“Now that the election is over, I think we can finally say that yeah, actually Project 2025 is the agenda,” admitted Christian Nationalist provocateur Matt Walsh. Walsh is a talking head who’s never had a formal role in a Trump administration, but he is saying the quiet part out loud. More importantly, those closer to Trump and with formal roles, people like Steve Bannon, agreed.
Phase 2 of Project 2025 is coming. We’re ready. We’ve been on the front lines fighting Project 2025 since before most people had ever heard the phrase.
AU first started warning the country about Project 2025 a year ago, back in November of 2023. Since then, we’ve raised the alarm several times. Rachel Laser often told journalists that the most disturbing part of Project 2025 is its unwavering focus on transforming America from a democracy that strives for equality into a nation that grants power and privilege solely to white Christian Nationalists.
We did remarkable work raising the alarm, from creating a comprehensive toolkit for you to talk about Project 2025, to content you could share, to an omnichannel information campaign, to a moving video that put a human face on the cost of this plan and which was shared and seen everywhere. In September, the New Republic hosted Rachel and me to discuss The Dangers of Project 2025 and Christian Nationalism with journalist Nina Burleigh. During that event, I discussed Phase 2.
Late in the summer, the Center for Climate Reporting released undercover video of several Trump officials talking about the “second phase” of Project 2025. Said one, “The second phase, after the book came out, was to break down actual policy packets and executive orders and agenda items and things like that. And that’s been supervised largely by Russ … He’s the team lead behind the scenes, just putting all that together… I have colleagues who officially work for CRA, but like 35 out of their 40-hour work week is Project 2025 stuff.”
This refers to Russ Vought and Vought’s outfit, the Center for Renewing America.
Russ Vought ran the Office of Management and Budget for the Trump administration, was the policy director for the Republican National Convention’s Platform Committee, is a self-professed Christian Nationalist and is one of the authors and driving forces behind Project 2025. One of CRA’s top issues is “Christian nationalism.” Vought was also caught on the undercover video assuring journalists that Project 2025 was going to “rehabilitate Christian Nationalism.”
But Vought also talked about the second even more secretive phase of Project 2025: its implementation. Vought and his CRA team are spending thousands of hours drafting the hundreds of executive orders, rules, regulations and more, which will implement the regressive policies in the Project 2025 handbook. According to CCR, “the plan is to share them clandestinely with Trump’s transition team, to avoid them being obtained by journalists via freedom of information requests.”
In other words, they are ready to begin implementing Project 2025 on Day 1 of the next Trump administration, on Jan. 20.
That is terrifying, but Americans United has been ready for this day. And we’ve got months to prepare. We’ve also got you.
We need your support now more than ever. Financially. Emotionally. On social media and all other avenues. And in your communities.
Photo: Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
