Then-President Donald Trump held up an executive order to start the Mexico border wall project at the Department of Homeland Security facility in Washington, D.C. on January 25, 2017 | Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images
“We need a coordinated strategy to save America and stop this coup before it’s too late,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, who is spearheading the new task force
Reposted from Common Dreams
A group of congressional Democrats on Tuesday launched a task force aimed at spotlighting and combating the threat posed by Project 2025, the sprawling far-right agenda crafted by allies of Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.
Spearheaded by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the Stop Project 2025 Task Force “will serve as a central hub for pro-democracy Members of Congress, civil society, and affected communities to coordinate on examining, highlighting, preempting, and counteracting this right-wing plot to undermine democracy,” Huffman’s office said in a press release.
“Project 2025 is more than an idea, it’s a dystopian plot that’s already in motion to dismantle our democratic institutions, abolish checks and balances, chip away at church-state separation, and impose a far-right agenda that infringes on basic liberties and violates public will,” said Huffman. “This is an unprecedented embrace of extremism, fascism, and religious nationalism, orchestrated by the radical right and its dark money backers.”
“We need a coordinated strategy to save America and stop this coup before it’s too late,” the congressman added.“Through this task force, leaders across the ideological spectrum and experts in every policy area that’s under attack are uniting to protect democracy as we know it. Donald Trump and those behind Project 2025 are ready to turn America into a theocratic regime if they get the chance—and we are going to be ready to stop them.”
The congressional effort was launched with the backing of several prominent Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.)—the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee—and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
“Project 2025 is Donald Trump’s blueprint for destroying our democracy,” said Jayapal. “It attacks the very foundations that this country was built on and seeks to limit Americans’ rights to further embolden MAGA extremists. We can and must stand up to ensure that Project 2025 never sees the light of day, and instead ensure that our Proposition Agenda, bold, progressive, and popular policies, are at the forefront.”
“This far-right roadmap for a ‘post-constitutional’ America would make January 6th extremism a governing ideology.”
Project 2025 is led by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, and former top Trump administration officials—including ex-Office of Management and Budget chief Russ Vought and former White House personnel head John McEntee—have helped craft the initiative’s 920-page agenda to dismantle environmental protections, eliminate the Department of Education, further roll back abortion rights, and deport undocumented immigrants en masse.
Right-wing groups backing Project 2025 have received tens of millions of dollars in funding from the dark money networks led by Leonard Leo—the notorious co-chair of the Federalist Society—and billionaire oil tycoon Charles Koch.
Throughout his 2024 campaign for a second White House term, Trump has openly embraced Project 2025’s objectives, vowing to gut climate regulations in exchange for Big Oil donations and launch the “largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” The former president has also threatened to weaponize federal agencies against his political opponents and deploy the U.S. military against protesters.
“The aspiring felon-in-chief, his think tank allies, and all the political criminals he pardoned have previewed ‘Project 2025’ for a nightmarish second term,” Raskin, who led the effort to impeach and convict Trump in the wake of the January 6, 2021 insurrection, said in a statement Tuesday.
“This far-right roadmap for a ‘post-constitutional’ America would make January 6th extremism a governing ideology,” said Raskin. “They plan to centralize all power in the presidency, exercise political control over the Justice Department, implant Christian white nationalism throughout the government, strip tens of thousands of professional government workers of their civil service protections, create an army of political loyalists and sycophants in government, ban abortion nationwide, set up immigrant detention camps, deport millions of people, repeal all climate safety regulations, and exact criminal revenge against reporters, judges, and Democrats.”
The Stop Project 2025 Task Force represents a coordinated attempt by Democratic lawmakers and outside advocacy groups to raise public awareness of the far-right plot to rip away fundamental freedoms and mobilize against it ahead of the critical November rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden.
“Project 2025 threatens to undermine American democracy by dismantling institutions, abolishing many checks and balances, and consolidating power within the executive branch to carry out radical policies that are not supported by everyday Americans,” said said Caroline Ciccone, president of Accountable.US—one of more than a dozen advocacy groups that endorsed new the task force.
“Thankfully, we have progressive leaders stepping up to stop this authoritarian power grab threatening our rights and freedoms,” Ciccone added. “We’re grateful for Rep. Huffman and the other founding members of the Stop Project 2025 Task Force for their efforts to prevent Project 2025 from becoming a reality and protect democracy as we know it.”
Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams
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