Trumpian Project 2025 is 'Far-Right Playbook for American Authoritarianism'
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| Trump offers creepy smile in snap with current House Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson |
Project 2025, as it
is also known, builds on Heritage's latest Mandate for Leadership,
a series which since the Reagan administration has served as the right-wing
think tank's to-do list for the next Republican president.
The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) put
out a detailed analysis of
Project 2025, which the group described as a "far-right playbook for
American authoritarianism" and "a threat to a multiracial, diverse
democracy."
Across 13 sections, the GPAHE report introduces the
project, explains the role of Christian nationalism, and details efforts to gut
the civil service, reverse progress on racial equality, eviscerate LGBTQ+
rights, restrict reproductive freedom, impose hardline immigration rules, roll
back climate action, end "woke" military policies, overhaul public
education, and curb human rights.
The analysis also features a full list of organizational
supporters and profiles of key backers, including the Family Research Council,
Heartland Institute, Moms for Liberty, and Turning Point USA.
"The path to authoritarianism usually first involves democratic backsliding, propelled by political figures and parties with authoritarian instincts who employ specific tactics," the report states. "These factors are evident in Project 2025, which explicitly advocates politicizing independent institutions by replacing the federal bureaucracy with conservative activists and removing independence for many agencies."
"The entire project is devoted to aggrandizing executive power by centralizing authority in the presidency, and a key aspect of democratic backsliding is viewing opposition elements as attempting to destroy the 'real' community, an essential aspect to quashing dissent," the document continues.
"Project 2025 paints progressives and liberals as outside acceptable
politics, and not just ideological opponents, but inherently anti-American and
'replacing American values.' Targeting vulnerable communities is a core tenet
of Project 2025."
"Project 2025 is very clearly on a path to Christian nationalism as well as authoritarianism. It rejects the constitutional separation of church and state, rather privileging religious beliefs over civil laws. Religious freedom is referenced throughout the plan and is seen to trump all other civil rights which should be subsumed to an individual's religious rights," the report adds.
"The message that America must remain
Christian, that Christianity should enjoy a privileged place in society, and
that the government must take steps to ensure this is clear in every section of
the plan, as is the idea that American identity cannot be separated from
Christianity."
The document also stresses the role of Trump in degrading
U.S. democracy and promoting the policies that the project aims to advance.
Trump is facing four criminal cases—two of which relate to his efforts to flip
the 2020 election—and lawsuits arguing that he
is constitutionally disqualified from holding office again after inciting the
January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Still, he is the GOP
front-runner.
During a Veterans Day campaign rally, Trump pledged to "root out the
communist, Marxist, fascist, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin
within the confines of our country," claiming that "the threat from
outside forces is far less sinister, dangerous, and grave than the threat from
within." The comments fueled demands
for more serious media coverage of his fascist threats.
Even before Trump's latest comments, GPAHE co-founder
Heidi Beirich argued to Salon last
week that given his chances of winning the White House next year, "the
public needs to know about policy plans, such as the program being designed for
the next conservative president by the Heritage Foundation, called Project
2025."
Beirich said in a statement Monday that the project
"does not reflect the values of the American people, and our plea to
political leaders and to the media is to accurately describe Project 2025 as a
dangerous and unconstitutional attempt to move us towards an authoritarianism
guided by Christian nationalism."
GPAHE co-founder Wendy Via—who, like Beirich, is an
alumna of the Southern Poverty Law Center—similalry said that "voters,
political figures, and the media must be on alert that Project 2025 is an
authoritarian roadmap to dismantling a thriving, inclusive democracy for
all."
The GPAHE report was released as Axios reported that Trump's inner circle plans to purge from government "anyone viewed as
hostile to the hard-edged, authoritarian-sounding plans he calls 'Agenda47'" and his allies "are
spending tens of millions of dollars to install a pre-vetted, pro-Trump army of
up to 54,000 loyalists" in "legal, judicial, defense, regulatory, and
domestic policy jobs."
"The government-in-waiting is being orchestrated by
the Heritage Foundation's well-funded Project 2025, which already has published a
920-page policy book from
400+ contributors," the outlet explained. "Heritage president Kevin Roberts tells us his apparatus
is 'orders of magnitude' bigger than anything ever assembled for a party out of
power."
Trump's 2024 campaign claimed Monday that his Agenda47 "is the only official comprehensive and detailed look at what President Trump will do when he returns to the White House," and "while the campaign is appreciative of any effort to provide suggestions about a second term, the campaign is not collaborating with them.