Are you curious about Project 2025? We looked into it and found out why so many people of different political parties are upset about this plan to transform our government and our lives. Here is our explanation, with references that anyone can check in the document to verify.

Project 2025 is a specific and detailed plan to undo democracy in the United States in the first 180 days of a Trump presidency. The majority of authors on specific topics were members of the Trump administration, and who are advocating for policies proposed under Trump. It is scheduled to be published as a book after the election, with a foreword by J.D. Vance. It is 922 pages long.

Project 2025 would give the executive branch of government — the Presidency — power that overwhelms the other two branches of government. Government jobs (bureaucratic civil service positions, including the IRS, the FBI and the Veterans Administration) would become political appointments.

By forbidding programs or even discussions about climate change (p. 419; p. 674-676) or racial discrimination (p. 4-5), it would be difficult to sustain government action on these issues.

Major cuts to programs and staffing would impact Vermont’s ability to get federal funding for flood prevention and mitigation. Vermont’s housing situation would be affected by deep cuts in federal support for housing programs. Powers of the states on issues like environmental protection or the death penalty would be over-ruled. The President could order federal troops into American cities, against state or local opposition.

By withholding funding and adding additional bureaucratic reporting requirements, the new administration would cut back eligibility for a broad range of public services as Social Security, Medicare, disability benefits, and veterans’ health care. Programs such as food stamps, school lunches and Medicaid would be limited to the “very poor” with additional layers of documentation required to access benefits. Workers’ health, safety, and wage protections such as overtime pay for over 40 hours of work a week, would also be reduced, and enforcement relaxed (p. 587).

While drastically cutting money to public services and administration, Project 2025 would lower taxes on wealthy individuals and corporate profits (p. 660). Overall, it would widen the wealth gap between the rich and the poor, and by privatizing many services and programs that are now free to the public, make it harder for people without connections to wealthy families to get ahead.

Government subsidies would expand the fossil fuel industry, while cutting off funding for alternative sources such as solar and wind power. Many wilderness areas, national parks and monuments would lose their protected status and be opened to large industries such as mining (p. 523-524). Environmental protections for areas such as wetlands, watersheds and endangered species would be cut or eliminated altogether.

Areas of life that we have grown used to thinking of as private personal decisions, protected from religious interference by the constitutional separation of church and state, would be subject to federal government oversight and in some cases criminalization, based on a strict fundamentalist Christian definition of “life”, “marriage” and “family” being applied to all. Women’s options to maintain reproductive health would be limited, including banning abortion in the entire country. States like Vermont that have ‘Death with Dignity’ legal choices would have these overturned by the increased power of the President and federal government (p. 450). Laws prohibiting discrimination against gay, lesbian and trans people would be repealed (p. 584).

Federal government censorship of books available in school and public libraries would be heightened, with criminal penalties for librarians who make “pornography” available. “Pornography” is not defined, but it seems to include books featuring gay characters, and topics such as sexual abuse and women’s reproductive choices. Cutbacks in funding for museums and libraries, support for four-year liberal arts colleges, and public television and radio (NPR) would restrict opportunities for learning and critical thinking for the public.

The above is our summary of just some of the areas in which Project 2025 seeks to withdraw government support from those most in need, while expanding opportunities for those in power to accumulate more wealth at the expense of workers, vulnerable people of all kinds, and the environment. Many specific groups, such as veterans, people with disabilities, women, rural advocates, teachers, and health care workers, have drilled down into Project 2025 to detail the impact it would have on them, and are making this information widely available.

Carolyn’s comment: Researching the Project 2025 document has been very stressful for me, as it is a direct attack on many of the fundamental values that I was taught that our country stood for, including limiting government power, respecting each person’s individual rights, and the responsibility of government to act for the public good, not private gain. I encourage everyone, regardless of political party, to learn more about, and to reject, a future based on Project 2025. The extremists who advocate for these ideas have placed themselves outside the American democratic framework and are working to destroy it.

Gwyn’s comment: Because Project 2025 seeks to take away the voices of voters by making voting more difficult and undermining fair elections, it seeks to entrench the beliefs and goals of the authors, not of U.S. voters. The plans highlighted above and others laid out in the full document threaten every aspect of our democracy from the local and state level up the federal branches of justice. Once in place, it would paralyze opposition in all branches of government and weaken our voices as voters. This is our democracy and Lady Liberty needs our help to keep it.

Carolyn Schmidt and Gwyn Cattell

Editor’s note: Carolyn Schmidt and Gwyn Cattell are members of the Whiting Town Democratic Committee.

The Project 2025 document, titled Presidential Transition Project: “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” is available here.