Written by a powerful think tank, the 900-page plan outlines the priorities to be pursued if the Republican is re-elected to the White House in November. It plans to expand the president’s powers and appoint officials according to their ideology.
New stage in the campaign for the American presidential election, marked for two days by the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, during a meeting in Pennsylvania (United States). The Republican Party convention, during which the former president must be officially designated as the conservative candidate for the White House, begins Monday, July 15 in Milwaukee (Wisconsin). At this stage, Donald Trump is the favorite to win the November election, taking advantage of the divisions among Democrats over Joe Biden’s state of health..
Behind the scenes, Donald Trump’s allies have been preparing his return to Washington for months. Among them is the ultraconservative association The Heritage Foundation. Founded in 1973, this influential think tank had notably dictated the ultraliberal policies of President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. This time, it has drafted a plan of more than 900 pages entitled “Project 2025”, in anticipation of a possible return of the billionaire to the White House.
This document presents itself as an ultraconservative program ready to be implemented immediately “January 20, 2025”the date on which the next American president will be inaugurated. By following this road map, the United States could experience a “second American Revolution”, Who “will remain bloodless if the left allows it”says the think tank’s president, Kevin Roberts, quoted by CBS.
First pillar of the “2025 Project”: “dismantle the administrative state”. The authors of this plan believe that the United States is today governed by an authoritarian administrative power, which acts “against American citizens and conservative values.” They therefore propose ending the independence of several federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency.. Aligning with climate-sceptic proposals, the authors thus defend that “the vast reserves of oil and gas” from the country “do not constitute an environmental problem” but are “the lifeblood of economic growth.”
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The Heritage Foundation also wants to reform the Justice Department, which it accuses of being run by “bureaucrats” of “radical left” who care more about “how they will be perceived in the next article of the Washington Post“ than the interest of Americans. The organization even distances itself from the FBI. The latter is described as “arrogant and increasingly anarchic.” same for me federal immigration agencies, which “facilitate the criminal entry of migrants”or education, which “inject racist, anti-American propaganda into classrooms and “anti-historical”according to the foundation’s claims.
To impose its ideology on the administration, the “2025 Project” ensures that the president will be able to use “many executive tools” For “handcuffing the bureaucracy” or “bringing the administrative state into line”. “This opens the door to serious abuses, particularly in the context of the Supreme Court’s latest decision on the partial immunity of the president in the exercise of these functions.”warns Ludivine Gilli, director of the North American Observatory at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation.
Another measure included in this plan: the replacement of officials who are disloyal to the new government by agents chosen by the executive. The latter are already trained to govern in a conservative group specially created for this purpose: the Academy of Presidential Administration. According to Paul Dans, one of the directors of the “Project 2025″, There are already 10,000 of them, grouped under the name of “Conservative LinkedIn”the magazine says Society in its April 2024 issue.
“Today, about 4,000 people out of two million federal employees are appointed for political reasons. Their plan is to increase this share,” decrypts Will Ragland, research officer at the Center for American Progress, an independent and progressive think tank. This researcher, involved in Barack Obama’s campaign, also worked in the Department of Education under the Democrat’s presidency.
Under its ultraconservative program, the “2025 Project” is very interventionist in the private lives of Americans. Believing that a “cultural Marxism” governed Joe Biden’s mandate, the authors defend a “family calendar”based in particular on “marriage, children, Thanksgiving meals.” They claim that the union “one man and one woman is the ideal family structure”, demanding that the future Department of Health promote a definition of the family consistent with “the Bible”. Without relying on any data, they assure that “Fatherlessness is a leading cause of poverty, crime, mental illness, teen suicide, drug addiction, church rejection, and high school dropout in the United States.”
Other proposals attack the rights of minorities, particularly LGBT+. In opposition to those they call “woke bureaucrats” of the Pentagon, which “force their troops” to train on the “white privilege”or to justice officials who seek to satisfy “transgender extremists”, The authors call for an end to “transgender activism” and to recognize only biological sex on administrative documents. They also want to remove from laws terms like “sexual orientation and gender identity, diversity, equity and inclusion”.
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While access to abortion is already drastically limited in some states since the overturning of the “Roe v. Wade” decision, the “2025 Project” now intends to ban medical abortion and monitor the shipping and transportation of abortion drugs. Its authors also want to stop federal subsidies to Planned Parenthood.
For Democrats, this ultraconservative program quickly became an anti-Donald Trump campaign argument. However, the latter continues to repeat that he don’t “knows nothing”so much so that it seems “unable to recognize its closest allies”, says public policy professor Donald Moynihan ironically.from Georgetown University. “The Trump campaign is trying to distance itself from the project because it sees it as unpopular. But their connections cannot be denied,” he continues to franceinfo. In 2017, the Republican president also described several members of the Heritage Foundation of “fantastic people” And “real friends”.
Because the think tank played a key role in preparing for Donald Trump’s arrival at the White House in 2016. During this transition, one of the vice-presidents The foundation has overseen hiring at about a dozen federal agencies, the New York Times Magazine. The organization’s co-founder and former president worked on the new leadership of the Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency. The following year, hundreds of Americans recommended by the think tank joined government agencies, the magazine said.
“Legacy [Foundation] was particularly valuable to Trump because he had [à l’époque] little additional support. It is estimated that more than 60 people have left the foundation to join its administration.”
Donald Moynihan, professor of public policy at Georgetown Universityto franceinfo
After Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020 – a setback he has consistently contested – the think tank has set itself in motion to launch its “Project 2025”. The Republican ““lies like a tooth-puller when he says he’s never heard of it.”says Ludivine Gilli. At least 140 former members of her administration contributed directly or indirectly to the project, according to a recent count by CNN. The initiative’s director, Paul Dans, was chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management under Donald Trump, the agency responsible for human resources for federal workers.
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Another senior official of “Project 2025” was a special assistant to the former president andHis co-authors, Ben Carson and Christopher Miller, were his housing and defense ministers. Russ Vought, another contributor to the program, headed a major executive branch office. Beyond these personalities, “a number of measures [du projet 2025] are fully aligned with the proposals pushed by Donald Trump,” observes Ludivine Gilli.
If implemented, this plan would risk “to gut our system of checks and balances”, Will Ragland alertfrom the Center for American ProgressThe initiative, in his eyes, is a road map “for an authoritarian administration.” It should be noted that Heritage President Kevin Roberts is full of praise for a leader known for his authoritarianism and nationalist rhetoric: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “A very impressive leader,” he recently slipped to the New York Times Magazine.
“The bill would undermine the skills of the civil service. The new presidential powers could be used to undermine our democratic values.”
Donald Moynihan, professor of public policyto franceinfo
Could such a roadmap actually be implemented in the United States? Will Ragland is convinced, in light of several recent Supreme Court decisions. “If Trump is elected, there is a good chance that many measures will be implemented,” adds Ludivine Gilli. “This time, [les ultraconservateurs proches du milliardaire] are prepared. Their ability to implement these measures is much better than it was in 2016.”
The safeguards are also more fragile today. “The first Trump presidency was partly prevented from within,” by more moderate Republicans, recalls the specialist. From now on, “barriers have fallen”.