Project 2025: Democracy’s Demise

Trump repeatedly disavowed Project 2025 during his presidential campaign. Well, Donald Trump repeatedly lied! He was worried that association with the Heritage Foundation’s far-right manifesto would hurt his chances of winning in November. But once elected, he wasted no time in naming to key positions at least nine Project 2025 architects and contributors, notable among them Russell Vought to Director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought, the coauthor of this radical blueprint to expand presidential authority and dismantle democracy, now has the power and the tools to implement his slash-and-burn agenda.

An analysis by Time at the end of January found that “nearly two-thirds of the executive actions Trump has issued so far mirror or partially mirror proposals from the 900-page document, ranging from sweeping deregulation measures to aggressive immigration reform.” In February Politico compared Project 2025 side by side with Trump’s orders and found 37 instances where “the President’s early executive actions have aligned” to the manifesto, “including some instances with nearly verbatim language.”