The Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is distancing himself from Project 2025 – an ultra-conservative and much-discussed plan to change the governance of the USA.
The Democrats, in turn, have made the plan a main issue in their election campaign.
Fire tens of thousands of non-political officials and replace them with people loyal to the Republicans. Strengthen the president's power significantly. Further restrict the right to abortion.
These are some of the proposals in Project 2025, a 900-page action plan for what Trump should do if he wins the election in November. Behind the plan stands the conservative Heritage Foundation.
It is one of the most influential think tanks in the USA, says Erik Åsard, professor emeritus of North American Studies at Uppsala University.
It has gone from focusing on preserving traditional values and institutions to advocating a kind of Christian nationalism.
"Revolution"
In the Trump camp, there is concern that the more extreme proposals will scare off uncertain voters. Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025 and claimed that he knows nothing about the plan or the people behind it.
This after Heritage Foundation's chairman Kevin Roberts made a criticized statement that the USA is "in the midst of a second American revolution, which will be bloodless if the left lets it be."
At the same time, at least 140 people who worked in Trump's previous government have been involved in Project 2025, according to CNN. At a conference organized by Heritage Foundation in 2022, Trump praised the think tank and said that it "will create the foundation and detailed plans for exactly what our movement will do."
Close ties
Trump's vice presidential candidate J D Vance also has close ties to the think tank.
If the platform were to be implemented by a new government, it would mean a dramatic shift of the entire American society in a right-wing radical direction, says Åsard.
But it assumes that Trump wins the election and gets Congress to back his reforms.
The Democrats see Project 2025 as an ace in the hole for President Joe Biden's faltering election campaign and are planning a comprehensive campaign on the theme.
The Democrats will highlight the extreme proposals in that document and point out that this is what it will be like if Trump comes to power.
Particularly controversial is the idea of replacing officials with Republican loyalists, which would make it easier for Trump to get his policies through without obstacles. The Democrats argue that it would mean a politicization of the authorities and a threat to democracy.
Critics argue that the administration would become like a lapdog to Trump.
The conservative think tank Heritage Foundation has been working on action plans with "wish lists" for what they want to see from Republican governments since the beginning of the 1980s.
These action plans usually have a significant impact on politics.
The action plan for this year's election is called Project 2025 and is unusually comprehensive.
Among the wishes are to strengthen presidential power and change the state apparatus, abolish the education department and several other authorities, make abortions no longer part of healthcare, dismantle climate policy, abolish diversity initiatives, deport undocumented migrants, and lower taxes.
Source: Forbes, The New York Times
