Project 2025 has become a lightning rod for debate and controversy on the campaign trail. The Heritage Foundation’s 900-page wish list for a second Donald Trump presidency, lays out a road map for reshaping the entire federal bureaucracy and carrying out a far-right agenda on immigration, abortion, LGBTQ rights, and more.
But is it really as scary as it sounds?
Ryan Walker, executive vice president of the think tank’s lobbying and advocacy arm, Heritage Action, joined KNX News’ daily political show Countdown 2024 to give his perspective.
Listen here:
“This is an effort that the Heritage Foundation has taken on since the ‘80s,” he said. “We have delivered a prescription of policy solutions that we think would right the country in the right direction since the Reagan administration. So this is an effort that we put together every presidential cycle.”
But Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts appears to take Project 2025 a little more seriously, saying in July that the country is in the midst of a “second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
Walker said Roberts’ alarming comment was taken “sort of out of context” and that he was “speaking to a frustration from the American people.”
The lengthy document proposes placing most of the federal bureaucracy, including the Department of Justice, under direct presidential control. It also advocates for rolling back federal protections for sexual orientation and gender identity, ending diversity initiatives, taking the abortion pill off the market, and slashing funding for renewable energy.
Walker said he doesn't believe these far-right priorities are “radical at all.” When asked to defend these controversial policies, he said the Heritage Foundation has always been a conservative pro-life organization and implied that anti-discrimination rules give white people a disadvantage in the job market.
Project 2025 also says the Department of Health and Human Services needs to maintain a “biblically based” definition of marriage and family. Walker said the goal is to increase the falling birth rate.
“If we are going to continue the society that we have built in this country, we have to address those issues, and this is our attempt to showcase policy solutions that might get us in that direction, to encourage family formation,” he said.
He also said that while America is a “melting pot” of different cultures, the Heritage Foundation aims to encourage the continuation of an established “American culture.”
Want to get caught up on what's happening in SoCal every weekday afternoon? Click to follow The L.A. Local wherever you get podcasts.
The Heritage Foundation published its first mandate for leadership in 1981, at the beginning of President Ronald Reagan’s term. By the end of his first year, 60% of the recommendations had become policy. While Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, Walker said he hopes Trump would “implement a lot of our ideas” if reelected.
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
