Project 2025: How popular is this policy?

More than half of former President Donald Trump’s signature policy proposals are unpopular with voters, according to a recent poll.

Eliminating the Education Department, cutting corporate taxes and giving the president more control over the civil service and independent federal agencies were among the least popular elements of Trump’s so-called Agenda 47. Only nine of the 28 policies surveyed had positive net support, the YouGov poll found.

Many of the proposals that have drawn the most opposition are also part of Project 25, a set of policy recommendations from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that aims to restructure the U.S. federal government if Trump wins the 2024 presidential election.

Karolina Leavitt, national spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, said: Newsweek: “The 2025 Project has nothing to do with our campaign. It’s a proposal from Heritage, an outside organization.”

Leavitt pointed out Newsweek to an earlier statement issued by Trump campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles that said “no aspect of the President’s future employment or any political announcement should be considered official” unless Trump or a campaign member says so.

Trump recently distanced himself from the initiative in a post by Truth Social: “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they say and some of it is absolutely ridiculous and pathetic. Whatever they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

Newsweek He also contacted the Heritage Foundation for comment.

How popular are some of Project 25’s key proposals?

A central tenet of Project 2025 is a sweeping overhaul of the federal bureaucracy, which includes reclassifying tens of thousands of federal workers under a proposed “Schedule F” to make it easier to fire and hire staff with conservative values.

“To achieve the President’s goals, political appointees must be given the tools, knowledge, and support to overcome obstacles from federal human resources departments,” the initiative’s policy agenda reads.

In a video on his campaign website, Trump said he would “immediately reissue” an executive order he first introduced in October 2020 to restore “the president’s authority to remove rogue bureaucrats. And I will use that authority very aggressively.”

Fifty-nine percent of respondents to a YouGov poll opposed “changing the law to allow presidents to fire civil servants for any reason.”

Another 55 percent opposed giving the president control of currently independent regulatory agencies, another idea proposed by both Trump and Project 25.

Project 25 also states that “ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.” In a video shared on his campaign website, Trump said, “We will end education coming out of Washington, D.C. We will shut it down — all these buildings everywhere, and yet people who in many cases hate our children. We will send it all back to the states.”

Proposals to scrap the Department for Education have not gone down well with respondents to a YouGov poll, with 58 per cent saying they “strongly or rather oppose” the plan.

Another focal point of Project 2025 is “immediate tax reform.” The policy document calls for cutting the corporate income tax to 18 percent. It’s currently at 21 percent. Project 25 believes that “the corporate income tax is the most harmful tax in the U.S. tax system.”

According to the Tax Foundation, Trump has proposed cutting the corporate tax rate to 20 percent and potentially as low as 15 percent.

Almost 60 per cent of people oppose tax cuts for corporations, according to YouGov.

Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, over the years, and Project 25 advocates for repealing much of that law.

Fifty-six percent of respondents opposed repealing the ACA.

Biden’s campaign said Newsweek with a statement from spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika that read as follows: “The 2025 Project is clear: If Donald Trump wins a second term, he will do everything in his power to deprive Americans of their freedoms, undermine our democracy, and amass power for himself, while using government as a weapon of revenge against his opponents.

“Americans are increasingly aware of how extreme and unpopular Donald Trump’s plan for a second term is — and they are ready to stop it in November.”

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