Trump's Project 2025 Is 'Blueprint For Soft Coup' -- Like Orban's Hungary
Hungarian President Viktor Orban
With Project 2025, former President Donald Trump's allies in the Heritage Foundation lay out a game plan for radically overhauling the United States' federal government if he defeats President Joe Biden in November and returns to the White House in January.
The idea behind Project 2025 is to fill the federal government with Trump loyalists who are fully committed to the MAGA agenda, including Christian nationalism. According to CNN, Heritage's Project 2025 and the America First Policy Institute — another group promoting ideas for a second Trump term — are looking to far-right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as an authoritarian role model.
During an early May segment, MSNBC's Ali Velshi discussed Project 2025's goals with two Trump critics: conservative Republican Olivia Troye (a former aide to ex-Vice President Mike Pence) and liberal Vanity Fair journalist Molly Jong-Fast.
Velshi told viewers, "The threat that Project 2025 poses to our democracy cannot be overstated…. Probably the most troubling aspect of Project 2025 is its plan to grant Donald Trump unchecked power over the executive branch…. Project 2025 is ultimately a blueprint for a soft coup, one that replaces our age-old system of checks and balances with cronyism."
Jong-Fast shares Velshi's views on Project 2025, warning that much of the Republican Party has embraced "authoritarian Trumpism."
The Vanity Fair writer told Velshi and Troye, "One of the things that I think is the top line here is that every single government agency will be politicized. So, that means that from the FDA to the DOJ to the EPA, every single part of the federal government will be serving Trump and his Republican Party. And if you think about that, that's actually really terrifying…. Now, imagine an entire federal government that serves as a campaign arm to Donald Trump."
Velshi noted that the Heritage Foundation, historically, has been a "fairly mainstream conservative think tank" that "was once associated with Reaganism" — and the conservative Troye agreed with Velshi that Project 2025 is a "radical plan by the far right."
Troye told Velshi, "This is not a conservative plan. It is the more extreme arms of conservatism that you are seeing reflected in here. And I think it goes to show the complete transformation of the Heritage Foundation — a group that actually, for a long time, has been long-respected."
Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
