- author, Mike Wendling
- stock, BBC News
Democrats are rallying against President Joe Biden’s potential governing agenda if Donald Trump is elected this November.
The blueprint, called Project 2025 and produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation, is one of several think-tank proposals for Trump’s platform.
At more than 900 pages, it calls for laying off thousands of government employees, expanding the president’s powers, gutting the Department of Education and other federal agencies, and drastically reducing tax cuts.
The Heritage Foundation released its agenda in April of last year, and liberal opposition is growing as polls show a tight race between President Biden, a Democrat, and former President Trump, a Republican.
It is common for Washington DC think tanks to propose policy wish lists to governments-in-waiting. For example, the liberal Center for American Progress called Barack Obama his “Ideas Factory” during his presidency.
But on Tuesday, California Congressman Jared Huffman announced a stop-gap Plan 2025 task force.
Mr Huffman said: “Plan 2025 is more than an idea, it is a dystopian plot already in motion to dismantle our democratic institutions, remove checks and balances, abolish church-state separation, and defy the far-right agenda. Violates fundamental rights and public will.
“We need a coordinated strategy to save America and stop this coup before it’s too late.”
Heritage said Mr Biden’s party was being intimidated by a “severe, flawed press release”.
“House Democrats are devoting taxpayer dollars to launching a smear campaign against a united effort to restore self-governance to everyday Americans,” said Kevin Roberts, president of the foundation.
“Under the Biden administration, the federal government has taken up arms against American citizens, invaded our borders, and taken over our institutions by an awakened ideology.”
Plan 2025 document Outlines four pillars: restoring the family to the center of American life; Abolish administrative government; Protecting the country’s sovereignty and borders; And protect God-given individual rights to live freely.
It is one of several policy documents for the platform, widely known as Agenda 47, since Trump would become the 47th president of the United States if he wins.
Heritage says Project 2025 was written by several former Trump appointees and reflects input from more than 100 conservative organizations.
Here is a summary of several key projects.
Govt
Project 2025 proposes that the entire federal bureaucracy, including independent agencies such as the judiciary, be placed under direct presidential control — a controversial idea known as the “unitary executive doctrine.”
In practice, it streamlines decision-making, allowing the president to directly implement policies in many areas.
The proposals also call for eliminating job protections for thousands of government-employees, who could then be replaced by political appointees.
The document labels the FBI a “bloated, arrogant, and increasingly lawless organization” and calls for drastic overhauls of it and other federal agencies, including eliminating the Department of Education.
Settlement
More funding for a wall along the US-Mexico border — one of Trump’s signature projects in 2016 — is proposed in the document.
However, the consolidation of the various US immigration agencies and a major expansion of their powers are more important.
Other plans include increasing fees on immigrants and allowing fast-tracking applications for premium-paying immigrants.
Climate and Economy
The document proposes cutting federal money for research and investment in renewable energy, and calls for the next president to “end the war on oil and natural gas.”
Carbon-reduction targets will be replaced by efforts to increase energy production and security.
The paper lays out two competing visions on tariffs, and is split on whether the next president should try to increase free trade or raise barriers to exports.
But economic advisers suggest that a second Trump administration should cut corporate and income taxes, abolish the Federal Reserve and consider a return to a gold-backed currency.
Abortion
Plan 2025 does not call for a nationwide abortion ban.
However, it is proposing to withdraw the abortion pill mifepristone from the market.
Technology and Education
Under the proposals, pornographic images would be banned, and technology and telecommunications companies that facilitate access to such content would be shut down.
The document calls for school choice and parental control over schools, and aims to launch what it calls an “awakening campaign”.
It proposes removing a long list from all laws and federal regulations, including “sexual orientation,” “diversity, equality and inclusion,” “gender equality,” “abortion,” and “reproductive rights.”
The Heritage Foundation is one of the most influential of several think tanks that have produced policy documents designed to guide a possible second Trump presidency.
Since the 1980s, Heritage has produced similar policy documents as part of its Leadership Series.
Plan 2025, backed by a $22m (£17m) budget, also sets out strategies to implement the policies starting immediately after the President takes office in January 2025.
Trump has endorsed several Plan 2025 ideas in his speeches and on his website, although his campaign has said the nominee should have the final say on policy.
Many proposals face immediate legal challenges if implemented.
