Project 2025, a sweeping policy blueprint for the next Republican president, is a 920-page plan written by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing groups. The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) is putting out weekly updates on the plan.
WENDY VIA; wendy@globalextremism.org
Via is president and cofounder of GPAHE.
ANNE NELSON; an115@columbia.edu
Nelson is the author of “Shadow Network” and a lecturer on issues related to international affairs, media and human rights.
Via told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “People are not understanding how serious this thing is, and how many of the things they [Project 2025 drafters] want to accomplish in the plan are already happening at the federal and state level. Regardless of who wins this November, it’s serious. It’s not just progressives that should know about this. Everyone should know.”
Nelson said: “The implementation side should be taken seriously if there is a Republican victory, especially if they take Congress and remove guardrails from the courts… They have a concrete action plan for each agency.”
The plan currently has nearly 100 sponsors. Via said: “Some [sponsors] have racist, white supremacist ties, like Turning Point USA. These groups put on a front: They’re highly educated, reasonable, highly religious, and are in it to protect people’s ability to worship as they wish. But when you go behind the curtain, you get racist and anti-LGBTQ, anti-woman, conspiracy theories.”
Thus far, Donald Trump has asserted he has his own platform, called Agenda 47. “He doesn’t want it to look like he’s getting fed [Project 2025],” Via said. “To my knowledge, he hasn’t contradicted anything in it. These people are talking to Trump on a regular basis.”
Both Via and Nelson stressed the environmental impacts of Project 2025. “No one is taking on the environmental issues,” Nelson said. “They would be far-reaching and transformative.” Via noted: The plan “takes away rule-making authority from the [federal] agencies. [The plan] would overturn all of that in favor of industry and energy. They want to get rid of the endangered species list because it stops building and industry. [They argue] the U.S. must be completely independent from other nations.”
Nelson added: “Very few people have read [the entire plan]. The way it is put together is overwhelming… They padded it so that it is unrealistic to read 900 pages of mind-numbing prose. I think that was intentional.
“The biggest thing people are missing is the role of the fossil fuel industry. The environmental regulation passage is horrific… The fossil fuel industry is all over these movements. They don’t give a toss about sexual politics. That’s just how they get their voting bloc… The fossil fuel industry, driven by Koch networks, is trying to reverse environmental protection and regulation. That can be done and has been done.”
The plan would end the focus on climate change and green subsidies, and remove energy efficiency standards for home appliances. “They go department by department,” Nelson said. “[They would] eliminate the downwind rulings on air pollution… The results are that extractive industries maximize their profits to an even greater degree.”
Via noted that European countries are affected by Project 2025 as well: “The plan is being used everywhere. In Europe, you’re seeing LGBTQ rights being challenged in court under the heading of religious freedom. Latin America is traditionally Catholic, but in the next 10 years it will be majority-evangelical. They do the same as Catholic churches do: provide community and services.”