Project 2025 is a policy plan published by former Trump Administration officials in partnership with the Heritage Foundation, a foundation historically known for being proudly against LGBTQIA+ and immigrant rights, as well as racial equity. Originally, President Trump distanced himself from the project during his 2024 presidential race, while democrats argued he would enact many of the ‘extreme’ proposals, as deemed so by a large sum of the public that has read all 900 pages of the project.
Trump and his administration quickly dismissed any suggestion that they were tied to the project, even publicly celebrating when the director of Project 2025 stepped down. The denial went so far as Trump stating, “I have nothing to do with Project 2025. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it.” Though the president, days after being elected, placed Russell T. Vought in the leading position of the US Office of Management and Budget, the OMB… the architect of Project 2025.
Before we can get into what parts of the project have been implemented in Trump’s current term, we need to get a sense of what the project says:
Americans United highlights the projects’ goals,
- Roll back LGBTQ+ rights
- Erase marriage equality
- Ban the most accessible forms of abortion and limit reproductive health care
- Create obstacles for racial justice
- Eliminate the Department of Education
- Fund private religious schools with taxpayer money
- Use religious freedom to discriminate”
The ACLU calls this project “…a roadmap for how to replace the rule of law with right-wing ideals.” Their article on the project provides a detailed list of who, in relation to Trump, was a part of creating/vouching for each specific part of Project 2025.
Since being elected, Trump has acted on many of the listed issues. Here are some of them explained:
Abortion
Taxpayers are no longer in any way funding abortions. The medical procedure is also banned in over a dozen states following the overturn of Roe v. Wade. It is both illegal to receive one as well as to perform one.
LGBTQIA+ Rights
The National Institutes of Health has canceled over $800 million in research grants to fund understanding LGBTQIA+ health. PBS cites, “…Project 2025 advised the Trump administration to reverse Biden-era policies that expanded federal nondiscrimination protections. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order to do just that.” Trump and his administration have taken many steps to defund and denounce any support towards the LGBTQIA+ community during Trump’s presidency.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Page 135 of Project 2025 states, “A successful DHS would:
- Secure and control the border;
- Thoroughly enforce immigration laws;
- Correctly and efficiently adjudicate immigration benefit applications while rejecting fraudulent claims;
- Secure the cyber domain and collaborate with critical infrastructure sectors to maintain their security;
- Provide states and localities with a limited federal emergency response and preparedness;
DHS has since been heavily funded specifically towards ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE has been given power to profile people and has been documented using lethal force in situations where it has been deemed ‘unnecessary’ by the public.
The implementations of Project 2025 to our current government are ongoing.
