Harris calls Project 2025 Trump’s plan. He says he hasn’t read it. What is it?
During Tuesday night's presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris once again sought to tie former President Donald Trump to a controversial conservative policy plan known as Project 2025.
With the general election looming in November, Democrats have repeatedly attempted to cast Project 2025 as Trump's policy agenda. And Trump, for his part, has repeatedly attempted to distance himself from it.
Project 2025, which is an effort to set the agenda for the next Republican presidential administration, is filled with proposals to radically change the federal government.
But Trump has his own plan, Agenda47. The former president has also claimed to be largely unaware of the ideas laid out in Project 2025, despite the director of the project being a former Trump administration staffer.
Here's what to know about Project 2025 and how it surfaced at Tuesday night's debate.
What is Project 2025?
Chief among the aims of the sweeping policy blueprint known as Project 2025 is increased presidential power.
The Heritage Foundation and more than 100 other conservative groups collaborated for Project 2025, which is also known as the Presidential Transition Project. The resulting 900-page document has policy recommendations for the next Republican president that reflect the think tank's goal of "(rescuing) the country from the grip of the radical Left."
Published in April 2023, the plan calls for the overhaul of several federal government agencies, including the FBI. Among its controversial proposals is to eliminate the Department of Education, limit access to abortion pills and reinstate a Trump executive order to allow the president to replace civil servants with political appointees throughout the federal government.
Project 2025 further seeks to repeal aspects of the Affordable Care Act, urge the Food and Drug Administration to reverse the approval of abortion pills and further empower Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport undocumented immigrants.
The plan also specifically addresses LGBTQ+ issues and attacks "radical gender ideology."
At least 31 of 38 authors are tied to Trump.
Democrats try to associate Trump with Project 2025
For that reason, Democrats, including their House campaign arm, have criticized its policies and sought to associate Project 2025 with Trump.
During Tuesday night's debate, Harris called Project 2025 a "detailed and dangerous plan" that she claimed Trump "intends on implementing if he were elected again."
She also referred to it as "his Project 2025."
"Understand in his Project 2025 there would be a ... monitor that would be monitoring your pregnancies, your miscarriages," Harris said. "I think the American people believe that certain freedoms, in particular the freedom to make decisions about one's own body, should not be made by the government.
Trump denies involvement with Project 2025
The Trump campaign has worked aggressively to try to distance itself from Project 2025, with Trump claiming he has "nothing to do with Project 2025."
"I haven't read it," Trump said during the debate. "I don't want to read it, purposely. I'm not going to read it. This was a group of people that got together, they came up with some ideas. I guess some good, some bad. But it makes no difference."
Trump has previously said he disagrees with some of the proposals made in Project 2025, though he has not specified which ones. However, the Heritage Foundation said in a January 2018 news release that Trump had adopted nearly two-thirds of its policy recommendations within his first year in office.
Project 2025 includes former Trump staffers
The plan was produced by former Trump administration officials, and Project 2025's director was Paul Dans, who served as the U.S. Office of Personnel Management chief of staff in the Trump administration.
Trump advisor Stephen Miller and the Trump campaign's National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also appeared in a video supporting the project’s “Presidential Administration Academy."
What is Agenda47?
The Trump campaign has its own plan, called Agenda47.
Many of the actions proposed in Trump's official agenda would be achieved through executive order and touch on topics ranging from climate change and education to the economy and immigration.
In Agenda47, Trump vowed to sign an executive order on "day one" to end automatic citizenship for children of undocumented immigrants, who he refers to as "illegal aliens."
As part of the former president's tough-on-crime persona, the agenda also calls for an investment in hiring, retention, and training for police officers while supporting policing policies like stop-and-frisk and local police working with ICE on deportation.
When it comes to public education, Trump's plan would seek to defund and punish educators and institutions that do not teach conservative values.
Contributing: Rachel Barber, BrieAnna J. Frank, Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at [email protected]
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is Project 2025? Controversial plan came up during first debate
