Project 2025 has been a topic of heavy discussion since campaigns for the 2024 election began. “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” also known as Project 2025, is a nearly 900-page policy agenda written by The Heritage Foundation, laying out plans to achieve the Conservative dream.
And while it may be the Conservative dream, it’s an American nightmare.
Project 2025 was written for the next Republican president to follow, which happens to be President Donald Trump, who claimed to know nothing of it when Democrats attempted to use it as a reason to not vote for him.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said, “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”
But these claims of knowing nothing seem slightly suspicious when you look closer at him and his administration.
In 2018, during Trump’s first term, The Heritage Foundation posted an article praising Trump and his administration for “embracing nearly two-thirds” of the policies laid out in the five-part series of “Mandate for Leadership.”
According to the article, at least 70 former members of The Heritage Foundation worked under Trump’s administration during his term, which helped him develop his policies. Yet he claims to know “nothing” of the people behind Project 2025 even though he has openly worked with them in the past.
Not only was Trump himself openly involved with The Heritage Foundation, but so was current Vice President JD Vance.
In 2017, Vance wrote the introduction for the “Index of Culture and Opportunity” which was published by The Heritage Foundation. Vance is labeled as “a partner at Revolution LLC and the author of “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” connecting him to the very foundation Trump tried to deny knowing anything of.
On top of the current administration’s former ties to the foundation, the policies of both seem to be eerily similar.
Since his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump has signed over 40 executive orders. They have ranged from withdrawing from the World Health Organization to ending diversity, equity and inclusion hiring.
More than one executive order has aligned with the Project 2025 policies. Removing DEI from workplaces is discussed in Chapter 18 of Project 2025. The book says it has become “a vehicle with which to advance race, sex and other classifications and discriminate against Conservative and religious viewpoints on these subjects and others, including pro-life views.”
Communications Director of WSU Young Democrats Jenna Ghant said the campus, specifically clubs that focus on diversity, should be scared of Trump’s recent DEI policies as this could take away funding.
Another policy that follows the ideologies of The Heritage Foundation is how Trump views the Department of Education. Chapter 11 of Project 2025 reads, “Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.” At a 2024 campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Trump said, “I’m going to close the Department of Education.”
Ghant said that cutting the Department of Education will affect WSU negatively due to many factors like federal aid and the Title IX office.
“A lot of people rely on FAFSA,” Ghant said. “… I think one thing that a lot of people are realizing is Title IX is run through the Department of Education. That’s our whole training system here, where students and staff are protected from sexual harassment or hazing and all of those policies implemented and enforced by the Department of Education to get funding.”
Later when speaking with reporters at the Oval Office, Trump said he wanted it to be closed “immediately.”
“Look at the Department of Education. It’s a big con job,” Trump said.
With how much Trump’s policies line up with Project 2025, it’s terrifying to see what other ideals could be taken from this book. “Mandate for Leadership,” while spoken about a lot, hasn’t seemed to be read by most of the general public because if it had, I feel there would be more American panic.
Project 2025 aims to undo progress that has been fought long and hard for. In the foreword, The Heritage Foundation openly states it wants to target “woke culture warriors.” This includes deleting terms such as sexual orientation, gender identity, reproductive rights and more, all because of claims that it harms America’s First Amendment rights.
Do they mean to tell us that the government should erase words from contracts and grants because it doesn’t line up with their ideologies? These words — words that have been fought for, words that can mean the difference between feeling accepted and feeling suicidal — The Heritage Foundation wants to get rid of.
Despite being so worried about being discriminated against for being Conservative, as stated in Chapter 18, the foundation seems to have no empathy for the minorities that have been discriminated against for centuries. Literal centuries of work would be coming to an end.
Not only is this a slap in the face for the targeted communities and hypocritical of The Heritage Foundation to care only about their successes, but it’s a terrifying possibility. Despite Trump’s claims of knowing nothing of this series of policies, the facts lead me to think he may be hiding the truth from the public. And if that’s true, we the people are already in danger.
Project 2025 has other aspirations written within its 887 pages, and if I went through all of their plans and schemes, I would likely end up writing an 887-plus document myself. I encourage everyone to go read Project 2025 for themselves and decide if this is really the America you want to live in.
