Project 2025 — what’s in it

Some policies are explicit in Project 2025, and I list them here. Others are not explicit, but are known to be on the agenda of many influential Republicans, and I list them in my next article.

What’s in Project 2025 and/or Agenda 47

Take partisan control of many branches of government

Reclassifying many federal civil service workers as political appointees. See below and in the next article for some examples.

Eliminate the Department of Education

Project 2025 confirms that they would “eliminate the department of education”, saying that “Mandate for Leadership calls for an end to the Department of Education. Since the Department was created, educational outcomes have not improved, and the American school system has increasingly fallen behind other countries. Giving more control back to state and local governments and expanding school choice would improve education outcomes for all Americans, especially underprivileged communities. Some functions of the Department would be moved to other departments including Labor, Justice, and Commerce.”.

Project 2025 proposes “Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated” (319/351).

Trump also wants to close the Department of Education.

According to Mary Walrath-Holdridge, Trump’s proposals for education reform focus on defunding and punishing educators and institutions that do not teach conservative values and creating new organizations to enforce rules created around Republican talking points to “save” schools from ‘Radical Left maniacs’”. They are laid out in Agenda 47.

Use public, taxpayer money for private religious schools

Project 2025 confirms that they would “use public, taxpayer money for private religious schools”, saying that “Americans are able to use taxpayer money to choose where they shop for groceries, attain housing, and obtain higher education. Religious schools often outperform public schools, and families should have the choice to send their children to these schools”.

Billions in taxpayer dollars are already going to religious schools via vouchers and Trump is backing “school choice” programs that use taxpayer dollars to send students to private and religious schools. Even before Project 2025, public schools are closing.

increase Arctic drilling

Project 2025 confirms that they would “increase Arctic drilling”, saying that “The Arctic is of immense strategic importance to America. Mandate for Leadership advocates a strong pursuit of American interests in the region, through economic freedom, through ensuring free and open shipping lanes, and through the development of the vast energy resources of the Arctic”. The Mandate says, “Alaska is not just blessed with an abundance of oil, it has vast untapped mineral potential. Therefore, the new Administration must immediately approve the Ambler Road Project” (530/562).

Trump has said he’d reopen the Arctic refuge to oil drilling.

Promote and expedite capital punishment

Project 2025 confirms that they would “Promote and expedite capital punishment”, saying that “The appropriateness of capital punishment divides Americans, and conservatives, of good will. Mandate for Leadership calls for the enforcement of the federal death penalty where appropriate and applicable, and recommends a future presidential administration pursue the death penalty for the most heinous crimes, including those involving violence and the sexual abuse of children, unless Congress says otherwise through legislation.”.

Project 2025 wants the next president to “Enforce the death penalty where appropriate and applicable” and to “ do everything possible to obtain finality for the 44 prisoners currently on federal death row” (554/586). Trump is in favour of the death penalty, including for illegal migrant sex traffickers

Dismantle NOAA, circumscribe the EPA, move functions from the CDC to the FDA.

Project 2025 denies that they would “eliminate federal agencies like the FDA, EPA, NOAA and more”, saying that “Mandate for Leadership’s plan would not eliminate the FDA or the EPA, and NOAA’s functions would be transferred to other agencies, the private sector, and states and territories”.

Project 2025 says that “a conservative U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will take a more supportive role toward local and state efforts” (417/449), calling standards unachievable and costly. It also declares, “EPA’s structure and mission should be greatly circumscribed to reflect the principles of cooperative federalism and limited government” (420/452). Trump depleted the EPA, rolling back more than 100 environmental rules. It will be a lot easier for him to go further if he gets back in office.

The Supreme Court has already done a lot of Project 2025’s work for it, curtailing the power of federal agencies and taking more power to itself, power that it is unqualified to handle.

Project 2025 is not dismantling the FDA. For example, it advocates transferring some vaccine safety programs from the CDC to the FDA (454/486) and it makes suggestions as to what functions the department should take in (456/488). But FDA enforcement actions plummeted under Trump and he crippled it on his way out.

“The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories” according to Project 2025 (664/696). ‘Sharpiegate’ showed how highly Trump regarded NOAA.

Expedited Removal of immigrants

Project 2025 says that claiming that there would be a “mass deportation of immigrants and incarceration in “camps” is misleading, saying that “Mandate supports an orderly and lawful immigration system. It advocates that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Removal Operations be primarily responsible for enforcing civil immigration regulations, including the removal of those who have violated our immigration laws. It also calls for additional resources to put an end to President Biden’s border crisis and enforce immigration laws.”.

“Prioritizing border security and immigration enforcement, including detention and deportation, is critical if we are to regain control of the border, repair the historic damage done by the Biden Administration, return to a lawful and orderly immigration system, and protect the homeland from terrorism and public safety threats” according to Project 2025 (135/167). This ignores the facts that border crossings are going down, illegal immigrants tend to commit less crime than citizens, and terrorists often fly in with valid visas.

The Mandate for Leadership is surprisingly silent on this subject. In the “Global Humanitarian Assistance” section, Project 2025 decries the conditions in foreign refugee camps (266/298). It does not mention camps for illegal immigrants to the USA, but it seems likely that at least some of them will need to be held somewhere.

Trump plans to launch a massive deportation project nationwide — 15 to 20 million people.

Number one priority in Agenda 47 is “Seal the border and stop the migrant invasion”. Number 2 is “Carry out the largest deportation operation in American history”. The New York Times says that we can expect Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps and Mass Deportations. Recently, however, Trump has come out in favour of increased legal immigration for AI and for farming.

Abandon African American and gender studies in all levels of education

Project 2025 denies that they would “ban African American and gender studies in all levels of education”, saying that “Mandate for Leadership does not mention African American studies or gender studies.”.

Project 2025 advocates eliminating the Department of Education. This would eliminate any protections for African American and gender studies in all levels of education, for example the Office of Civil Rights. There was therefore no need for it to mention them separately. It would replace Title I, Part A, which provides federal funding for lower income school districts with no-strings-attached block grants (325/357). So, what would Republican states do? Likely transfer resources without strings to faith-based schools which would be unlikely to teach such subjects. Some states rejected the teaching of an Advanced Placement course in African American Studies, but some schools are teaching it anyway. Trump signed an executive order banning the “malign ideology” of racial sensitivity training. Florida’s DeSantis’ New College tossed all its gender studies books.

Agenda 47 says, “Cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children”.

Eliminate climate protections

Project 2025 denies that they would “end climate protections”, saying that “Mandate for Leadership advocates policies that will produce economic growth through abundant, affordable energy. Farmers, hunters, and fishers know how to protect our environment better than D.C. bureaucrats. The Biden administration’s relentless focus on climate has made America less competitive and wasted crucial taxpayer dollars”. But in the Republican lexicon, “abundant, affordable energy” means fossil fuels, despite the evidence that renewable energy is now often cheaper and that fossil fuels are very bad for the environment. Fishers are crashing fish stocks and their trawlers are devastating sea beds. Farmers use a lot of fossil fuel for fertilizers and to run machinery and for transport. This shows that they (willfully?) do not understand the issue. It calls environmental standards “unachievable” and renewables “unreliable” (418/450), ignoring the costs of not reducing emissions and pollution and the progress of batteries.

A Project 2025 training video calls for eliminating references to climate change in the federal government. Florida’s governor DeSantis has already eliminated climate change from state law. Trump clearly does not understand climate change. He thinks it means ‘more oceanfront property’

Deregulate big business and the oil industry

Project 2025 calls claims that they would “deregulate big business and the oil industry” mostly true, saying that “America needs energy that is plentiful and affordable. Mandate for Leadership calls for an all-of-the-above energy policy that would promote the development of our domestic energy supply, and for fewer burdensome regulations for ALL businesses.”.

As Sarah Nadeau and Madeline Shepherd point out, “Nearly three decades of deregulation opened the door for banks, investment companies, insurers, and other firms to engage in the excessive risk-taking that culminated in the 2007–2008 financial crisis”. They say that the deregulation in Project 2025 would be a “financial disaster”. Trump plans to “free Wall Street from ‘burdensome regulations’”.

As mentioned above, Project 2025 aims to circumscribe the EPA (420/452). It says, “the next conservative President should go beyond merely defending America’s energy interests but go on offense, asserting them around the world. America’s vast reserves of oil and natural gas are not an environmental problem; they are the lifeblood of economic growth” (13/45). It calls on government to “Unleash private-sector energy innovation by ending government interference in energy decisions” (365/397). Such a policy would be disastrous for the planet. Trump has vowed to “overturn climate regulations” — at least if they give him $1 Billion.

As president, Trump depleted the EPA, rolling back more than 100 environmental rules. Trump and Vance say, ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’.

Agenda 47 says, “Cancel the electric vehicle mandate and cut costly and burdensome regulations”.

Let more people die unnecessarily in the next pandemic

Project 2025 says that “The next Administration should unequivocally embrace the premise that humanity and the international community can simultaneously tackle pandemics and other emergent health threats without impeding the rights of people” (192/224). In other words, people will not be forced to wear masks or get vaccinated or to quarantine themselves — policies which led to many excess deaths when Trump embraced them — and these are continuing among his followers. I wonder if this means that next time people would not be forced to go back to work in meatpacking plants. I detail Trump’s disastrous handling of COVID-19 in a series of articles beginning with “Trump’s lethal failure to face the COVID pandemic. Part 1: He was warned”.

Adversely affect veterans

Project 2025 devotes a whole chapter to the Department of Veterans Affairs (641/673) — the Veterans Health Administration and the Veterans Benefits Administration. It would end abortion services and gender reassignment surgery (644/676). It wants to increase the rate of referrals to private doctors (645/677). This may be a good thing sometimes for veterans living far from Veterans hospitals, but the for-profit private sector in general a bad idea, increasing costs and confusion.

Agenda 47 says, “Republicans will end luxury housing and Taxpayer benefits for Illegal Immigrants and use those savings to shelter and treat homeless Veterans. We will restore Trump Administration reforms to expand Veterans’ Healthcare Choices, protect Whistleblowers, and hold accountable poorly performing employees not giving our Veterans the care they deserve”.

According to Task & Purpose, Project 2025 would “increase privatization, narrow the eligibility criteria for health benefits and replace civil service-style employees with political appointees in its ranks” and that “veterans that were previously found eligible for service-connected disabilities may see those revised or taken away”. Many veterans would likely lose their jobs.

Trump has already shown his disdain for soldiers and veterans, calling those who die, ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’ and using their graves for photo-ops.

My next article will detail what’s not explicit in Project 2025 but highly likely.