Project 2025: Armageddon or Theatrics?
Is Project 2025 Trump's plan to end to end democracy? Or is it just a show?
Some fled town. Others froze in fear.
People like William Dock barricaded their doors, loaded their shotguns, and prepared for the worst.
On October 30th, 1938, an alien craft landed in Grovers Mill, New Jersey. At least, according to the man on the radio:
Ladies and gentlemen, I have just been handed a message that came in from Grovers Mill by telephone. Just a moment. At least forty people, including six state troopers lie dead in a field east of the village of Grovers Mill, their bodies burned and distorted beyond all possible recognition. The next voice you hear will be that of Brigadier General Montgomery Smith, commander of the state militia at Trenton, New Jersey.
Unfortunately for New Jerseyites, these creatures didn’t come for the boardwalks and beaches. Soon after landing, journalists reported the unearthly beings fired upon civilians and first responders with heat rays and poison gas.
But the folks in Grovers Mill wouldn’t have seen flying saucers, laser beams, or a military response.
It was just another Autumn day in the Garden State.
That’s because the “news bulletin” causing the panic was nothing more than Orson Wells’ radio adaptation of War of the Worlds, initially published in print in 1897. You’re likely familiar with Spielberg’s film rendition, released in 2005, starring Tom Cruise.
Although producers included an opening disclaimer, they cleverly designed the show to sound like an ordinary broadcast. Which it did, especially for those who missed the opener.
You might be thinking, Really? Martians? Heat rays? Who the hell would fall for that?
But this was 1938. People weren’t accustomed to fictional stories designed as news bulletins—or fake news, in other words.
Something similar could be said about our media today, specifically with Project 2025.
Just like we might judge the people of 1938 for panicking over a radio show, future Americans might say the same thing about our reaction to “Trump’s plan to end democracy.”
So, before you pack the minivan or grab your granddaddy’s 12 gauge, let’s see what all the commotion is about.
What is Project 2025?
There it is, the hysteria of our time, the 2025 Mandate for Leadership, otherwise known as Project 2025.
Since the Reagan era, the Heritage Foundation has published these books for incoming administrations, hoping to influence policy on issues ranging from foreign relations to government spending to social problems.
Although called a “mandate,” the Heritage Foundation or its contributors, such as Hillsdale College, Young America’s Foundation, and Turning Point USA, are not elected bodies and have no official say in what Republicans do after entering office.
In other words, it’s just a conservative wishlist.
That's why you likely haven’t heard of it—not until the establishment needed to cause a panic.
Democracy Forward, an American non-profit and “non-partisan” research organization, says Project 2025 “is among the most profound threats to the American People.” (Even though according to Influence Watch, Democrat lawyers and former Obama officials founded DF. Marc Elias, DF’s chair, is a leftist attorney with ties to the DNC and Perkins Coie, a law firm that took 5 million dollars from George Soros. Other than that, totally non-partisan.)
Like War of the Worlds, Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership has been sensationalized for maximum effect:
Trump’s Project 2025 plan for workers would go after birth control and ban abortion nationwide.- Kamala Harris
Project 2025 calls for an extreme anti-immigrant approach to our border, and its also weaponizing the Department of Justice to go after protesters, journalists, and political opponents. - Maribel Hernandez Rivera, ACL
Project 2025 will destroy America. -President Joe Biden
Democracy Forward said they “read Project 2025 so you don’t have to,” which most people don’t have time for, given it is over 900 pages.
Still, they couldn’t bother to source any of the above links to the publication in question. Instead, they all point to the corporate press, government organizations, and advocacy groups.
That's a red flag, given that Project 2025 is freely accessible in PDF format on its website. And yes, it is indeed 900 pages long—922, to be exact.
Project 2025 Team
The authors introduced this year’s volume with the following:
It is not enough for conservatives to win elections. If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on day one of the next conservative administration. -Project 2025 Team
Who’s on the team?
These guys. Although they listed Paul Dans as no longer on staff.
But notice who else isn’t on the team.
While the Trump Administration “relied heavily” on the Heritage Foundation’s policy recommendations in the past, President Trump does not lead or endorse Project 2025 itself.
Yet, during the September 10th “debate,” the “moderators” failed to fact-check Kamala’s false claim.
But assuming the Mandate creators got their way, how would their agenda impact everyday Americans?
Here’s a breakdown, which you can find directly on the Project 2025 website.
Policy Agenda
Project 2025’s top policy recommendations cover securing the border, energy dominance, de-weaponizing the deep state, and improving education.
Securing the Border
Thoroughly enforcing existing immigration laws
Aggressively constructing a wall on our southern border
Efficiently identifying and rejecting fraudulent asylum claims
Restoring the “remain in Mexico” policy for people awaiting asylum claims
Arresting, detaining, and removing of immigration violators anywhere in the United States
Unleash American Energy
Ensuring access to abundant, reliable, and affordable energy
Removing efforts to push sustainable development schemes connected to food production
Stopping collaboration with and funding of progressive foundations, corporations, international institutions, and NGOs that advocate for climate fanaticism
Ending the Biden administration’s war on fossil fuels in the developing world and supporting the responsible management of oil and gas reserves as the quickest way to end wrenching poverty and the need for open-ended foreign aid
Ensuring that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission facilitates rather than hampers private-sector nuclear energy innovation and deployment
Dismantling the Deep State
Firing supposedly “un-fireable” federal bureaucrats
Closing wasteful and corrupt bureaus and offices
Eliminating woke propaganda at every level of government
Restoring the American people’s Constitutional authority over the administrative state
Returning governing power to the Congress and President instead of unelected bureaucrats
Improving Education
Expanding school choice so all children have the option of a great education, regardless of zip code
Promoting parents’ rights in public education so American schools serve parents, not the other way around
Removing critical race theory and gender ideology curricula in every public school in the country
Returning education control to state and local governments
Shifting some functions of the Department of Education to other departments, including Labor, Justice, and Commerce
True or False?
Here are a few fact-checks on the most common misconceptions of the Project 2025 Mandate for Leadership:
Government
Project 2025 would terminate the Constitution: FALSE
Project 2025 actually represents an attempt to restore Constitutional governance, not terminate it. Bringing the administrative state more firmly under the control of the president, whose authority traces directly from the Constitution, could not be further from terminating this quintessential founding document.
Project 2025 would give the government more power over your daily life: FALSE
Project 2025 aims to weaken the bureaucracy that churns out tens of thousands of pages of rules every year. A more restrained administrative state translates into less control over Americans’ daily lives, not more.
Project 2025 would gut democratic checks and balances on presidential power: FALSE
Project 2025 aims to protect democracy by restoring traditional checks and balances between the President, Congress, and the Courts. We advocate making the administrative state more accountable by restoring the president’s control over the bureaucrats in the Executive Branch.
Civil Rights
Can’t we all just get along?
Project 2025 would ban books and curriculum about slavery: FALSE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership does not advocate for banning books or curricula about slavery.
Project 2025 seeks to pack the Supreme Court and lower courts with right-wing judges: FALSE
The only people calling for packing the judiciary are those on the Left, who do it every time the Supreme Court or a lower court makes decisions they don’t like.
Project 2025 would end civil rights: FALSE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership calls for respecting the civil rights of all Americans, including those who have been censored by the government or had it weaponized against them. Mandate advocates for the end of divisive, race-based, anti-American propaganda in the federal workforce.
Project 2024 would end DEI protections in government: TRUE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership advocates for the end of divisive, race-based, anti-American propaganda like DEI in the federal workforce.
Project 2025 would promote and expedite capital punishment: TRUE
The appropriateness of capital punishment divides Americans, and conservatives, of good will. Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership calls for the enforcement of the federal death penalty where appropriate and applicable, and recommends a future presidential administration pursue the death penalty for the most heinous crimes, including those involving violence and the sexual abuse of children, unless Congress says otherwise through legislation.
Military & Veterans
I better still get my free Bloomin’ Onion.
Project 2025 seeks to cut military benefits for veterans and service members, including housing, TRICARE, retirement, and secondary education: FALSE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership makes no cuts to any veteran benefits. It does propose reforms to the VA to deliver improved care in a more efficient and timely fashion to America’s veterans. The VA has long been mismanaged and has not served our nation’s veterans for some time now. Project 2025 demands that the VA improves and modernizes.
Marriage & Family
Project 2025 would end no-fault divorce: FALSE
Divorce is not mentioned in Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership.
Project 2025 would end “marriage equality”: FALSE
The legal recognition of same-sex marriage is not discussed in Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership. Mandate calls for the protection of faith-based grant recipients who maintain support for the traditional definition of marriage. Mandate also supports conscience protections for those who do not wish to participate in same-sex marriages.
Project 2025 would ban abortions without exceptions: FALSE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership calls for the government to comply with laws that prevent federal funding of abortion. It also calls for federal support for alternatives to abortion, including adoption.
Project 2025 would ban contraceptives: FALSE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership says nothing about banning or restricting contraception.
Project 2025 would ban In Vitro Fertilization (IVF): FALSE
IVF is not mentioned anywhere in Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership.
Project 2025 condemns single mothers while promoting only “traditional families”: FALSE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership suggests that a future Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary replace the policies of the Biden administration that promote the LGBTQ+ agenda, subsidize single motherhood, disincentivize work, and penalize marriage with policies that instead encourage marriage, work, motherhood, fatherhood, and nuclear families.
Project 2025 seeks to outlaw pornography: TRUE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership calls for the criminalization of pornography production, distribution, and consumption. Pornography has no claim to First Amendment protection and its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime.
Healthcare
Project 2025 would end the Affordable Care Act: FALSE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership offers policy suggestions to curb the abuses of the Affordable Care Act.
Project 2025 would raise prescription drug prices: FALSE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership offers proposals to lower drug prices through competition and innovation.
Education
Project 2025 would end free and discounted school lunch programs: FALSE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership advocates that the Food and Nutrition Service be moved from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Health and Human Services. Mandate condemns the Biden administration’s decision to threaten schools that do not comply with radical transgender policies by taking away their funding for school meals for needy students. Additionally, Mandate supports prioritizing school meal programs for those students who are truly needy by reforming or eliminating the often-misused Community Eligibility Program, which creates an entitlement for many students regardless of family income levels.
Project 2025 advocates for using public taxpayer money for private religious schools: TRUE
Americans are able to use taxpayer money to choose where they shop for groceries, attain housing, and obtain higher education. Religious schools often outperform public schools, and families should have the choice to send their children to these schools.
Project 2025 would shut down the Department of Education: TRUE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership calls for the end of the Department of Education. Since the Department was created, educational outcomes have not improved, and the American school system has increasingly fallen behind other countries. Giving more control back to state and local governments, and expanding school choice, would improve education outcomes for all Americans, especially underprivileged communities. Some functions of the Department of Education would be moved to other departments including Labor, Justice, and Commerce.
Economy and Workers
Project 2025 would cut Social Security: FALSE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership does not advocate cutting Social Security. Even liberal CNN’s fact checkers have confirmed this, stating unambiguously: “Fact check: Harris falsely claims Project 2025 blueprint calls for cutting Social Security.”
Project 2025 would eliminate unions and worker protections: FALSE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership presents different ideas about a conservative labor policy. It calls for combatting the excesses of the Deep State’s bloated federal employee unions, which have ensured that federal employees keep their jobs even if they engage in illegal behavior or perform their jobs poorly.
Project 2025 would raise the retirement age: FALSE
Raising the retirement age is nowhere advocated in Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership.
Project 2025 would cut Medicare: FALSE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership does not advocate cutting Medicare.
Immigration
Project 2025 calls for the mass deportation of illegal immigrants: TRUE
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership supports an orderly and lawful immigration system. It advocates that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Removal Operations be primarily responsible for enforcing civil immigration regulations, including the removal of those who have violated our immigration laws. It also calls for additional resources to put an end to Joe Biden’s border crisis and enforce immigration laws.
Energy and Environment
Project 2025 would deregulate big business and the oil industry: MOSTLY TRUE
America needs energy that is plentiful and affordable. Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership calls for an all-of-the-above energy policy that would promote the development of our domestic energy supply, and for fewer burdensome regulations for ALL businesses.
Project 2025 would increase Arctic Drilling: TRUE
The Arctic is of immense strategic importance to America. Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership advocates a strong pursuit of American interests in the region, through economic freedom; through ensuring free and open shipping lanes; and through the development of the vast energy resources of the Arctic.
A Valuable Lesson
Despite the fear-mongering, there are fair points of contention with Project 2025 for everyday moderate Americans, such as whether the government should require employers to pay time and a half on Sundays, send taxpayer money to private religious schools, or accelerate the death penalty.
However, the government has a fundamental duty to enforce current immigration laws, maximize American energy production, and provide fair federal oversight of domestic agencies and foreign relations.
Either way, one thing is for sure: people out there like Kamala Harris and Democracy Forward use Project 2025 as a modern-day War of the Worlds performance to scare the hell out of people.
Although Orson Wells became a showbiz legend, the question followed him through his life: Did he mean to cause a panic?
The Citizen Kane star maintained the production was well-intended, but it has been said behind closed doors that maybe there was a hidden agenda to scare people, just a little, to teach them a lesson:
Don’t believe everything you hear on the radio.
This topic was inspired by a reader! Have an idea for a future post? Let me know in the comments or hit reply!
GB