President Trump’s Wish List Explained

President Joe Biden’s Democrats are mobilizing against Donald Trump’s possible plans to govern if he is elected in November.

The effort, called Project 2025 and developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation, is one of several proposals from think tanks supporting Trump’s agenda.

The more than 900 pages call for firing thousands of civil servants, expanding presidential power, disbanding the Education Department and other federal agencies and enacting sweeping tax cuts.

The Heritage Foundation unveiled its agenda last April, and liberal opposition has hardened its views as former President Trump has taken a lead in the polls following President Biden’s poor debate performance.

On Wednesday, Heritage CEO Kevin Roberts addressed the issue of political violence during a podcast interview.

“We are in the midst of a second American revolution, and it will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” Roberts said on the War Room podcast, founded by Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

The comments prompted a response from the Biden campaign, which accused Trump and his allies of “dreaming of a violent revolution to destroy the very idea of ​​America.”

The comments brought renewed attention to the Project 2025 document.

It is common practice among Washington think tanks to propose policy wish lists for potential administrations in waiting. The liberal Center for American Progress, for example, was called Barack Obama’s “idea factory” during his presidency.

But Democrats targeted the Heritage newspaper as they sought to use more drastic campaign measures.

Last month, Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., announced a task force to stop Project 2025.

Mr. Huffman said: “The 2025 Project is more than an idea, it is a dystopian conspiracy already underway to dismantle our democratic institutions, eliminate checks and balances, weaken the separation of church and state, and impose a far-right agenda that violates fundamental freedoms and opposes the will of the people.

“We need a coordinated strategy to save America and stop this coup before it’s too late.”

Heritage previously said Mr Biden’s party was sending out a “frivolous, error-ridden press release” to scare voters.

“House Democrats are using taxpayer dollars to smear the united effort to restore self-government to ordinary Americans,” Mr. Roberts said in a statement in early June.

“Under the Biden administration, the federal government has been weaponized against the American people, our border has been breached, and our institutions have been hijacked by woke ideology.”

Project Document 2025 identifies four main goals: restoring the family to the central position in American life; abolishing government; defending the nation’s sovereignty and borders; and safeguarding the God-given rights of the individual to live freely.

It is one of several programmatic documents of the platform more widely known as Agenda 47 – so named because if Trump won, he would become America’s 47th president.

The 2025 Project was written by several former Trump appointees and includes suggestions from more than 100 conservative organizations, according to Heritage.

Below is an outline of some of the most important proposals.

Project 2025 would put the entire federal bureaucracy, including independent agencies like the Justice Department, under the direct control of the president — a controversial idea known as the “unitary theory of the executive.”

In practice, this would streamline the decision-making process by enabling the president to directly implement policies in many areas.

The proposals also include scrapping job protections for thousands of government workers, who could be replaced by politically appointed appointees.

The document called the FBI a “bloated, arrogant, and increasingly lawless organization” and called for radical changes to it and other federal agencies, including the abolition of the Education Department.

The document proposes cuts to federal funding for renewable energy research and investment and calls on the next president to “end the war on oil and natural gas.”

Carbon emission reduction targets would be replaced by efforts to increase energy production and energy security.

The document presents two conflicting visions for tariffs, with opinions divided on whether the next president should seek to promote free trade or raise barriers to exports.

But economic advisers have suggested a second Trump administration should cut corporate and income taxes, eliminate the Federal Reserve and even consider returning to a gold-backed currency.

Under the proposals, pornography would be banned and technology and telecommunications companies that facilitate access to such content would be shut down.

The document calls for parents to have the right to choose and control over their schools, and criticizes what it calls “woke propaganda.”

It proposes eliminating a long list of terms from all federal laws and regulations, including “sexual orientation,” “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” “gender equality,” “abortion,” and “reproductive rights.”

The Heritage Foundation is one of the most influential think tanks that has produced policy papers designed to prepare President Trump for a second term.

Since the 1980s, Heritage has produced similar policy documents through its Mandate for Leadership series.

Project 2025, which has a budget of $22 million (£17 million), also sets out strategies for implementing policies that are set to take effect immediately after the president’s inauguration in January 2025.

Trump has endorsed many of Project 2025’s ideas in speeches and on his website, but his campaign has said the candidate has the final say on policy.

Many of these proposals, if implemented, would face immediate legal challenges.