Mother Jones illustration; Francis Chung/POLITICO/AP
Chicago’s rollicking festival for Democrats this week serves many purposes: to channel enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris, now at the top of the ticket and hoping to capitalize on momentum; to honor and thank President Joe Biden for passing the torch; and, of course, to attack former President Donald Trump while offering Americans a contrast to his potential second presidency. Among the many side events and panel discussions programmed this week, a prominent through-line for speeches and appeals by elected officials has been the specter of Project 2025, the conservative manifesto and blueprint for a new Trump administration, spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation.
In the hallways of DNC spaces, delegates carried signs declaring “Fuck Project 2025,” and prime time speeches have deriding the plan as draconian and radical. As Mother Jones’s Pema Levy recently wrote, the right-wing initiative “outlines a radical restructuring of the federal government that combines the authoritarian goals of the MAGA movement with the deregulatory dreams of America’s plutocrats.” Under this proposal, government agencies would be used to end abortion access, prosecute Trump’s enemies, unwind EPA regulations, and shutter the Department of Education. Mother Jones’ Julia Métraux recently reported Project 2025 would dramatically roll back workplace discrimination protections. Getting a whiff of just how unpopular this roadmap for his presidency is, Trump has continually tried to distance himself from it.
Democrats won’t let it go that easily. Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow even brought a giant Project 2025 prop to the DNC stage on Monday night, warning of an unprecedented “expansion of presidential powers” if Trump wins the White House.
Mother Jones caught up with several delegates and officials to explore the Democrats’ strategy for foregrounding the Heritage Foundation document as a threat to democracy, and asked how they plan to discuss it with voters in the weeks leading up to the November election.
“Project 2025 is about turning the clock back,” Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) told us—but she warned it’s not new. “It’s just now being exposed. And so people need to know it’s real and they want to do this. And so we’re not gonna let that happen.”
“This is part of the Trump-era MAGA extremist Republican Party’s agenda, and then here he denies it,” Lee added. “I mean, it’s like, come on, please. Pathological liar.”
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) emphasized that Trump can run, but he can’t hide from Project 2025—and Democrats like Khanna are keen to keep pressing the point. “His whole transition team and all the people he’s going to staff government with are basically devotees of Project 2025,” he told Mother Jones. “But voters know that that is the agenda his appointees would implement.”
