In recent months, former President Donald Trump has come under fire by many politicians — including his opponent in this year’s general election, Vice President Kamala Harris — over alleged intentions to implement a plan dubbed “Project 2025″ if he’s once again voted into office.
“Donald Trump’s plans for total control over our daily lives have been exposed...” Harris’ campaign site reads. “His Project 2025 agenda would strip away our freedoms – by forcing states to report on women’s miscarriages and abortions, cutting Social Security and Medicare, and eliminating the Department of Education.”
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But what is Project 2025?
In short: it’s an over 900-page policy agenda constructed by The Heritage Foundation with contributions from hundreds of high-ranking conservative officials, pundits and policy advocates.
The agenda itself touts many leading conservative platforms, including reforms for tax codes, immigration enforcement, and the role of federal government in public schools. You can read the entire document in full here.
But the document also had some controversial plans laid out, including the abolition of the federal Department of Education (which it argues has had a negative impact on public schooling since its creation in 1980) and a ban on pornography (which the agenda claims is “addictive as any illicit drug”).
As a result, the guidelines drew sharp backlash from liberal critics — something only compounded by now-debunked rumors such as Project 2025 attempting to eliminate agencies like the NHC and FEMA.
In addition, the Project 2025 document states that its guidelines are meant as policy suggestions for Trump, whom The Heritage Foundation hopes will be the 47th president of the United States.
Given that many of the contributors have had ties to the former president, this caused many Trump critics to believe that he would implement the policy proposals in Project 2025 if elected in November.
However, Trump has continually denied any associations with Project 2025, instead opting to publicly rebuke the policy agenda.
“I have nothing to do with Project 2025,” he said during a presidential debate last month. “I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it purposely. I’m not going to read it. This was a group of people that got together. They came up with some ideas, I guess some good, some bad.”
Many of the project’s recommendations, such as further taxes on tips or changes to the federal Medicare program, actually conflict with Trump’s proposed policies.
Instead, the former president laid out his list of policies online, dubbed “Agenda 47.” The list is made up of 20 policy “promises” that read as follows:
| Number | Policies |
|---|---|
| 1 | “Seal the border and stop the migrant invasion” |
| 2 | “Carry out the largest deportation operation in American history” |
| 3 | “End inflation and make America affordable again” |
| 4 | “Make America the dominant energy producer in the world by far” |
| 5 | “Stop outsourcing and turn the United States into a manufacturing superpower” |
| 6 | “Large tax cuts for workers and no tax on tips” |
| 7 | “Defend our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and our fundamental freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms” |
| 8 | “Prevent World War Three, restore peace in Europe and in the Middle East, and build a great iron dome missile defense shield over the entire country - all made in America” |
| 9 | “End the weaponization of government against the American people” |
| 10 | “Stop the migrant crime epidemic, demolish the foreign drug cartels, crush gang violence, and lock up violent offenders” |
| 11 | “Rebuild our cities, including Washington, D.C., making them safe, clean, and beautiful again” |
| 12 | “Strengthen and modernize our military, making it, without question, the strongest and most powerful in the world” |
| 13 | “Keep the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency” |
| 14 | “Fight for and protect Social Security and Medicare with no cuts, including no changes to the retirement age” |
| 15 | “Cancel the electric vehicle mandate and cut costly and burdensome regulations” |
| 16 | “Cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children” |
| 17 | “Keep men out of women’s sports” |
| 18 | “Deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again” |
| 19 | “Secure our elections, including same-day voting, voter identification, paper ballots, and proof of citizenship” |
| 20 | “Unite our country by bringing it to new and record levels of success” |
Trump’s full agenda, as well as explanations for how policy decisions would be implemented, can be found here.