(ThyBlackMan.com) In late June 2024, a campaign spokesperson issued this statement, “None of these groups or individuals speak for President Trump or his campaign… Policy recommendations from external allies are just that – recommendations.”
The Trump camp issued that statement to quell the sudden burst of media and public furor over the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. The project was a big, full blown, radical rightist nine hundred plus page blueprint for remaking the federal government and by extension America.
Trump evidently was not satisfied with the matter-of-fact denial. He quickly posted on his social media site, “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it.” Whether Trump was deliberately lying or had a memory lapse, it strained credulity to the limit to believe his denial. It had been kicking around publicly for more than year before Trump claimed ignorance of it.
The Heritage Foundation released it in April 2023 with much fanfare on the right. Many of those who were or had been an intimate part of Trump’s political brain trust were charter members of the Heritage Foundation. They had a direct hand in crafting the blueprint.
It didn’t require a close read of Agenda 47, Trump’s sweeping template for a radical right remake of the country to see that with few exceptions, Project 25 and Agenda 47 were almost identical in what they proposed for the nation. One example, in Agenda 47 Trump laid out his planned assault on the Deep State which entailed slashing or outright eliminating such federal agencies as the Education Department, the Commerce Department, the EPA, the Bureau of the Interior, and the Food and Drug.
He went into great ideological detail to tell why they must be whittled down or entirely shut down. Project 2025 made the same call for slashing or eliminating these agencies. It also went into great ideological detail to tell why. It used much of the same language and reasoning in telling why.
What then was that language and the reasoning behind the Heritage Foundation’s overhaul of the government that Trump despite denials in some places lifted almost verbatim from? As already mentioned, there were two centerpieces of Project 2025 and Agenda 47. The first would give Trump total control of all federal government agencies. He could hire and fire at will. The hires would serve purely at his pleasure. The agencies would be forbidden to take any independent action particularly on regulations without Trump approval.
Key regulatory agencies such as the EPA would either be eliminated or pared down. Trump’s nemesis the Department of Justice and the FBI would be transformed into Trump’s personal legal hit force to hector, harass, and prosecute political foes, mainly liberal and leftist critics.
The second key component of Project 2025 and Agenda 47 was the issue that was near and dear to the hearts and fury of ultra-conservatives, the battle over traditional family values. The battle began with the SCOTUS decision on Roe on abortion in the 1970s, intensified with the fight over legalizing gay marriage four decades later, and Obama and Biden administration executive orders strengthening transgender identity protections. The two documents made clear the federal government should seek to “maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family.”
The well-worn rightist and well-organized action plan for the remake of government as he explained was the handiwork of several dozen right-wing organizations and hundreds of conservative activists and scholars. The action plan rested on four major pillars.
The first was a policy book Mandate for Leadership. It laid out exactly how ultra-conservatives would redefine the role of government agencies and ensure that Trump would move quickly to do the overhaul.
The second pillar left nothing to chance. It was a compilation in an online data base of the names of “rock-solid conservatives” who could and would be selected to fill positions in the Trump administration. These were individuals who would faithfully carry out Project 2025’s stated goals.
The third pillar was something cleverly innovative—a Presidential Administration Academy. The idea here was to not only stuff an incoming Trump administration with “rock solid conservatives” but to ensure that they hit the ground running. The Academy would school the appointees and staffers “into experts in governmental effectiveness.” This was crucial for them to avoid being blind-sided, tripped up and stymied by the alleged liberal and leftist bureaucrats who knew all the ins and out of government rules and technicalities and could toss endless roadblocks in the way.
The fourth pillar was the true end game. That was to translate the lofty ultra-conservative wish list of objectives into public policy in every government agency. Project 2025 aimed to leave nothing to chance in its planned government takeover and remake. https://www.heritage.org/conservatism/commentary/project-2025Conservatis
There was one further item about Trump and Project 2025 that did not go unnoticed. A few days after Trump vehemently denied any knowledge of Project 2025 or any connection to him a recruitment video for Project 2025 appeared on Trump’s Truth Social media platform that featured a Trump campaign spokeswoman. There was no report that Trump denied authorizing it, or immediately took it down, or that it got there purely by accident or coincidence. So much for Trump’s denials.
Written By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
One can find more info about Mr. Hutchinson over at the following site; TheHutchinson Report.
Also feel free to connect with him through twitter; http://twitter.com/earlhutchins