new. It is simply MAGA 2.0.
Like Project 2025, AFPI’s 250-page, smaller plan, calls for a large-scale attack on much of the current government:
“America First approach requires us to reform the civil service to create accountability in the bureaucracy. It also requires us to dismantle the administrative state and achieve the elusive goal of balancing the federal budget.”
It goes well beyond Project 2025. AFPI advocates the virtual elimination of Civil Service protections for government employees:
“To protect the government’s democratic accountability—as well as to remove poor performers from the federal workforce—the federal government should return to at-will employment.”
The AFPI plan, similar to Project 2025, is heavy on energy policy and advocates ditching any policies to combat the climate crisis. It offers a continuation of government subsidies for coal, oil, and natural gas, along with complete deregulation. An analysis from earlier this month reveals that if Project 2025 energy policies were imposed, climate-wrecking pollution would surge by 2.7 billion metric tons by 2030 and cause there to be 1.7 million fewer jobs in that year compared to the current trajectory. The same is true for the AFPI plan.
Take your pick: Project 2025 or the AFPI Plan. There isn’t that much difference, but it does highlight a division and rivalry within the MAGA movement that might threaten to weaken it.
#2 – Project 2025 Is Already Being Implemented In Many States
Iowa: in my home state, we now give public money to private religious schools with no accountability for those funds in the name of “school choice.” The MAGA-Republican legislature in the Hawkeye state has also banned books, forbidden health care for transgender youth, forbidden the teaching of racial concepts that might make people “uncomfortable,” and banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, which is essentially a total ban. Welcome to Project 2025.
Oklahoma: As of June 27, 2024, Oklahoma schools are now required to incorporate the Bible as part of the curricula in grades five through 12. The memo sent to all school districts instructs schools to refer to the Bible and the Ten Commandments for their “substantial influence on our nation’s founders and the foundational principles of our Constitution.” The State Superintendent of Schools also issued an emergency rule to prevent students from changing the genders listed on their school files, aligning with Project 2025’s stance on gender and sexuality education.
Florida: Under Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida has also emerged as a primary laboratory for policies that closely mirror Project 2025’s recommendations. The state’s controversial “Parents Rights in Education Act,” dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by critics, aligns closely with Project 2025’s call for parental control over curriculum, particularly regarding formal discussions of gender and sexuality in the classroom. The “Stop WOKE Act” of 2022 further shows the state’s alignment with Project 2025, limiting discussions of race and gender in state universities and banning certain workplace diversity practices.
Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi: all three states have implemented various policies aligned with Project 2025, particularly in the areas of abortion rights and religious expression in public spaces. All three states have enacted strict abortion bans, and Louisiana has passed a law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every classroom.
Texas: has already enacted numerous policies aligned with Project 2025’s goals, particularly in areas of abortion, LGBTQ+ rights, education, and immigration. The state has implemented strict abortion bans, including measures that allow citizens to sue anyone who aids in an abortion.
This list could go on, but it exemplifies the reality that Project 2025 is already being successfully implemented in many places throughout the country. If you want a preview of what life will be like nationally if Trump wins, look at what is happening in these states.
#3 – Project 2025 Is Only Viable Because of Six Billionaires Who Fund It
It is no surprise that Project 2025 is widely unpopular with most Americans, which is why Donald Trump is unsuccessfully trying to distance himself from it. But consider: If the ideas and goals of this plan are so unpopular, why are they gaining traction? The answer is a common one: MONEY!
Here are the six billionaire families that are at the core of the financial support for Project 2025. They represent wealthy people who see the role of government as bending to the will of a few really rich people, in other words, oligarchs.
The Coors Family: Since 2020, they’ve donated $2.7 million to Project 2025 groups, with contributions flowing to organizations like the Heritage Foundation. Hillsdale College, which The New Yorker called “the Christian liberal arts college at the heart of the culture wars,” received nearly $900,000 from the Coors Foundation.
Charles Koch: The Kochs might be the most well-known of this group. In recent years, he has contributed at least $9.6 million to Project 2025 advisors. His largest single donation, $3.8 million, went to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an organization with deep ties to Heritage and the Trump administration.
The Uihlein Family: Famous for the shipping company Uline, the family has contributed $13 million to Project 2025 groups. Richard Uihlein also bankrolled partisan newspapers and backed Roy Moore in Alabama even after Moore was accused of sexual misconduct with underage girls.
Richard Mellon Scaife: although he died in 2014, The Sarah Scaife Foundation and the Allegheny Foundation have contributed $21.5 million to Project 2025 advisors since 2020, including $4.1 million directly to the Heritage Foundation.
Barre Seid: He is the industrialist behind electronics manufacturer Tripp Lite, who gave $1.65 billion in shares to Marble Freedom Trust, a nonprofit controlled by Federalist Society co-chairman and radical Catholic Leonard A. Leo. From Marble Freedom Trust, $22.4 million has flowed into Project 2025.
The Bradley Family: They originally established the Allen-Bradley electronics company, which has become a conservative powerhouse under the leadership of figures like Michael W. Grebe and current chairman Art Pope, a longtime ally of the Koch network. Their foundation has contributed a staggering $52.9 million to Project 2025 advisors since 2020.
These financial ties paint a picture of a tightly knit network rather than a broad coalition, and many of the funded organizations have overlapping leadership and long-standing connections. This small group of wealthy oligarchs reminds us of their outsized power in shaping policy and setting the country’s direction.
#4 – Even If Trump Loses, These Groups and Ideas Are Not Going Away
These folks, especially the white Christian Nationalists, have been playing a long game for a long time. That is why they have scored a good deal of success during the Trump era. Trump is nothing more than a convenient figurehead who happens to have a large following of populist voters. Hitching their wagon to the Trump bandwagon was a natural and strategic thing to do.
But here is the truth: they don’t need Trump to implement their radical and unpopular agenda. There are others who will play the role of cheerleaders and promoters of oligarchic-style government: people like Kim Reynolds, Ron DeSantis, and Greg Abbott, all governors with Christian Nationalist legislatures. Then there are those in Congress, such as Mike Johnson, the Speaker, who will do their bidding along with a score of others.
So don’t live under the illusion that a Trump defeat will end the threat to democracy. It is just the beginning, and that fight will need to continue.
But here is the good news. Despite the vast amount of money on their side, vastly more sane and sensible people oppose their agenda. Given a straight-up vote, Project 2025 would go down in a landslide that would bury it for decades. The key will be voting, where we must keep our eyes focused. It is no wonder voter suppression is part of the plan to turn the US into an oligarchy. We will have to be vigilant to be sure large numbers of voters are not delegitimized through voter roll purges and other restrictive actions.
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