"Will Project 2025 Revolutionize United States' Lives?" This is the topic that the United States media and society are most enthusiastically discussing today. From Democratic ·presidential candidate Kamala Harris, to Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, to Senate Majority Leader Schumer, United States politicians frequently mention the "2025 Plan" or question or take sides, and Trump has tried hard to distance himself from it. The 920-page platform, released by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, calls for the dismissal of thousands of civil servants, the expansion of presidential powers, the dismantling of the Ministry of Education, deep tax cuts, and an end to the sale of abortion pills. Many of these ideas were considered "absurd" by the media. This controversial plan is becoming the center of bipartisan criticism in the United States election.
What exactly does the "2025 Plan" include?
The "2025 Plan" was released in April 2023 by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. According to the document, there are 4 main policy goals in the 2025 plan: to put the family at the center of life in United States; dissolution of the administrative state; defending national sovereignty and borders; Ensuring the God-given right to individual freedom.
government
The 2025 Plan proposes to place the entire federal bureaucracy, including independent agencies such as the Justice Department, under the president's direct control. This is a controversial idea known as the "Unified Execution Theory". The 2025 Plan argues that this initiative will streamline the decision-making process and allow the president to directly implement policies in a number of areas. Plan 2025 also calls for the removal of job protections for thousands of government employees so that they can be replaced by political appointees. The document called the F.B.I. a "bloated, arrogant, increasingly lawless organization" and called for radical overhaul of it and several other federal agencies, while proposing the complete elimination of the Department of Education.
immigrant
Plan 2025 proposes to increase funding for the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall. It was one of Trump's signature proposals in 2016. Plan 2025 also proposes to dismantle the Department of Homeland Security and merge it with immigration enforcement from other agencies to create a larger, more robust border police agency. Other proposals include the elimination of visa categories for victims of crime and human trafficking, an increase in immigration fees, and an immigration fast track that allows for the payment of high fees.
Climate and Economy
The 2025 Plan proposes to cut federal funding for renewable energy research and investment and calls on the next president to "stop the war on oil and gas." Carbon reduction targets will be replaced by efforts to increase energy production and energy security. The 2025 Plan has two competing visions on tariffs, namely, raising import tariff barriers and promoting free trade. Economic advisers suggest that in the future, the government should slash corporate and personal income taxes, abolish the federal reserve system, and even consider restoring the gold standard.
Abortion and the family
Plan 2025 does not directly call for a nationwide ban on abortion. However, it proposes to withdraw the abortion pill mifepristone from the market and to use existing but rarely enforced laws to prevent mail order of the drug. The 2025 Plan also recommends that the Department of Health and Human Services should uphold a biblical, socially supported definition of marriage and family.
Technology & Education
The 2025 Plan proposes a ban on pornography, arguing that tech and telecommunications companies that allow access to pornography will be shut down. The document calls for school choice and parental control over schools, and slams what it calls "woke-up propaganda." It proposes to remove a long list of terms from all laws and federal regulations, including "sexual orientation," "gender equality," "abortion," and "reproductive rights." Plan 2025 aims to end diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in schools and government as part of a broader crackdown on "woke" ideology.
social security
While the Heritage Foundation has long supported the reform of the national public pension scheme, the 2025 Plan has little to say about it.
According to the Heritage Foundation, more than 100 conservative organizations contributed to the document, many of which will have enormous influence in Washington when the Republican Party returns to power. In Washington, think tanks of various political positions often come up with policy wishlists for potential government candidates. The conservative Heritage Foundation first proposed a policy plan for the incoming Republican Reagan administration in 1981. The foundation has presented similar documents in subsequent presidential elections, including in 2016 when Trump won. A year after Mr. Trump became president, the think tank boasted that the Trump administration had adopted nearly two-thirds of its recommendations.
Is the "2025 Plan" relevant to Trump?
"I will do everything I can to unite the Democratic Party — and unite our country — to defeat Donald · Trump and his extreme '2025 plan,'" Harris wrote on X on July 21. United States President Joe Biden has also made the "2025 Plan" a major target before he leaves the election, linking the plan to Trump, saying that the plan will allow him to "weaken democratic checks and balances and centralize presidential power." Previously, as Trump led the polls, liberal opposition to the document had become louder.
The Democratic campaign sees Plan 2025 as an easy target. Democrats are circulating a survey by a liberal organization that shows that describing Plan 2025 as a Trumpist "takeover" of United States government resonates with voters. But the "2025 Plan" has also in fact raised Democrats' concerns about what Trump's second term could bring. "It's like reading a horror novel," said Je·sse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist, "and each page makes you want to read the next, but when you're done, you're scared and disgusted." ”
Mr. Trump has made it clear that he is distancing himself from the plan, calling some of the ideas in the plan "absurd." On July 5, Trump wrote on Truth Social: "I don't know anything about the '2025 Plan.'" I don't know who is behind it. I don't agree with some of the things they say, some of the things they say are absolutely ridiculous and bad. If they can make it happen, I will bless them. Trump's campaign has declared that the platform Trump supports is "Agenda 47," not the 2025 plan. Agenda 47 "focuses on drastically reducing migration and promoting economic growth."
Typically, detailed policy proposals rarely attract much attention, but concerns about the "2025 Plan" resonate in liberal social media circles. Time magazine wrote that although Trump has publicly distanced himself from the document, his concerns about the policy goals in the document actually reflect the distrust of some voters about the policies that Trump may implement after he wins a second term. They believe that Trump and MAGA allies are power-hungry, and Project 2025 provides evidence for that belief. They fear that Trump's second term will bring "chaos, crime, and tearing up the Constitution."
The Washington Post, citing analysts, argues that it is reasonable to see the "2025 Plan" as what Trump's second term might look like. "It's not like Trump is going to hand out this pamphlet to his cabinet on his first day in office and say, 'Here it is to you,'" said Michael ·Strain, director of economic policy research at the Conservative-leaning United States Enterprise Institute. "But it reflects the real goals of some important people in the Trump community." However, the "2025 Plan" has been very frustrating for the Trump campaign, which does not want these concrete and politically unpopular ideas to be tied to his campaign. Trump is trying to tweak some conservative positions to win the election.
A Trump campaign adviser said, "There's no point in putting down on paper all the crazy ideas you're going to be attacked for during your campaign." ”
新闻来源：BBC、CNN、《纽约时报》、ABC News、Business Insider、《华盛顿邮报》，部分图片来源网络
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