Originally by Shelby Reese at democrats.org
Following the Republican Platform Committee’s adoption of Trump’s 2024 Republican Party platform, DNC National Press Secretary Emilia Rowland released the following statement:
“Trump is so desperate to distance himself from Project 2025 as the American people are grappling with the terrifying truth about his second term agenda that he and his team overhauled the Republican platform process to keep the public and the press in the dark, all caps-ed 20 bullet points behind closed doors, and blasted it out to divert attention from his real plans: a national abortion ban, handouts for his billionaire donors on the backs of middle-class Americans, cuts to Medicare and Social Security, and to be a dictator on ‘day one.’ The reality is that Trump literally put architects of Project 2025 in charge of the Republican platform, and the result is not only the most extreme platform in GOP history but one containing lie after lie after lie. The American people know that Trump wants a nationwide abortion ban and they know the only thing standing in the way of Trump’s terrifying second term agenda is reelecting President Biden and Vice President Harris in November.”
Trump and his MAGA cronies are already trying to spin their terrifying agenda to hide the Project 2025 blueprint that would guide his second term agenda.
Trump’s team frantically dropped an ALL CAPS list of 20 bullet points, filled with lies. So, we fixed it for them:
- Tank a bipartisan border security deal for Trump’s political gain
- Rip families apart while enacting cruel anti-immigrant policies
- Send inflation soaring, risking an economic crash
- Gut environmental protections to appease Big Oil and Big Gas
- Wage a reckless trade war and impose a bigger tax on middle class families
- Gift massive tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations at the expense of the middle class
- Rip away as many freedoms as possible from as many Americans as possible
- Double down on being an international embarrassment, turning against our allies, praising foreign dictators and authoritarian leaders, and siding with our adversaries over our military and intelligence communities
- Weaponize the government to target and fire “disloyal” federal employees
- Rail against historic legislation such as the American Rescue Plan which bolstered law enforcement’s ability to protect our communities
- Continue to fail to deliver on infrastructure and investing in America after making “Infrastructure Week” a long-running joke
- Call servicemembers “suckers” and “losers”
- Rig the economy for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations and cause an “inflation bomb” with no regard for how it would affect the middle class
- Gut Social Security and Medicare
- Threaten thousands of jobs being created thanks to President Biden’s EV manufacturing boom, rolling back progress in fighting the climate crisis while costing good paying jobs and causing economic harm
- Completely eliminate the Department of Education – causing a crisis for teachers, parents, and students
- Attack the LGBTQ+ community, ripping away their rights and rolling back anti-discrimination protections
- Repeal other measures to ensure all Americans have opportunities to thrive and threatening children’s ability to learn true American history
- Fail to accept election results and attempt to overturn the 2024 election
- Attacking democracy at every turn
- Redacted: Ban abortion nationwide
Trump has desperately tried to disown his Project 2025 agenda – even though its architects are some of the same MAGA extremists writing his platform:
Rolling Stone: “‘I know nothing about Project 2025,’ Trump said about the conservative agenda project, despite the group’s ties to his party platform committee.”
“Meanwhile, over at the Republican National Committee, at least seven of the individuals tasked with overhauling the party’s platform in anticipation of Trump’s second term in office have connections to Project 2025 — starting with Russell Vought, who was director of the Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s administration.
“Today, Vought is policy director for the RNC’s 2024 platform committee. He was also the author of Project 2025’s chapter on the executive office of the president, outlining the policy priorities the next Republican president should seek to implement earliest in his administration.
“Vought, a leading contender for chief of staff in a second Trump administration, is also a former president of Center for Renewing America, one of the organizations listed on Project 2025’s advisory board.”
Here’s a look at their extreme agenda Trump is running on:
Undermining our democracy with dangerous election denialism and threats of political violence — all while pledging to be a dictator on “day one.”
Trump: “He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said, ‘No, no, no, other than day one.’”
Barbara Barr, WGAL: “There have been other close races and men have said, ‘listen, for the betterment of the country, we’re going to move on, we’re going to accept the results of the election.’ Would that have been the right course of action?”
Trump: “No, it would’ve been a terrible thing.”
Barr: “Would you accept the results of this election?”
Trump: *refuses to say yes*
NBC News: “Trump says there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses the election”
TIME: “Donald Trump Says Political Violence ‘Depends’ on ‘Fairness’ of 2024 Election”
MSNBC: “Trump again floats the idea of serving a third presidential term”
Banning abortion nationwide and ripping away reproductive freedoms from millions of women.
Rolling Stone: “Trump Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide: Report”
Trump: “There of course remains a vital role for the federal government in protecting unborn life. And it’s very important.”
Trump: “I was proudly the person responsible for the ending of … Roe v. Wade.”
Trump: “We broke Roe v. Wade and we did something that nobody thought was possible. We gave it back to the states, and the states are working very brilliantly … But they’re working, and it’s working the way it’s supposed to.”
Pushing a MAGAnomics scam that gives tax handouts to the ultra-wealthy at the expense of working Americans and supercharges inflation.
Trump: “You’re all people that have a lot of money … You’re rich as hell. … We’re gonna give you tax cuts.”
Vanity Fair: “Donald Trump Wants to Give His Favorite Corporations Another Giant Tax Cut in a Second Term: Report”
CBS News: “Two years after Trump tax cuts, middle-class Americans are falling behind”
The Guardian: “Donald Trump’s $1.5tn tax cuts have helped billionaires pay a lower rate than the working class for the first time in history.”
Axios: “Sixteen Nobel prize-winning economists are jumping into the presidential campaign with a stark warning: Former President Trump’s plans would reignite inflation and cause lasting harm to the global economy if he wins in November.”
Project 2025: “The corporate income tax rate should be reduced to 18 percent.”
The Atlantic: “Trump’s Plan to Supercharge Inflation”
Gutting Social Security and Medicare, repealing the Affordable Care Act, and ending protections for millions of Americans with preexisting conditions.
Joe Kernen, CNBC: “Have you changed your outlook on how to handle entitlements, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid?”
Trump: “So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.”
Trump: “We’ve really decimated Obamacare.
“We’ve done a great job, but we’re going to be getting rid of it entirely.”
Daily Beast: “Trump Revives Plan to Dismantle Obamacare if Elected in 2024”
Spectrum News: “The ACA protects more than 100 million people with preexisting conditions from being denied care, plus it requires insurance plans to cover things like preventive care and limit out-of-pocket costs.”
Defunding law enforcement, doubling down on his failed record of making it easier for dangerous individuals to carry guns while failing to address gun violence, and putting his political gain over bipartisan efforts to secure our border.
Sahil Kapur, NBC News: “Donald Trump pressures Republicans to defund the (federal) police.”
Vox: “Donald Trump is defunding the police”
“President Trump has repeatedly proposed cuts in federal funding for police, criticized landmark legislation that boosted financial support for police departments, and is currently involved in blocking legislation that would greatly reduce pressure on local governments to cut police funding.
“In layman’s terms, he’s been trying to defund the police.”
New York Times: “Conceding to N.R.A., Trump Abandons Brief Gun Control Promise”
“President Trump on Monday abandoned his promise to work for gun control measures opposed by the National Rifle Association, bowing to the gun group and embracing its agenda of armed teachers and incremental improvements to the background check system.”
The Hill: “The [Trump] White House on Monday issued a statement warning that President Trump would veto proposed legislation to enhance background checks for gun purchases if it passes the House and Senate.”
Politico: “Trump quietly used regulations to expand gun access”
Vox: “Trump made this clear when he reportedly urged Republicans in Congress to turn against the bipartisan Senate border security bill scheduled for a vote Wednesday so that he could keep the issue alive through the presidential election. His supporters have largely fallen in line.”
Putting dictators over our allies, ceding America’s leadership abroad, and making the world less safe, just as he did in his first term.
Politico: “Trump says he would ‘encourage’ Russia to attack NATO allies who don’t pay up”
New York Times: “America’s Allies Fear That Traditional Ties No Longer Matter Under Trump”
Politico: “Trump’s approach is hurting the U.S., foreign policy experts say”
CNN: “Trump sides with Putin over US intelligence”
Forbes: “Trump said of his relationships with dictators, ‘the tougher and meaner they are, the better I get along with them,’ which he insisted is ‘not a bad thing.’
“‘The easy ones,’ Trump said, referring to America’s allies, ‘I maybe don’t like as much or don’t get along with as much.’”
Washington Post: “Former president Donald Trump has privately said he could end Russia’s war in Ukraine by pressuring Ukraine to give up some territory… Some foreign policy experts said Trump’s idea would reward Russian President Vladimir Putin and condone the violation of internationally recognized borders by force.
“Trump has consistently complimented Putin, expressed admiration for his dictatorial rule and gone out of his way to avoid criticizing him, most recently for the death in jail of political opponent Alexei Navalny. He has not called for the release of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter held in Russia for a year without charges or a trial.”
New York Times: “Much of the world has soured on American leadership since President Trump took office, a loss of faith that has opened up opportunities for other countries like China, Russia and Germany to assert themselves on the international stage, according to an extensive new survey of people living around the globe.”
To be clear: Trump and Project 2025 share close ties and have collaborated on an extreme blueprint for a second Trump term.
Politico: “On Tuesday, the Trump campaign sent a letter to pro-Trump, external organizations asking them to attend an ‘entirely off-the-record, private,’ and “invite-only” meeting with senior campaign officials, according to a copy of the letter obtained by POLITICO. The sit-down, which the letter describes as a ‘meeting of the political minds,’ is aimed at discussing ‘collaborat[ion]’ and ‘priorities and plans’ for the general election. […]
“By holding the meeting, the Trump operation and the third-party entities could conceivably get on the same page about their plans. Two people familiar with the planning for the event said Heritage Action and Turning Point Action were among the pro-Trump groups invited.”
Axios: “This is undeniably a Trump-driven operation. The biggest tell: Johnny McEntee — one of Trump’s closest White House aides, and his most fervent internal loyalty enforcer — is a senior adviser to Project 2025. One of the most powerful architects is Stephen Miller, a top West Wing adviser for the Trump administration.”
New York Times: “Roberts told me that he views Heritage’s role today as ‘institutionalizing Trumpism.’ This includes leading Project 2025, a transition blueprint that outlines a plan to consolidate power in the executive branch, dismantle federal agencies and recruit and vet government employees to free the next Republican president from a system that Roberts views as stacked against conservative power. The lesson of Trump’s first year in office, Roberts told me, is that ‘the Trump administration … simply got a slow start. And Heritage and our allies in Project 2025 believe that must never be repeated.’”
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