Graphic by Joseph Parillo, Graphic Designer
By Jonah Marshall, Staff Writer
Background of Project 2025
Project 2025 is a 920-page document written by the conservative organization, The Heritage Foundation. Former president Donald Trump has tried to distance himself from it, but this is yet another one of his lies. Six of his former cabinet secretaries are involved in writing it, along with 140 former Trump staffers who are listed as editors and authors, including JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate and Russel Vought, a former cabinet member who was caught on video saying, “Trump does indeed know and support 2025.” In the video, Vaught explains his connection to the project and how he believes that Trump is just playing politics, when he says he knows nothing about the blueprint for a second Trump presidency. Trump’s name was also mentioned over 300 times in the blueprint. There are several Trump lawyers who attempted to keep him in power. Other notable names are Stephen Miller, a longtime Trump advisor, and Mark Meadows, Trump’s last Chief of Staff.
What exactly is Project 2025?
Here is a list of categories that Project 2025 negatively affects at the Federal level.
Healthcare/Reproductive Health
- Complete abortion ban. Page 450: “From the moment of conception, every human being possesses inherent dignity and worth, and our humanity does not depend on our age, stage of development, race, or abilities. The Secretary must ensure that all HHS programs and activities are rooted in a deep respect for innocent human life from day one until natural death: Abortion and euthanasia are not health care.” Why does anyone have a right to tell a woman what she can and can not do with her body?
- Eliminating the Affordable Care Act. This would lead to at least 14 million Americans losing access to healthcare, and people with pre-existing conditions would no longer be required to be covered by health insurance companies regardless of the type of plan.
- No longer allowing Veterans Affairs to pay for service members’ abortions while deployed.
LGBTQ Policy
- Reversing the policy that allows transgender people to serve in the military. Why would anyone want to stop people from serving in the military? Why would you want the military to be less accepting? Unlike the draft-dodging former president, there are people who care for this country and our military, and want to protect us. Why would we stop that because of who they are?
- Abolishing the Equality Act, which legalized gay marriage.
Education
- Any school that has vaccine and/or mask mandates will not receive federal funding. All 50 states have vaccine requirements. Not providing funds to schools attempting to keep children safe is dangerous for the public health.
- Eliminating the Department of Education. This could end federal student aid, as well as funding that Moraine Valley receives. It would also lead to each state making its own laws on educational standard, risking certain subjects being enforced or not being taught.
- Banning gender and African-American studies in all K-12 education and eliminating any diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Environmental Policy Note:
- Dismantling the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which tracks severe storms such as hurricanes, monitors climate change, and protects marine life. Dismantling this would endanger people living in hurricane-prone states and put marine populations at risk of extinction.
- Dismantle National Weather Service.
- Elimination of the Office of Clean Energy.
- Repeal the Inflation Reduction Act, which helps tackle climate change, invest in clean energy, and create jobs. Some Republican Congress members have discussed all the jobs and money their districts and states have received, but it turns out that was thanks to the IRA, which they voted against.
“It would be game over for climate progress in the U.S., turning the reins of our government over to the polluters.”
– Michael Mann, climate scientist and professor of Environmental and Earth Science
Economic Issues
- Project 2025 calls for the elimination of the Head Start Program, which provides free education to families with children who are 5 years old or younger. The program teaches kids physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development skills, as well as math and reading skills. It also provides free dental care. Head Start programs benefit lower-income families and help set their kids up for success in later schooling. These programs have shown improvement in crime reduction, higher test scores, and better physical health. Eliminating this would put lower-income families with young children at higher risk of proper education and mental and physical health. Eliminating this is the opposite of being pro-family.
- Reducing the corporate income tax to 18% (currently at 21%). The last time Trump did this was during his 2017 tax cut, when he slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, adding $1.3 trillion to the deficit.
- A national sales tax: This would increase the cost to your wallet at the grocery store and the gas pump.
- Weaken child labor laws and have children work in hazardous places.
NOTE: IF seeking MORE information on how Project 2025 will destroy the economy please go to this link.
Plans of forming a dictatorship.
- Project 2025 calls for the elimination of the Department of Justice, eliminating the Department of Commerce, and defunding the FBI. The party that claims to be pro-police now wants to defund the FBI, our federal level law enforcement agency.
- Reclassifying federal workers under schedule F.
Explanation: There are two types of federal employees. The first group is merit-based workers, which are career position jobs, people who got the job through school and work experience. They are considered experts. EX: an engineer at NASA or a scientist at the FDA. There are an estimated 2 million employees in this category and they have federal protections from being fired unless there is documented cause of wrong doing.
Second group: Appointed workers, who serve under president and are an estimated 4,000 political appointees. This idea in project 2025 would reclassify the first group into political appointees. If this happened, a scientist at the FDA could be fired by the president and then Trump could hire a scientist to work there who would make abortion, abortion-type pills, and contraception illegal. This proposal is not democratic, but is a textbook example of how a dictator acts.
- Impoundment: The president can spend the money that Congress appropriated for something else. For example, the budget was approved for education grants, but the president uses the money from education on something else. It is illegal. This was the basis for Trump’s first impeachment when he did withheld aid to Ukraine until Zelenskyy promised to open an investigation into the Biden family. Bringing impoundment back means is that the president could go around Congress and do what he wants with the funds they have approved in the budget, a direct violation of the Constitution.
Immigration
- Ending birthright citizenship. Children born to undocumented immigrants would not automatically be considered US Citizens by birth.
- Mass deportations of 11 million undocumented immigrants, removed by the National Guard, and the establishment of detention camps.
- Stop asylum seeking for people who are fleeing danger in their home countries. Danger could include war, gangs or drug cartels, and death threats due to religion or political beliefs.
- Eliminating Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) which protects undocumented people who were brought into the US as children, but who do not have citizenship status.
Veteran issues
- Reducing the number of medical-related conditions that service members can claim for disabled service. Brocks Tucker who served as the chief of staff for veterans affair under the Trump administration stated in project 2025 ‘“VA’s Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD) has assigned disability ratings to a growing number of health conditions over time,” some of which are “tenuously or wholly unrelated to military service.”
- Reinstating service members who were let go due to declining the COVID-19 vaccination.
Housing and Urban Development Changes
- End the housing-first initiative which helps families and people experiencing homelessness receive permanent housing. There are 14 pages written by Ben Carson who served as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
- End Housing First policies so that the department prioritizes mental health and substance abuse issues before jumping to permanent interventions in homelessness.” What this is saying is that if you are someone who is not seeking permanent employment and or have a substance addiction, you will be ineligible.
Takeaways: These are only a handful of the policies in Project 2025. In summary, Veterans, the LGBTQIA community, women, immigrants, and environmentalists, our very democracy, and economy will all be in harm’s way under a second Trump presidency that implements Project 2025. The Solution? DO NOT VOTE FOR DONALD TRUMP AND JD VANCE COME NOVEMBER 5. Instead, vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to stop this plan from taking effect. Vote for freedom for all people in our country!
