Democrats and the left-leaning media are again (or is it still?) perpetrating a political falsehood regarding Project 2025.
According to the Democrat’s narrative, Project 2025 is a clandestine document outlining the plans and policies of the incoming Trump administration. It was conceived and written by Trump loyalists with the advance knowledge and approval of the President-elect. The anti-Trump media treats Project 2025 as some unusual secret plan that was uncovered and exposed by news reporters. None of that is true.
According to those on the left, it is an evil authoritarian document filled with plans and proposals to oppress the people of America and create a right-wing dictatorship. The left’s description of Project 2025 is nothing less than a mendacious fear mongering propaganda narrative.
All those false claims could be easily dismissed if the document was not so long – 900 pages, in fact. Those spreading lies know that the mischaracterizations by the left will be embraced by the base … and may fool others who will neither have the time nor the desire to actually read the Project 2025 report.
As a conservative, I can understand why those on the radical left do not like Project 2025. It is largely a conservative manifesto for limited government, lower taxes and greater personal freedom. It calls for greater efficiency in the operation of the federal government. It calls for lower taxes and less regulation. It reestablishes parental power over education – and calls for such parent and student friendly programs, such as school choice.
Of the thousands of ideas and recommendations in the document, the left dwells on a few that they can spin as controversial. Project 2025 takes up the pro-life conservative view on abortion, for example.
From a conservative perspective, I like most of the ideas, proposals and recommendations – but I disagree with some. Just as I like many of Trump and the GOP’s policies and proposals — but disagree with some.
Those on the left would have us believe that this entire document is the work of a Trump government in exile. That is ridiculous and provably untrue. If you compare the Trump platform with Project 2025, you will find that he does not embrace many of the recommendations, such as a national ban on abortion. Project 2025 contributors are among the most anti-tariff policy influencers. Other ideas in Project 2025 are simply theoretical and have no practical impact on policy. It calls for a national ban on abortion – something Trump opposes, and such legislation will not get even considered by Congress.
Project 2025 is nothing more and nothing less than the work of a conservative think tank (the Heritage Foundation) – offering up ideas and recommendations for policies and programs. It is what think tanks do – including progressive think tanks, such as the Brookings Institution or the Woodrow Willson Internation Center for Scholars.
Project 2025 was launched without the involvement of Trump – or even with his specific knowledge. I strongly doubt he has even read the final report. Trump’s policies do not include many – and even most — of the ideas and recommendations found in Project 2025.
As evidence of their specious claim that Project 2025 is the work of Trump and his team, the never-Trumpers point to appointments in the incoming administration of individuals who participated as contributors to Project 2025. Of the scores of people already nominated to high posts in government, the left-wing media has so far identified only four who are named contributors to Project 2025. That is out of the 277 individual contributors and 54 think tanks, universities and organizations that provided input to the Project.
Those numbers put the lie to the left’s contention that Project 2025 is the isolated work of Team Trump – and THE major policy contributor to his administration, people or policies.
All the hair-on-fire condemnations of Project 2025 are borne out of pernicious and irrational evergreen animosity toward Trump – and all who support him. It is part of their false narrative that Trump represents an existential threat to the future of the American Republic – and to those on the left, Project 2025 is his Mein Kampf. The effort to paint Trump as the democracy anti-Christ only fooled some of the people some of the time (hopefully).
The attacks on Project 2025 are distractions from the actual plans and policies of the incoming Trump administration. Perhaps that is because those on the left recognize that most of Trump’s real policies are popular with the public. That is why he won the election. The never-Trumpers need a boogeyman for their fear monger narratives — even if they have to invent one.
Democrats and those on the left are employing a Halloween approach to Project 2025. They are taking a perfectly benign and innocent policy document – nothing but words and ideas — and dressing it up as some sort of political monster. Well … Halloween is over and so is the election.
Project 2025 is not the seminal manifesto of the incoming Trump administration. That is obvious to anyone who has read it – and has paid attention to Trump’s real policies. Its influence is relatively small in terms of where Trump gets his ideas. Any similarities to Trump programs are purely coincidental. It is time for those with the singed scalps to move on to the real issues.
So, there ‘tis.