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Dear John,
When Donald Trump won the electoral college in 2016, despite losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes, he was as shocked as the rest of us. He had no idea how to govern or accomplish his extremist agenda.
Four years later, he was just starting to consolidate power loyal to him and only him when he lost the 2020 election and brought an end to our 200-plus-year tradition of the peaceful transfer of power with the insurrection he incited at the Capitol on January 6.
But this time, Trump has a road map. He has a legion of true believers and a plan for consolidating power in an imperial presidency in the nearly-thousand-page Project 2025 manifesto. The Supreme Court has given him carte blanche to implement it with their decision to grant presidents “absolute immunity” for “official” acts.
Trump has been trying to distance himself from Project 2025 because its proposals are so unpopular. But make no mistake, this is his plan, written by his inner-circle. Given the chance, Trump will put it into action.
Project 2025 calls for dismantling every federal agency, or as Trump calls it in conspiracy language, the “Deep State.” The plan is to replace knowledgeable and dedicated public servants with hard-core Trump loyalists who will use every arm of government to assert MAGA control over all Americans, including seeking “retribution” against Trump’s “enemies.”
The plan calls for weaponizing the DOJ, taking away regulatory power from the FDA, stripping away reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights, separating millions of immigrants from their families in massive deportation camps, and giving corporations free rein. They even want to privatize nuclear waste disposal and dismantle the National Weather Service. What could possibly go wrong?
Members of Congress must demonstrate that these plans to install a MAGA autocracy will meet resistance from Day One. Sign and send a direct message demanding your representative and senators get on the record against Trump’s Project 2025 today.
Now that the secret is out and it has become clear how unpopular these policies are, Trump is desperate to disavow any knowledge of the Project.
But let’s be clear: it was written by his former (and potentially future) staff, and is built on the ideas he has built his campaign on.
Trump himself has been clear about his own intentions: “I have an Article II,” he says, “where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.” He has also sworn: “We will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”
The far-right vision dovetails with Trump’s own vision of himself. As he has said in his stump speech: “[They asked me,] you're not going to be a dictator, are you? I said no, other than Day One.”
Project 2025 runs counter to our most deeply held values. Tell your members of Congress to go on record against it publicly now.
Thank you for standing up to protect our democracy. Our rights and freedoms must never be taken for granted.
Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action
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