For the past year, Project 2025 has endured as a persistent force in the presidential election, its far-right proposals deployed by Democrats as shorthand for what Donald Trump would potentially do with a second term at the White House.
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00:00Project 2025 is now a major talking point for politicians and voters in the upcoming presidential election.
00:06Led by the right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 is a collection of conservative policies
00:12and a blueprint for the next conservative president, who would be Donald Trump if elected in November.
00:17The 2025 project, published in 2023, has gained a lot of attention following the first presidential debate.
00:23The $22 million effort funded by donors includes a nearly 1,000-page handbook
00:28that detailed a conservative agenda for the next president.
00:31It does not say it is specifically intended for Trump, but that it wants a conservative as the next commander-in-chief.
00:35However, the project celebrates various orders brought in during Trump's time in the White House,
00:39including his abortion and immigration policies.
00:42The handbook outlines an expansion of presidential power and plans to fire as many as 50,000 government workers
00:47to be replaced with conservatives, including a top-to-bottom overhaul of the Department of Justice and the FBI.
00:53It calls for the next conservative administration to rescue the country from the grip of the radical left,
00:58which includes policies like a crackdown on abortion pills, the reinstatement of the Trump-era immigration bans,
01:04a ban on transgender people serving in the military, and eliminating the Department of Education.
01:09On July 5, Trump disavowed his involvement in Project 2025 in a post on Truth Social,
01:14his own social media platform owned by the Trump Media and Technology Group.
01:17Still, multiple former Trump administration officials have contributed to Project 2025,
01:22including former Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller and former Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli.
01:29Russ Vaughn and Ned Martin, both of whom helped shape the RNC's party platform,
01:34and former White House personnel chief John McEntee, are tied to Project 2025.
01:39Since Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden as a Democratic nominee in the 2024 presidential race,
01:45her campaign continued Biden's tactic of drawing attention to Project 2025
01:50and what they view as an extreme agenda, trying to prove that if Trump is elected,
01:55this will be the policy reality starting in 2025.