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

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

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Whether you're 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 that she is laying out an extremist plan for how her challenger, former President Donald Trump, a Republican, would change the country if he voted for a would be elected for a second term.

In response, Trump tried to distance himself from Project 2025, claiming he knew nothing about it. But the organization that launched Project 2025 played a large role in staffing Trump's first administration, and some of his former aides were involved in crafting the plan.

Voters will continue to learn more about Project 2025 leading up to the Nov. 5 election. So what is it and what do you need to know?

What is Project 2025?

Project 2025 is the Heritage Foundation's policy playbook outlining how Trump should reform the federal government to align it with the conservative group's ideals.

According to USA TODAY reporter George Russell, it aims to “reshape federal agencies and fire career civil servants to replace them with loyalists, consolidating conservative power.” In addition to the online plan, the Heritage Foundation is soliciting “applications” to create an inventory of conservatives the president could hire for various agencies to advance the plan.

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

The presidential transition guide is full of policy prescriptions and strategies to reverse what the Heritage Foundation calls “the long march of cultural Marxism” sweeping through U.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, “armed against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and bondage under siege like never before.”

What you should 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 and heavily influences Republican politics. The group recommends policy positions and judicial appointments and sponsors the Republican National Convention.

“Early on, it claimed to be an anti-communist, pro-business organization and was also culturally conservative with a Christian orientation,” Russell reported for USA TODAY.

The group's website states: “Heritage's mission is to formulate and promote public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values ​​and strong national defense.”

What would Project 2025 accomplish?

Project 2025 calls for the dismantling of federal agencies, including the FBI, the Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as well as banning drugs used in medication abortions and drastic changes, Russell reported , that they violated the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and deported millions of undocumented immigrants.

Does Project 2025 belong to Trump?

Trump did not write the plan and does not take 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.

Project leader Paul Dans served as chief of staff in the Office of Personnel Management during the Trump administration.

According to Project 2025's website, Project 2025 builds on its 1980 “Mandate for Leadership,” which it claims has had “a major impact on presidential administrations since the Reagan era.”

“Most recently,” Project 2025 claims, “the Trump administration relied heavily on Heritage's 'mandate' for policy guidance, adopting nearly two-thirds of Heritage's proposals within just one year of its term.”

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

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