OKAY ALREADY- So What?
This time there's music
August 2025 edit: The Project 2025 Tracker.
Original Content
I've thought about this for a while, and when I saw the short written and performed by Jason Kravits below, I knew it was time to write about it. Take a minute or so to watch and listen.
There are page numbers within the song, and they ARE accurate. The whole thing, every bit in this song and every so much more: IS in Project 2025 , aka '2025 Presidential Transition Project'.
It, along with every other version of The Mandate for Leadership: Policy Management in a Conservative Administration, (which is the official title of what we call Project 2025), was written by The Heritage Foundation and outline the plans to achieve ultra-conservatism if and when it is enacted.
Who? What?!
The Heritage Foundation deserves its own article, but in the meantime you might want to check out this article below in The Nation (no paywall as of this writing).
The original version came about after the conservative Heritage Foundation learned that Nixon came to office unprepared and without plans to advance a 'conservative agenda'. Since then the Mandate has been written and updated for every President. It really hit its mark with Reagan. Trickle down, anyone?
It was with Trump in 2016, though, that all of that work paired off. Unprepared for the demands of the position (fact, not opinion), and lacking a platform (fact, not opinion), Trump accepted the guidance of what could have been called Project 2017… had the public known of it then.
Of course, the Heritage Foundation wasn’t invisible, but the public wasn’t as deep into the Internet searches, and since Obama hadn’t been in their pocket, knowledge of their workings wasn’t as commonly known.
Where Reagan eagerly accepted the Mandate, gave copies to his team, and hired people Heritage proposed, and implemented almost 2/3 of the proposals it contained, Donald Trump has gone further.
In his first administration, February 2017, Trump tweeted:
By the same point in Reagan's presidency he had implemented an astounding 49% of the policies presented to him by the Heritage Foundation, and Donald Trump had swallowed the Kool-Aid and already completed 64%, including leaving the Paris climate accord.
Wait- Didn't Trump Write Project 2025?
Heck no! Of course not He doesn’t have the knowledge or skills to do it, and he surely hasn’t read it. That’s not his style. Trump designates, delegates, and capitulates his control to others.
However, over 60% of the authors (and they are listed within it) worked in the Trump administration. Heritage President Kevin Roberts describes the role of Heritage as 'Institutionalizing Trumpism', and Donald Trump is mentioned by name over 300 times in th2 Project 2025 Mandate.
More than half (about 140) of the Project 2025 authors, editors, and contributors worked in the Trump administration. Steven Miller (Trump administration advisor) appears in the heritage training films for Project 2025. Former Project director Paul Dans served as chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management during the Trump administration. Spencer Chretien, a former special assistant to Trump, serves as associate director.
Project 2025 is an agenda by and for conservatives, but more specifically Christian Nationalist conservatives. There is likely noting more 'anti-woke' than Project 2025.
So: Trump DOESN'T KNOW Anything About Project 2025, Right?
Trump, along with the well-positioned spokespeople from Heritage Foundation , is well versed in sophistry.
- ‘I didn’t write it.’
- ‘I haven’t read it’
- ‘He didn’t write it’
All true. All true word for word when given as answers to 'Did you write Project 2025?' and 'Have you read Project 2025?'
Sophistry is the skill of speaking in a tricky, plausible way that seems true but is actually false. Have you ever heard him asked about the Mandate for Leadership? Questions are asked about the current Mandate, but not about Trump's implementation of the earlier work, the hiring of staffers associated with it, has been the keynote speaker at several Heritage events (starting at 9:50 here, transcript here).
He certainly knew Heritage when he was the speaker at the event in April 2022 when Project 2025 was officially launched. He said:
“They’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do,” Trump said of the Heritage Foundation and their efforts to – as they describe on the Project 2025 website – “pave the way” for Trump’s next administration.
“Already we have shown the power of our winning formula, working closely with many of the great people at Heritage over the four incredible years that we’ve worked with you a lot, and we were just discussing it with Kevin,” Trump said during the 2022 speech in his typical rambling style. “They’re going to work on some other things that are going to be very exciting, I think, Kevin, I think maybe the most exciting of all.”
Here's a clip of the speech
Agenda 47 IS Project 2025
Trump IS familiar with the latest version of Mandate for Leadership (aka Project 2025), and the official Republican Platform manifesto was based on the policies and procedures found within the Mandate. In 2023 Trump's campaign team stated that the two things were 'well aligned'.
My article, written two months ago when Agenda 47 came out, goes into a bit more detail.
The project aims to promote conservative and right-wing policies to reshape the United States federal government and consolidate executive power, under the premise that Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election. This would, of course, be done under the blessing of the Supreme Court, who has given Trump immunity when an acting President.
OKAY Already, So What?
So: THIS. Project 2025 is only the most recent of the Mandate for Leadership: Policy Management in a Conservative Administration, a four-part Presidential Transition Project.
We know that Trump will follow it if elected: he did it before and he will do it again. This is an uncomfortable realization, and undeniably the best bet you can make.
Whether Trump wins the Presidency or not THERE WILL BE A PROJECT 2029. And a Project 2033, and a Project 2037.... As much as it seems Trump-specific (and the current edition certainly IS)- this is bigger than Trump. The Heritage Foundation (BTW: They don't pay taxes. Chew on that a bit) is playing the very long game. They will continue writing their policy implementation manual over and over again.
Until We the People stop them. Voting Democrat this year is an excellent place to start doing just that.
~~~
Read it for yourself: here's a link to a FREE PDF of 2025 Mandate for Leadership/aka Project 2025:
My three previous articles on the subject:
Your comments are welcome.
About the Creator
Judey Kalchik
It's my time to find and use my voice.
Poetry, short stories, memories, and a lot of things I think and wish I'd known a long time ago.
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Comments (8)
Another excellent piece written on this very important subject. Thanks for sharing, Judey
Thanks for this information but I always vote democrat because they are for the people and to eliminate choas
This is why we have several branches of government...to balance one another out. American voters would be fools if they didn't believe that all parties aren't using some type of "sophistry" (Sophistry is the skill of speaking in a tricky, plausible way that seems true but is actually false.) Most of the Democratic agenda comes straight out of the bowels of George Soros' open society foundation: (www.opensocietyfoundations.org) Open Society Foundations, like the Democratic platform itself, uses sophistry so well that it uses vagueness in its specifics and calls it "democracy", yet has infiltrated all walks of American life trying to create its agenda of a one-world government...whose very purpose serves to kill the republic of America. It's not "woke" or "not woke" most Conservatives and Democrats should be voting on, but IF WE STILL WANT to be united as an individual country with the best system in the world in place...that is the key issue. I am white, I am a Christian, and I am an American whose values are equally as important as anybody's. And coining anybody as if their values were wrong, is causing so much division in our already divided country. Using scare tactics and "name calling" is not solving anything.
This is a good example of, 'Be careful what you wish for; you might just get it'. I really don't see any benefits to bringing these bozos back into the White House, and I hope more people read and understand what is at stake. Thank you for this!
A very interesting article. I am not a very political person just one that goes day to day in God's embrace.
Very well done Judey. Thank you for sharing and helping to make clear the dangers of Project 2025.
Great
Opus Dei has stretched its tentacles far and wide in this country.