Originally by Taylor Seely at www.azcentral.com
Interested in politics or not, you’ve probably heard of Project 2025.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, has repeatedly warned Americans about it, cautioning that it lays out an extremist blueprint for how her challenger, former President Donald Trump, a Republican, would transform the country if elected to a second term.
Trump, in response, has sought to distance himself from Project 2025, claiming he knows nothing about it. But the organization that created Project 2025 played a large role in staffing Trump’s first administration, and some of his former staffers were involved in creating the plan.
Leading up to the Nov. 5 election, voters will continue hearing more about Project 2025. So, what is it, and what do you need to know?
What is Project 2025?
Project 2025 is the Heritage Foundation’s political playbook outlining how Trump should reform the federal government to align with the conservative group’s ideals.
It aims “to remake federal government agencies and purge career civil servants in order to replace them with loyalists to consolidate conservative power,” according to USA TODAY reporter George Russell. Alongside the plan online, the Heritage Foundation is soliciting “applications” to create an inventory of conservatives the president could hire for various agencies to advance the plan.
The Heritage Foundation collaborated with more than 100 other conservative groups to create Project 2025.
The presidential transition guide is filled with policy prescriptions and strategies to reverse what the Heritage Foundation calls “the long march of cultural Marxism” sweeping through U.S. institutions. It aims to advance the conservative movement’s agenda as quickly as possible once a conservative wins the presidency.
“The federal government is a behemoth,” Project 2025 claims, “weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before.”
What to know about Heritage Foundation:The main group behind Project 2025 and RNC sponsor
What is the Heritage Foundation?
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank founded in 1973 during former President Richard Nixon’s administration that strongly influences Republican policy. The group recommends policy positions and judicial appointments and sponsors the Republican National Convention.
“Early on, it staked a claim as an anti-communist, pro-business organization and is also culturally conservative with a Christian bent,” Russell reported for USA TODAY.
According to the group’s website, “Heritage’s mission is to formulate and promote public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.”
What would Project 2025 do?
Project 2025 calls for dismantling federal agencies, including the FBI, the Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as well as banning drugs used in medication abortions, making drastic changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and deporting millions of undocumented immigrants, Russell reported.
Does Project 2025 belong to Trump?
Trump did not write the plan and does not take credit for it. He claims to know nothing about it or its creators.
But there are close ties between Trump and Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation.
The project’s director, Paul Dans, served as chief of staff in the Office of Personnel Management during the Trump administration.
According to the Project 2025 website, Project 2025 builds off its 1980 “Mandate for Leadership,” which it claims was “highly influential for presidential administrations since the Reagan era.”
“Most recently,” Project 2025 claims, “the Trump administration relied heavily on Heritage’s ‘Mandate’ for policy guidance, embracing nearly two-thirds of Heritage’s proposals within just one year in office.”
USA TODAY reporters George Russell and BrieAnna Frank contributed to this story.
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