The over 900-page document, commissioned by the people expected to run another Trump White House, is a laundry list of the far-right’s most politically toxic ideas, from banning abortion nationwide to mass firing federal officials who believe in protecting public health and safety. One would think that Trump and his allies would try to keep their sinister plans out of public view. Instead, Team Trump published their fascistic blueprint on a website for anyone to read,. They even proudly display the menacing “Project 2025” label on the front page.

On Sunday, actress Taraji P. Henson took a break during the BET Awards, which she was hosting, to speak out about Project 2025. “The Project 2025 plan is not a game. Look it up!” she told viewers. “I’m talking to all the mad people that don’t want to vote. You’re going to be mad about a lot of things if you don’t vote.”

The clip went viral, amplified by other celebrities like Mark Ruffalo. So the MAGA forces swung into action on social media, accusing Henson and Ruffalo and other progressives of making it all up. “Is Project 2025 in the room with you?” a blue-checked user sneered under Ruffalo’s tweet. These efforts at gaslighting people run against a real problem, however: The drafters of Project 2025 seek to promote their authoritarian playbook. Thus, a simple Google search generates a slew of explainers from various news organizations, with even more coming out rapidly, as a response to the rising number of people asking, “What’s Project 2025?”

“We received a flood of reader inquiries asking if Project 2025 was a real effort,” the fact-checking team at Snopes wrote in their lengthy explainer published Tuesday. Google Trends confirms that the number of searches for “project 2025” has grown dramatically in recent days.

  • snekerpimp@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Bull shit. The MAGAS are foaming at the mouth to have this authoritarian regime rise to power with bloodshed. Chomping at the bit to be able to kill for their god king. This is no joke, 2020 was a test run, to see what they could get away with. Now they are ready.

    John Oliver did a good job explaining Project 2025 as well

    • frickineh@lemmy.world
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      The backfiring isn’t because Republicans are upset about it. It’s because other people are finding out about it and are rightly horrified. It may (hopefully) convince more people to vote that might have stayed home otherwise.

      • scops@reddthat.com
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        Exactly. It’s all of the quiet parts, but out loud, typed out, indexed, and easily accessible.

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        As stated in another comment, the vote is not what is foreboding about this. Enough crazy, radically charged, people believe and want Project 2025 and have been hearing calls to violence for years now, if the vote doesn’t go their way, not to sure they will be peaceful about it.

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          Oh I have no doubt there will be violence if Biden wins, but they’ve already said there will be violence against opponents if Trump wins, so I think all anyone can do is be prepared.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          Irrelevant fearmongering. Seriously, what’s your purpose in making that comment? To discourage opposing them? To capitulate without a fight?

          Fuck that! I say, “let them come,” and then they can get what they deserve just like the Confederates and NAZIs did.

          • snekerpimp@lemmy.world
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            More to get people riled up and ready for the fight that will most likely be coming. These stories about how the right is losing steam are puff pieces meant to make non voters complacent. People need to be angry and ready, not being placated and lazy.

            • grue@lemmy.world
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              Okay, I’ll trust that you’re being sincere. In that case, though, I think your tone/messaging could use some tweaking because (as you could probably tell) I did not read it that way initially.

              • snekerpimp@lemmy.world
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                Yes, it was a bit over the top. It was early in the morning and I hadn’t had my coffee yet. Brain wasn’t working lol

    • AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space
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      That’s true, but there aren’t enough of them to carry the election by themselves. They need enough moderates/swinging voters who will back them because they feel meh and it’s time for a change, and for this they need to avoid spooking them.

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        It’s not the election I’m worried about. It’s afterwards. The republicans have been charging their base up with a culture war, calls to violence are larger and louder. Even if Project 2025 pisses 80% of the population off to vote, there will still be those people charged and ready to go… I hope I am wrong, and they all pussy out and it’s a big nothing burger, but I can’t expect that in this crazy, fucked up timeline.

    • Yeah the MAGAs are a lost cause.

      2020 was not a test run. It was a run. They failed, barely.

      Even then, they had the 1776 Plan, a precursor to Project 2025, which called for violently seized in control of the state department and Supreme Court, in addition to the Capitol building. January 6th was an intentional, violent coup attempt that barely failed. And it failed for stupid things like, that one cop that led the mob away from the chamber, Mike Pence refusing to get into the car with secret service agents loyal to Trump, Andy Capitol Police refusal to remove the metal detectors from the mall. The 1776 Plan called for and had on hand multiple caches of weapons stashed in hotel rooms around the mall. Trump screamed at the secret service to the crowd to let the crowd bring their guns on that day.

      It would have been interesting to see if the vote was not certified on January 6th. Whether the joint Chiefs letter from a few days later would have been sent. If you recall, The joint Chiefs letter made clear that on the constitutional end of term, Joe Biden would be the new president and Trump would be leaving the White House, one way or another.

      Project 2025 is it attempt to make sure the sort of things that thwarted the coup attempt on January 6th cannot happen again. For example, Trump intends to fire anyone in the secret service or national security apparatus that is not a drooling Trump loyalist. Maybe next time the vice president’s secret service will force him into the car. Maybe the next time the president won’t have to tell Capitol Police not to take the metal detectors out of the mall because some stoogy will have already made sure they weren’t there.

      I mean the kind of dumbass fucking conspiracy theories that conservatives believe about Walmart being part of a federal government plan to round people up, and here you have it written out on paper that they plan to gut the public health apparatus to literally let millions of people die from diseases, because if we are all sick and dying, we will be much easier to subjugate.

      We need to be better at getting the word out, but that costs money. The far right has unlimited money.

  • ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world
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    And, here’s the thing: If they lose this one, they will keep trying every election from now until they win or are found to be breaking the law and sentenced to heavy time or death. So, it’s not just this election folks need to vote–it’s every election. This hasn’t been stated, but the natural direction is that they will try to get folks into any position of power where they can further disenfranchise anyone who doesn’t vote their way. I know that has been happening, but Project 2025 hasn’t focused on that yet (to my knowledge).

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      And, here’s the thing: If they lose this one, they will keep trying every election from now until they win or are found to be breaking the law and sentenced to heavy time or death. So, it’s not just this election folks need to vote–it’s every election.

      And the reason they keep not getting sentenced to heavy time or death is that enlightened-centrist liberals keep refusing to vigorously apply consequences (see also: Biden refusing to even consider SCOTUS reform, despite them literally just handing him the power to do anything he could possibly think of, up to and including having the fascist justices killed off and replaced). It’s almost like they get off on edging fascism.

      • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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        I think more dems are seeing that reforms need to be made. If democracy is expanded -especially in some way that abolishes gerrymandering or the two party system - the funds tying all these republicans into a single party will collapse for a time.

        You see people like AOC willing to create consequences for the supreme court and people pushing constitutiomal amendments again. I expect if Biden wins again the next dem primary will be interesting. If he loses well, there’s a good chance we’ll become a one party system like russia at the federal level.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          Sure, progressives/leftists see it, but they’ve been seeing it the whole time.

          The trick is getting liberals to see it, and that shows pretty much no indication of happening despite the fact that the fascists are now even going so far as directly threatening to persecute them.

          • gh0stcassette@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            I wouldn’t be so sure. I think the calls for Biden to step down are evidence that DNC-types (at least some of them) are realizing the gravity of this situation.

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      WHICH, my dear potential voters, is why we need to stop fucking arguing with one another and come together, dammit.

      It’s REALLY easy:

      1. Stop being idiots.

      2. Pressure Biden to use the recent Supreme Court decision to OUR advantage.

      3. Vote Biden into office for another 4-years.

      4. Continue to be fucking geniuses by holding hands and using those 4 years to fix shit.

      If those on the Left actually stopped verbally measuring one another’s dicks and stood united, they would be a force that the Right could not reckon with. The problem is so many of you keep strutting around, beaks in the air, making damned goose calls while collectively peeing into the wind and complaining that your pants keep getting wet.

    • r0ertel@lemmy.world
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      Isn’t this like leaving your team playbook on the hood of your car before the big game? Why can’t or don’t the parties opposing this use it to construct their game plan to systematically remove all the loopholes and methods that this “project” is using to promote their agenda? I’m the furthest thing from a politician, so ELI5.

      • gh0stcassette@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        To fully prevent most of what’s laid out there would require supreme court rulings, which isn’t going to happen under a conservative court. The only way to prevent it is for Democrats to win (Biden needs to step down imo) and then pack the court and/or impeach a couple of conservative justices.

        • ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world
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          Exactly this. There is infrastructure to these kinds of moves. The right has been moving on it and the left has mostly not. However, there are some things the left could do, and they should get on that ASAP.

      • ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world
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        I agree, actually. There may be a time and a place for it, but even if that were true, humans are not able to handle it. I wasn’t necessarily endorsing that direction, simply recognizing that the eventual outcome for someone doing what they are doing could be death.

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    I think the Heritage asshole yelling about shooting people who resist hopefully gets people’s blood up.

    Biden may be old, but he is head and shoulders above a fascist government that will literally shoot you if you voice any concerns or complaints about it.

  • Yardy Sardley@lemmy.ca
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    What this story reveals is the stunning level of ignorance amongst Americans at large. This is a bona fide fascist manifesto, published by the handlers of the current leading presidential candidate, over a year ago. Nothing rattles me to my core quite like being confronted by the harsh reality that a lot of people out there are just going about their lives like everything is fine.

    These are the people we need to organize with in order to ― at this point ― basically survive, so I’m very glad something was able to spur them into some level of action before election day.

    That said, and please excuse the momentary lapse into doomerism, but if we have to rely on Hollywood and celebrity culture to bring something of this magnitude into public awareness, we might be more thoroughly cooked than it was previously thought to be possible.

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      Germans under the Nazis mostly went about their lives like everything was fine until quite late in the war when it became impossible to do so. By that time Hitler had been in power for more than a decade, terrorized Europe, run the Holocaust, and started a world war. There’s no guarantee that most Americans will notice what’s happening even after they start living under a fascist dictatorship. America is almost Russian in the way the general population simply avoids politics and considers it not their problem, even as they suffer directly as a result of their leaders’ politics. In that sense they’re pretty well primed to live under a dictator already.

    • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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      I have been spreading this to people I know since it was published. Every single one with an R tag on their ear took it to the face and said it wasn’t serious or he wouldnt actually do it. Or that it was fucken good.

      Edit: should probably mention its anecdotal, but extremely frustrating experience.

  • JimSamtanko@lemm.ee
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    It contains every reason everyone would need to vote against him. At this point, its existence makes the decision a no-brainer.

    Also, take note how the usual suspects that are always urging you to not vote against Trump are mysteriously absent on posts like this.

  • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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    Egad. Why are my fellow Americans so slow on the uptake?

    Lemmy: This is rhetorical. I know a lot of the reasons.

  • bolexforsoup@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    I think p2025 is sufficiently terrifying that the democrats would be wise to hammer it everywhere. Just quote sections and call it a day.

  • Rapidcreek@lemmy.world
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    Again,

    The thing to remember about Project 2025 is that it has a 180 day execution window. This stuff will happen so fast it’ll make your head spin.

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    It doesnt look like 2025 is assiciated with trump at all, just googling around. It looks like theyre endorsibg pence though

    • Laereht@lemmy.world
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      Absolute cope and lie, unless you’re using a different Google that none of us have access to. This didn’t just happen. They’ve been talking about this for a while. Do more research or leave the conversation.

    • anon6789@lemmy.world
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      To try and be helpful to you and others not as aware, here is some light reading.

      AP: A conservative leading the pro-Trump Project 2025 suggests there will be a new American Revolution

      Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts made the comments Tuesday on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, adding that Republicans are “in the process of taking this country back.”

      “And so I come full circle on this response and just want to encourage you with some substance that we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.

      Roberts’ remarks shed light on how a group that promises to have significant influence over a possible second term for former President Donald Trump is thinking about this moment in American politics. The Heritage Foundation is spearheading Project 2025, a sweeping road map for a new GOP administration that includes plans for dismantling aspects of the federal government and ousting thousands of civil servants in favor of Trump loyalists who will carry out a hard-right agenda without complaint.

      And here is some background of the past cooperation between Trump and the Heritage Foundation, as of their review of their shared agenda as of 2018. I selected something from back in his time as president to show actual cooperation with their agenda.

      Heritage.org: Trump Administration Embraces Heritage Foundation Policy Recommendations

      Over the past several months, Heritage’s executive branch relations staff reviewed the 334 policy recommendations and met with senior administration officials in the several agencies. Heritage analysts briefed administration officials on the recommendations, provided additional insight and information, and advocated for reform.

      Examples of some of the most notable policy recommendations and their adoption or implementation by the Trump administration include:

      • Leaving the Paris Climate Accord: In August 2017, Trump announced the U.S. was ending its funding and membership in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
      • Repealing Net Neutrality: In December 2017, Trump’s Federal Communications Commission chairman proposed ending the 2015 network neutrality rules.
      • Reshaping National Monuments: Heritage’s recommendation to prohibit Land Acquisition (Cap and Reduce the Size of the Federal Estate) was adopted by Trump when he issued two executive orders effectively shrinking the size of national monuments in Utah.
      • Reinstating the Mexico City Policy: This executive order prevents taxpayer money from funding international groups involved in abortion and ending funding to the United Nations Population fund. On Jan. 23, 2017, in his first pro-life action, Trump signed an executive order today reinstating the Mexico City Policy.
      • Increasing Military Spending: Trump’s budget calls for a $54 billion increase in military spending to improve capacity, capability, and readiness of America’s armed forces.
      • Reforming Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF): The Trump administration adopted and is in favor of strengthening existing work requirements in order to receive benefits.
      • Allowing Development of Natural Resources: The Trump administration opened off-shore drilling and on federal lands. Executive Order 13783 directed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to commence federal land coal leasing activities.
      • Reforming Government Agencies: Trump tasked each of his Cabinet secretaries to prepare detailed plans on how they propose to reduce the scope and size of their respective departments while streamlining services and ensuring each department runs more efficiently and handles tax dollars appropriately.
      • Withdrawing from UNESCO: In October 2017, Trump announced he was putting an end to U.S. membership in the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

      I recommend reading both those full short articles and using that as a jumping off point for further reading into points most relevant to you and your ideological goals. I hope that is helpful to you and anyone else.

    • ganksy@lemmy.world
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      The Heritage foundation wants results. Trump has been their boon since he let them lay the groundwork for judges. They are opportunists. If he’s in office, he’s their man.

    • BigMacHole@lemm.ee
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      Project 2025: Next time a Republican gets Control of the White House we’re Destroying this Country!

      You: There’s no link to Project 2025 and the Republican Nominee!

    • jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
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      Pro-tip: Pence is not running, and none of Project 2025 happens if Biden wins.

      What on earth makes you think it’s not about Trump?

    • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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      It is a document produced by his official transition organization. Every campaign has a transition team, separate from the campaign.

      They don’t usually give it a name. They don’t usually get it up and running this far ahead of the election. And it’s never before been a fascist playbook to end liberty in America and sell out democracy on this earth.