What you need to know about Project 2025, the conservative plan for the US

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Interested in politics or not, you’ve probably heard of Project 2025.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, has repeatedly warned Americans about it, warning that it paints an extremist blueprint for how her challenger, former President Donald Trump, a Republican, would transform the country if he runs for a second term would be chosen.

In response, Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, claiming he knows nothing about it. But the organization that created Project 2025 played a major role in staffing Trump’s first administration, and some of its former staffers were involved in crafting the plan.

Ahead of the November 5 elections, voters will hear more about Project 2025. What is it and what do you need to know?

What is Project 2025?

Project 2025 is the Heritage Foundation’s political playbook laying out how Trump should reform the federal government to align it with the conservative group’s ideals.

It aims to “reshape federal government agencies and purge career officials to replace them with loyalists to consolidate conservative power,” according to USA TODAY reporter George Russell. In addition to the online plan, the Heritage Foundation is asking for “requests” to create an inventory of conservatives the president could hire for various agencies to advance the plan.

The Heritage Foundation partnered with more than 100 other conservative groups to create Project 2025.

The presidential transition guide is full of policy prescriptions and strategies to undo what the Heritage Foundation calls “the long march of cultural Marxism” sweeping through America’s institutions. The goal is to advance the conservative movement’s agenda as quickly as possible once a conservative wins the presidency.

“The federal government is a behemoth,” Project 2025 claims, “weaponized against American citizens and conservative values, with liberty and freedom under attack like never before.”

What you need to know about the Heritage Foundation: The main group behind Project 2025 and RNC sponsor

What is the Heritage Foundation?

The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank founded in 1973 during the administration of former President Richard Nixon that has a strong influence on Republican policy. The group recommends policy positions and judicial appointments and sponsors the Republican National Convention.

“Early on, the organization established itself as an anti-communist, pro-business organization and is also culturally conservative with a Christian slant,” Russell reported for USA TODAY.

According to the group’s website, “Heritage’s mission is to formulate and promote public policy based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual liberty, traditional American values, and strong national defense.”

What would Project 2025 do?

Project 2025 calls for dismantling federal agencies, including the FBI, Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and banning drugs used in abortions by medicines, causing drastic changes in regulations. the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, Russell reported.

Is Project 2025 Trump’s?

Trump did not write the plan and takes no credit for it. He claims to know nothing about it or its creators.

But there are close ties between Trump and Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation.

The project’s director, Paul Dans, served as chief of staff of the Office of Personnel Management during the Trump administration.

According to the Project 2025 website, Project 2025 builds on its 1980 “Mandate for Leadership,” which the project says has been “highly influential for presidential administrations since the Reagan era.”

“Recently,” Project 2025 claims, “the Trump administration has relied heavily on Heritage’s ‘Mandate’ for policy guidance, embracing nearly two-thirds of Heritage’s proposals within just one year in office.”

USA TODAY reporters George Russell and BrieAnna Frank contributed to this story.