Section I: a short description
Update: Above this section, a link to a short trailer showing segments of recordings made during appearances by Bold New Democracy guests who continue to play important roles in our community. Remember to check it out. Their passion when speaking about Project 2025 conveys true concern for all.
The following is a short description of Project 2025, a portion of a Substack article written by Thomas Zimmer. Zimmer teaches twentieth-century U.S. and International history at Georgetown University. The article was written on July 9th, 2024, and published on Substack one day later. At the top of Zimmer's full July 2024 article, it should be noted that he wrote, "Trump is not the mastermind behind Project 2025; it's worse. The rightwing establishment has radicalized to the point where their plans are entirely in line with his vengeful desires."
"'Project 2025,' launched in April 2022 under the leadership of the Heritage Foundation, stands out among the many planning efforts that are currently underway on the Right because it unites much of the conservative movement and the machinery of think tanks as well as activist and lobbying groups behind the goal of installing a more effective, more ruthless rightwing regime. As members of its Advisory Board, “Project 2025” currently lists over 100 organizations and institutions. It’s a Who is Who of rightwing actors – Alliance Defending Freedom, America First Legal Foundation, Center for Renewing America, Claremont Institute, Hillsdale College, Liberty University, Young America’s Foundation, Moms for Liberty, and on and on and on.
In their own parlance, Project 2025 consists of four “pillars”: A policy agenda, spelled out in the 920-page report they published last April, titled: “Mandate for Leadership: A conservative promise” (I); a personnel database, intended to build an army of loyalists (II); a “training effort” that currently consists of online courses they call the “Presidential Administration Academy” to get these loyalists and all political appointees ready to implement the rightwing agenda (III); and, finally, Project 2025 vows to create “a playbook of actions to be taken in the first 180 days of the new Administration to bring quick relief to Americans suffering from the Left’s devastating policies” (IV) – this fourth “pillar” is, at this point, still distinctly vague and seems to exist only in the form of an announcement of future action."
Section II: additional facts
Understand that "Trump appointed 231 judges to the bench in his first four years. Of the judges Trump appointed to the circuit courts and the Supreme Court, 86% were former or current Federalist Society members." ProPublica reported that statistic in an article describing Leonard Leo's (Chairman of the board of directors of the Federalist Society) involvement in influencing Trump's presidency. The Federalist Society funded much of the work necessary to bring about the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 and toward Trump's second term in office.
Below this section is a link to The People's Guide to Project 2025, prepared by Democracy Forward. As they say, "We read Project 2025’s entire 900+ page “Mandate for Leadership” so that you don’t have to." An excellent summary that you can download for free.
Below this panel, we've added three videos describing the project further. The first is a legal scholar's, Melissa Murray, summary of Project 2025. The second is John Oliver's description. John's hilarious take on it does not suggest that Project 2025 poses little threat to our democracy. It’s just the opposite. The humor genre has often been used when the alarm bells need to ring clearly and often. The third, well, let's just say he's connected.