


When Donald Trump takes the debate stage on Tuesday, he will doubtless again try to disavow Project 2025, the radically conservative blueprint spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation for the next Republican administration.
We shouldn’t let him.
Seventy-eight percent of the contributors to the effort were members of his last administration and many of them are likely appointees to his next team if he’s re-elected. As the old Washington saying goes, “personnel is policy.”
The group of authors includes Russell Vought, who headed the Office of Management and Budget; Chris Miller, one of Mr. Trump’s acting defense secretaries; Ken Cucinelli, Mr. Trump’s deputy secretary of homeland security; and Peter Navarro, a longtime Trump adviser who was closely involved in the ex-president’s attempt to overturn the election.
We’ve seen this movie before. In 2016, ahead of Mr. Trump’s first term, the Heritage Foundation released the seventh edition of its “Mandate for Leadership.” One year into his presidency, Mr. Trump had embraced 64 percent of its policy recommendations, ranging from leaving the Paris climate accord to raising military spending to increasing drilling offshore and on federal lands.
Based on Mr. Trump’s campaign utterances and Project 2025’s proposals, expect far more radical actions from a second Trump presidency. Relying on analysis by the Center for American Progress and others, below are eight examples of how Project 2025’s proposals could alter American life.
Raise Income Taxes on Those Earning Less
