A set of conservative policy proposals known as Project 2025 have become the focus of criticism from opponents of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as they seek to highlight what they say are the risks of his return to the White House.
Trump has recently tried to distance himself from the 2025 project, even though many of his closest political advisors are deeply involved in it.
Democratic President Joe Biden's campaign says the project is evidence that Trump will adopt a series of authoritarian and far-right policies if he becomes president.
What is the 2025 project?
Project 2025 is, at its core, a set of detailed policy proposals drawn up by hundreds of prominent conservatives.
Project participants hope Trump will adopt it if he is elected president.
These proposals are included in a book consisting of about 900 pages.
Project participants are also compiling lists of thousands of conservatives who could be placed in political appointees in the cabinet in the early days of the Trump administration.
Behind the scenes, project affiliates are drafting executive orders and regulations that can be used to quickly implement the policies the project advocates once Trump takes office.
Is the project linked to the Trump campaign?
The project, which is the result of a collaboration of dozens of conservative organizations, is supervised by the right-wing Heritage Foundation think tank.
This group is independent of the Trump campaign, a fact emphasized by Project 2025 and Trump himself.
“I don't know anything about Project 2025,” Trump said on social media in early July, but that's not the whole story.
In fact, many of Trump's closest political advisors who are likely to hold senior positions in his administration are deeply involved in the project.
For example, former Trump administration official Rosfut plays a key role in the 2025 project.
Vaught also serves as policy director for the Republican National Convention Platform Committee, an appointment approved by the campaign.
What are the main proposals in the project?
The policy proposals of Project 2025 extend from foreign affairs to education.
Among other things, Project 2025 proposes laws that would make it illegal to mail prescription abortion pills, criminalize pornography and abolish the Department of Education.
The project also calls for the repeal of large-scale environmental conservation regulations and a crackdown on programs that promote diversity in the workplace, which the project says may be largely illegal.
The project also calls for expanding the scope of presidential power by increasing the number of appointees to political positions and strengthening the president’s authority over the Ministry of Justice.
The proposal appalled many law enforcement officials, who say it would undermine the department's ability to conduct investigations without political interference.
Does Trump approve of the project proposals?
Trump appears to agree with many proposals in the project, but not all of them.
In practice, his campaign has a small internal policy team, and Trump tends to discuss policy only in broad terms on the campaign trail.
Trump supported many proposals central to the 2025 project, such as giving himself the ability to increase the number of appointees to political positions in the government and abolishing the Ministry of Education, but he does not agree with other proposals, such as imposing restrictions on abortion drugs.
Why is Project 2025 important now?
Project 2025 has been around in some form since early 2023.
But in the past few months, the Biden campaign has made a concerted effort to boost awareness of Project 2025 among voters and to turn the project into a symbol of the far-right political shift that the campaign says will occur in the United States if Trump becomes president.
“Project 2025 will destroy America,” Biden said this week, and his campaign created a web page dedicated to the project.
In July, the Democratic National Committee announced plans to place billboards talking about Project 2025 in 10 cities.
Concerns have grown among some Trump opponents that the project's attempts to consolidate the president's power would be particularly dangerous after a Supreme Court decision in early July granting presidents broad immunity from prosecution for actions they take while in office.
In turn, the Trump campaign has expressed increasing discomfort with the project, and has consistently emphasized that the project proposals have no connection to the campaign's official political program.
In a statement to Reuters, a Trump campaign official accused Democrats of spreading fear and said that nothing other than the official Republican platform and a series of campaign proposals known as the Priority List 47 should be viewed as an official position.
“Team Biden and the Democratic National Committee are lying and spreading fear because they have nothing else to offer the American people,” said Daniela Alvarez, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign.
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