Editor's Note: This is the final entry in a series examining the Heritage Foundation's effort to transform the government through a process called Project 2025. Lean to the Left writers CJ Waldron and V. Susan Hutchinson have done an outstanding job exploring this devastating plan that would vastly improve the power of the presidency in anticipation of another Trump term. It is critical for voters to understand key parts of this manifesto, in context with current and future GOP proposals. The statements in Project 2025 are, at best, misleading with outright lies, twisted interpretations of the Constitution, and personal opinions sprinkled throughout.Much of the document has been incorporated into the GOP Platform. So, beware of Trump's attempt to distance himself from it. Just another lie.
Understanding Project 2025: Reshaping the Federal Workforce
One of the key aims of Project 2025 is to reshape the federal workforce by either eliminating certain positions or replacing career federal workers with Trump loyalists.
It uses the rationale that it is a budget saving move, while in actuality it is nothing more than a coup on the federal bureaucracy in order to strengthen the Trump administration’s stranglehold on Washington.
Schedule F
Because of its unpopularity, Trump has sought to distance himself from Project 2025, yet he cannot deny that reshaping the federal workforce was going to be a crucial piece of his second administration, had he won re-election in 2020. Prior to Election Day that year he issued an Executive Order, Schedule F, which aimed to do that very thing.
Under Schedule F, government employees could be more easily fired, re-assigned, or let go simply because their position had been eliminated. For example, those employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, those who handle issues dealing with veterans, would be replaced by chat bots.
In keeping with Trump’s “I love the poorly educated”, Project 2025 proposes making more federal appointments based upon skills rather than having an education requirement. This would make it easier to justify hiring someone less qualified based upon their loyalty to Trump rather than their knowledge of vital information such as specific legal issues.
Because Schedule F had already been enacted prior to Election Day, Trump would have been free to dismiss thousands of federal employees the moment he was declared the victor. Project 2025 wants to grant him that ability once again should he win in November. It wants to prohibit the use of a BA requirement in job postings.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Programs promoting Diversity. Equity and Inclusion (DEI) have been in place to prevent discrimination in federal hiring practices. Under DEI, a prospective employee could no longer be denied a position based upon their race, gender or sexual preferences.
This has outraged the White Christian nationalists who contend that such a policy is not in keeping with their interpretation of the Founding Father’s intent to create a Christian nation.
Project 20205 contends that DEI hiring practices have resulted in more highly qualified candidates being passed over due to the demand that a person of color or a certain gender must be included in specific federal agencies. Republican lawmakers have even gone as far as to label Democratic presidential front-runner Kamal Harris “a DEI hire”.
Project 2025 also asserts that requiring employees to attend workshops on DEI policies is a poor use of their time. Forcing Pentagon employees to undergo such training is an ineffective use of their resources and unproductive to their role as military personnel, the proposal contends.
Despite his denials, the similarities between Schedule F and Project 2025 are impossible to ignore. Should Donald Trump become president once again, it would create a federal bureaucracy that would allow him to yield limitless power over all branches of government, including the military.
Project 2025 wants to make it easier for federal employees to be fired simply for being gay. It wants to revisit the Bostock decision where an employee who worked for Clayton County, Georgia was fired for joining a gay softball league.
Writing for the majority, conservative Justice Neal Gorsuch ruled that Bostock’s rights were protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It did so on a plain language reading of the statute, a judicial philosophy known as textualism. Justice Gorsuch was joined by one other Republican-appointed justice, John Roberts, and the four Democratic-appointed justices.
Now, with a new Trump-appointed set of justices, those involved with Project 2025 hope to reverse this ruling, allowing it to be extended to federal workers. In essence, they want to go back to a time when people could be blackmailed for being part of the LBGTQ community. They want to force them to go “back in the closet:”. Those who do not conform to their definition of the binary biological definition of sex would be denied any protections from discrimination.
Further evidence that Project 2025 is the product of White Christian Nationalists is the proposed extension of religious protections for those who would be exempted from working on the Sabbath. The exemption would default to Sundays, but those with “sincere” religious beliefs would also be allowed.
So basically, if you are a Christian, you get a free pass, but if you are Jewish, you need a note from your rabbi?
Many Project 2025 Federal Workforce proposals are truly Draconian provisions that claim to support their Conservative Promise. It wants to roll back protections for Federal workersby making it easier to fire certain employees if they fail to conform to their standards.
We cannot allow this to happen.
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