PART ONE
During the presidential campaign Trump denied any connection to PROJECT 2025 for a total of 479 times including his infamous September 10th debate with Vice President Kamala Harris. “I have nothing to do with Project 2025,” Trump said in the ABC News Presidential Debate. “I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it purposely. I’m not going to read it.”
Trump continued to reference his Mein Kampf. “I know nothing about Project 2025," he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social. "I disagree with some of the things they're saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.”
However, his team created Project 25, which included former Trump advisers; director Paul Dans, who was chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management while Trump was president, Russell Vought, a self-described Christian nationalist, wrote a key chapter in the document and was confirmed by the Senate to lead the Office of Budget Management, which administers the $6.75tn (£5.44tn) federal budget. Indeed, Vought - who Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer called "the chief architect of Project 2025, its intellectual inspiration" - was also put in charge of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that the Trump administration has indicated it would like to close. Other Project 2025 authors nominated to government positions include CIA director John Ratcliffe; Brendan Carr, chosen to oversee the Federal Communications Commission; Tom Homan, Trump's "border czar"; Paul Atkins, nominated to head the Securities and Exchange Commission; and trade advisor Peter Navarro.
PROJECT 2025 versus MEIN KAMPF
When analyzing the Republican Project 2025 and Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, there are similarities that merit close scrutiny. Each work outlines a vision for their respective nations that veers alarmingly toward authoritarianism, threatening the democratic fabric of the Weimar Republic and the United States. Though Trump has “disavowed” the project, his statements carry little weight due to his duplicitous approach to politics. He cannot be trusted.
Authoritarian vision
Mein Kampf is infamous for its detailed blueprint of an authoritarian regime. Hitler’s vision was rooted in absolute power, racial purity, and the dismantling of democratic institutions.
Project 2025, though not overtly espousing the same extreme ideologies, reveals a trajectory toward centralized power and erosion of democratic checks and balances. This plan, influenced heavily by Trump’s agenda, proposes sweeping changes that could undermine the principles of American democracy.
Disdain for democratic institutions
Hitler’s disdain for the Weimar Republic’s democratic institutions is well-documented. He viewed democracy as weak and inefficient, advocating for a totalitarian state.
Similarly, Project 2025 reveals a deep skepticism toward American democratic institutions. The plan includes proposals to weaken the judiciary, restrict the press, and limit the powers of Congress —actions that mirror Hitler’s efforts to neutralize any opposition to his rule.
Nationalism, populism
Both Mein Kampf and Project 2025 are steeped in nationalism and populism. Hitler’s book is a call to revive German pride and purity, positioning Aryans as the master race.
While Project 2025 does not espouse such racial ideologies, it heavily emphasizes a form of nationalism that excludes and marginalizes. Trump’s rhetoric and policies, which have influenced Project 2025, often target immigrants and minorities, promoting a vision of America that caters primarily to a specific demographic.
Erosion of civil liberties
In Mein Kampf, Hitler outlines a future where civil liberties are curtailed in favor of state control.
Project 2025, although framed within the context of national security and public order, similarly suggests measures that could erode civil liberties. Proposals to expand surveillance, restrict protests, and limit free speech under the guise of combating misinformation resonate with the authoritarian overtones of Hitler’s vision.
Cult of personality
Both documents promote a cult of personality around their authors. Hitler presented himself as the savior of Germany, a leader destined to restore its former glory.
Project 2025, shaped by Trump’s influence, similarly positions him as the pivotal figure in America’s future. This elevation of a single leader above the democratic process is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes.
While the contexts and specifics of Mein Kampf and Project 2025 differ, the underlying themes of authoritarianism, nationalism, and the erosion of democratic norms present a disturbing parallel. Both documents lay out visions that threaten the very foundations of their respective democracies.
It is crucial to recognize these similarities and remain vigilant in defending the democratic principles that are essential to the United States’ identity and future.
PROJECT 2025 - Represented Four (4) major parts:
Government
Project 2025 proposes that the entire federal bureaucracy, including independent agencies such as the Department of Justice, be placed under direct presidential control - a controversial idea known as "unitary executive theory". In practice, that would streamline decision-making, allowing the president to directly implement policies in a number of areas. The proposals also call for eliminating job protections for thousands of government employees, who could then be replaced by political appointees. The document labels the FBI a "bloated, arrogant, increasingly lawless organization". It calls for drastic overhauls of the agency and several others, as well as the complete elimination of the Department of Education.
Shortly after being sworn in, Trump moved to eliminate job protections for career civil servants, and freeze federal spending. Through Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, the White House has moved to chop billions in federal spending, although the details and legal status of the cuts are hazy at best. DOGE is not an official government department, but rather an outside team advising Trump with broad authority from the president.
t's clear however that Trump intends to take a sledgehammer to the federal government as it currently stands - a goal broadly in line with Project 2025 suggestions.
Abortion and family
The mentions of abortion in Project 2025 - there are about 200 of them - have sparked some of the most contentious debate. The document does not call for an outright nationwide abortion ban, and Trump says he would not sign such a law. However, it proposes withdrawing the abortion pill mifepristone from the market, and using existing but little-enforced laws to stop the drug being sent through the post.
The document proposes new data collection efforts on abortion and more generally suggests that the department of Health and Human Services should "maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family".
Trump, by contrast, has generally said that abortion laws should mostly be left to individual states. However, during confirmation hearings, Trump's nominee for health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, said the president had ordered him to examine the safety record of mifepristone and left open the possibility of further regulation of the drug. Trump also issued an executive order designed to stop federal funds being used for abortion, a move that was outlined in detail in the Project 2025 document.
Immigration
Increased funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border - one of Trump's signature proposals in 2016 - is proposed in the document. But Trump's signature immigration policy - a pledge to deport millions of undocumented immigrants - is not spelled out in any detail in Project 2025.
The document does include language calling on Trump to "thoroughly enforce immigration laws".
But in the main chapter dealing with immigration, Project 2025 authors suggest dismantling the Department of Homeland Security and combining it with other immigration enforcement units in other agencies, creating a much larger and more powerful border policing operation.
Other proposals include eliminating visa categories for crime and human trafficking victims, increasing fees on immigrants and allowing fast-tracked applications for migrants who pay a premium.
But it was mass deportations - not a bureaucratic shuffle, visa changes or a longer, taller border wall - that was Trump's top pitch to voters. On this issue, his administration promises to go in a slightly different direction - and potentially much further - than the Project 2025 proposals.
Energy, climate and trade
Energy policy is a broad area of agreement between Trump and the Project 2025 proposals, summed up by one of the president's campaign slogans: "Drill, baby, drill". The new administration wants to ramp up fossil fuel production and has taken the US out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, which seeks to limit emissions and global warming.
Project 2025 proposes slashing federal money for research and investment in renewable energy, and calls for the next president to "stop the war on oil and natural gas" - ideas that the Trump campaign has enthusiastically taken up.
The document sets out two competing visions on tariffs: one suggesting boosting free trade and another pro-tariff position. Trump has clearly sided with the latter camp, announcing import taxes targeting Canada, Mexico and China.
The economic advisers of Project 2025 suggest that a second Trump administration should slash corporate and income taxes, abolish the Federal Reserve and even consider a return to gold-backed currency. While the president has made comments about proposals in some of these areas, the economic talk in the early days of his administration has been dominated by tariffs.
Education, tech and DEI
Almost immediately upon taking office, Trump moved to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs and decreed that government departments would recognize only two genders. Those moves are broadly in line with Project 2025, which took aim at DEI and gender terminology as part of what it describes as a wider crackdown on "woke" ideology. The document also calls for greater school choice - essentially subsidizing religious and private schools with public funds - which was also the subject of an early Trump executive order.
And it calls for abolishing the Department of Education, another idea that Trump has signaled he supports.
In other proposals, Project 2025 suggests banning pornography and shutting down tech and telecoms companies that allow access to adult material. This has so far not been a focus of the new administration, which has drawn support from a number of top tech bosses. Trump's views on the tech industry have regularly shifted, and don't appear to have much to do with sexual content.
PART TWO - Planned to be publish on April 1, 2025. Continuation of the series will conclude:
Intended Consequences of PROJECT 2025
Unintended Consequence of PROJECT 2025
"The truth may hurt for a little while, but a lie hurts forever."
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