Dear John

With Trump elected, and both houses of Congress behind him, Project 2025 in its entirety is locked and loaded, ready to go.

There’s plenty of uncertainty ahead, and we need to be creative in our opposition. We don’t know which elements of this profoundly anti-democratic 1000-page agenda will be the first to be enacted, but we do know there are some core democratic values at stake, including the rule of law, the right to vote, and the freedom to protest.

We must be ready to push back immediately, especially against the most extreme elements of this broad-brushed GOP plan for taking autocratic control in every area of life they are able to access. Some of the most egregious examples include:

• The criminalization of voters: Never before has there been an “Election Crimes Branch.” But this has been proposed as a means to take simple voting errors by individuals and turn them into criminal offenses.

• Creating a Deep MAGA State: By firing thousands of specialized non-partisan civil servants, who have served presidents of both parties for decades at every level of government, and replacing them with extremist ideologues, Project 2025 is designed to blow up consensus values developed over generations and replace them with the fever dreams of the far right.

• Destroying our rights to protest and to be represented: Project 2025 has laid out plans to deploy the National Guard to shoot at protesters; to rig the U.S. Census so we will not be fairly represented in our governing bodies; and to broaden huge realms of authority where the President can act without oversight by Congress.  

Tell Congress, the Judiciary, and state leaders: Stand firm against the dismantling of democracy. Reject all anti-democratic aspects of the dangerous Project 2025 agenda.

Cynically disavowed by Trump during his campaign, he knows full well that Project 2025 was written by many of his own first-term staffers, and many of the current staffers he is bringing on today. He need not be aware of all the details -- as long as his people are using it as their guidebook, Project 2025 is alive and unwell.

Previously heralded by Trump as the architects of their joint far right movement, the Heritage Foundation has put together this blueprint with a Trump presidency specifically in mind -- and we have every reason to believe Trump will do whatever he can to bring it to fruition.

In his first term, Trump enacted two-thirds of the Heritage Foundation’s detailed wish list for him. This time, he will have the people in place, and knowledge of the levers of power, to bring about even more.

Now we are going to need our system of checks and balances more than ever, at the very time they are being weakened and knocked out on all sides. We cannot allow Trump to create the authoritarian kingdom of his ambitions. We must defend the crucial pillars of our democracy, starting with the rule of law, the right to vote, and the freedom to protest.

We will not stand by and watch as our democracy is dismantled. Add your name now to tell Congress, the Judiciary, and state leaders, they MUST reject the dangerous extremes of Trump's Project 2025.

Thank you for defending our core democratic values -- the rule of law, the right to vote, and the freedom to protest -- as Trump brings them under fire.

- DFA AF Team