(News Nation) — If the former Republican President Donald Trump wins the presidential election in November, conservative groups intend to implement a comprehensive plan to dismantle federal agencies.
A nearly 1,000-page handbook by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and its own “broad coalition” of other organizations provides details on how to implement “Project 2025.”
The authors of Project 2025 say it is a guide for the next president to lend a hand him repair the “damage” to America that they say has been caused by liberal politicians. But critics say Project 2025 is extremist. “authoritarian” and even dystopian.
What is Project 2025?
Essentially, the Project 2025 handbook serves as a manual for the next Republican president, detailing how to transform the executive branch and empower it.
“We need to flood the zone with conservatives,” said Paul Dans, director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project and a former Trump administration official, according to the Associated Press.
Building on four pillars – a policy agenda, personnel, training and a “180-day playbook” – Project 2025 organizers plan to “pave the way for effective Conservative government.”
The plan hinges on the election of a Republican president and uses Trump’s “Schedule F” policy, which was ended by Biden, to reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees as political appointees, allowing for mass layoffs. But Trump’s campaign has previously said he sets his own priorities and that outside groups do not speak for him.
A key component is the firing of up to 50,000 federal employees who conservative groups say stand in the way of his agenda. Project 2025 would “abolish” agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education and place others, such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice, under presidential control.
A so-called “fundamental overhaul” of the Justice Department would end the FBI’s efforts to crack down on disinformation, the Pentagon would “eliminate” diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives if the project is adopted in 2025, and soldiers fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine would be reinstated.
When it comes to social issues like abortion, Project 2025 calls for limiting the intervention by limiting mail-order drug sales and penalizing providers; other health and social services like Medicare and Social Security would also be rolled back and privatized. Project 2025 would reverse many of the Biden administration’s climate policies and place a greater focus on the fossil fuel industry.
What did people say about Project 2025?
Experts The Associated Press spoke to warned of dire consequences if the project becomes a reality in 2025. Reinstating Schedule F could cause chaos in the civil service, said Mary Guy, a professor of public administration at the University of Colorado Denver. Doreen Greenwald, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, expressed fear that federal employees would be viewed as “enemies.”
“It scares me,” Guys said. “We have a democracy where suicide is a possibility. Schedule F is just another bullet in the gun.”
US Republicans. Jared HuffmanDemocrat from California, warned that Americans “don’t understand how far we are on the path to a dystopian, right-wing theocracy.”
In a June press release, he called Project 2025 a “far-right roadmap for Donald Trump to seize ‘supreme’ power and radically undermine reproductive rights, LGBTQ equality, racial justice, free speech, and other democratic institutions and freedoms.”
A spokesman for Project 2025 rejected this criticism in a statement. NewsNation partner The Hilland said it was “just projections” and that it was Biden abusing his executive power.
But even some former Trump supporters joined Democrats in criticizing the government’s overreach.
“He constantly tried to exceed his authority, but the sycophants went along with it,” said John F. Kelly, Trump’s second White House chief of staff, in the New York TimesLike Guy, he described the idea as “chaotic.”
“It would be a nonstop exchange of fire with Congress and the courts,” Kelly said.
What are Democrats doing to counter Project 2025?
Democrats like Huffman are now trying to fight some of the measures listed in Project 2025.
Huffman, The hill wrote, is leading an initiative called the Stop Project 2025 Task Force, which is made up of prominent Democrats with different policy focuses. Groups such as Accountable US and the Center for American Progress will coordinate with the task force to craft their messaging ahead of the November election. Their strategy, Huffman said in June, will likely consist of a series of public forums.
Politico Last week, Third Way was reported to be setting up a “talent bank” to fill a Biden administration or other Democratic administration with politicians who fit its brand, and a “venture capital fund” to “create politically sympathetic groups,” according to Politico. The centrist Democratic think tank calls this the Moderate Power Project.
“We are making sure that center-left Democrats have a seat at the table,” said Destine Hicks-Lundy, a former Biden White House staffer who recently joined Third Way.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
