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    • What is Project 2025? Controversial plan discussed during first debate
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    What is Project 2025? Controversial plan discussed during first debate

    Vaseline Posted on

    Project 2025, which aims to set the agenda for the next Republican president, is filled with proposals to radically transform the federal government. Here’s what Harris and Trump had to say about it.

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    During Tuesday night’s presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris again attempted to connect former President Donald Trump to a controversial conservative policy plan known as Project 2025.

    As the November general election approaches, Democrats have repeatedly tried to portray Project 2025 as Trump’s policy agenda. And Trump, in turn, has repeatedly tried to distance himself from the project.

    Project 2025, an effort to set the agenda for the next Republican presidential administration, is filled with proposals to radically transform the federal government.

    But Trump has his own plan, Agenda47. The former president has also claimed to be largely unaware of the ideas laid out in Project 2025, despite the project’s director being a former Trump administration official.

    Here’s what you need to know about Project 2025 and how it was addressed during Tuesday night’s debate.

    What is Project 2025?

    One of the main objectives of the extensive policy plan Project 2025 is to increase presidential power.

    The Heritage Foundation and more than 100 other conservative groups collaborated on Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project. The resulting 900-page document lays out policy recommendations for the next Republican president that reflect the think tank’s goal of “[rescuing]the country from the clutches of the radical left.”

    The plan, released in April 2023, calls for an overhaul of several federal government agencies, including the FBI. Among the controversial proposals are to eliminate the Department of Education, restrict access to abortion pills and reinstate a Trump executive order allowing the president to replace government officials with political appointees across the federal government.

    Project 2025 also seeks to repeal aspects of the Affordable Care Act, push the Food and Drug Administration to roll back its approval of abortion pills, and give Immigration and Customs Enforcement greater authority to deport undocumented immigrants.

    The plan also specifically targets LGBTQ+ issues and attacks “radical gender ideology.”

    At least 31 of the 38 authors have ties to Trump.

    Democrats Try to Associate Trump with Project 2025

    For that reason, Democrats, including their campaign arm in the House of Representatives, have criticized Project 2025’s policies and attempted to associate Project 2025 with Trump.

    During Tuesday night’s debate, Harris called Project 2025 a “detailed and dangerous plan” that she claimed Trump “intends to implement if he were re-elected.”

    She also called it ‘his Project 2025’.

    “Understand that in his Project 2025, there would be a … monitor that would monitor your pregnancies and miscarriages,” Harris said. “I think the American people believe that certain freedoms, particularly the freedom to make decisions about one’s own body, should not be created by the government.

    Trump denies involvement in Project 2025

    The Trump campaign has aggressively tried to distance itself from Project 2025, with Trump claiming he has “nothing to do with Project 2025.”

    “I haven’t read it,” Trump said during the debate. “I purposely don’t want to read it. I’m not going to read it. This was a group of people who got together, they came up with some ideas. I think some of them were good, some of them were bad. But it doesn’t make any difference.”

    Trump has previously said he disagrees with some of the proposals in Project 2025, though he has not specified which ones. However, the Heritage Foundation said in a January 2018 press release that Trump had adopted nearly two-thirds of the policy recommendations in his first year in office.

    Project 2025 includes former Trump employees

    The plan was drafted by former Trump administration officials. The director of Project 2025 was Paul Dans, who was chief of staff of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management during the Trump administration.

    Trump adviser Stephen Miller and Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt also appeared in a video supporting the project’s “Presidential Administration Academy.”

    What is Agenda47?

    Trump’s campaign has its own plan, called Agenda47.

    Many of the actions Trump proposes in his official agenda would be carried out by executive order and cover topics such as climate change, education, the economy and immigration.

    In Agenda47, Trump promised to sign an executive order on “day one” to end automatic citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, whom he calls “illegal aliens.”

    The agenda is part of the former president’s crackdown on crime and calls for investments in hiring, retaining and training police officers, as well as bolstering policing policies such as stop-and-frisk and local law enforcement cooperation with ICE on deportation.

    As for public education, Trump’s plan would aim to punish and defund educational institutions and teachers that do not teach conservative values.

    Contributors: Rachel Barber, BrieAnna J. Frank, Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY

    Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]

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