After the 2024 US election: What could Trump be planning?

Under the name “Project 2025,” the conservatives have prepared for Trump’s second term in office. The plan is to radically restructure the government apparatus in Washington and concentrate power in the hands of the president.

Unlike in 2016, this time Donald Trump and his supporters are prepared to take power. “Project 2025,” conceived by the ultra-conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, provides the blueprint for a revolution from the right.

The authors write in the manifesto that “the damage done by the left” must be reversed through a strictly conservative agenda. In more than 880 pages they explain what they believe needs to happen now.

More power for the president

The restructuring of the executive branch should begin on Inauguration Day. The goal is a dramatic centralization of government policy that would give the White House tight control over all federal agencies, including the Justice Department.

This would allow him to have a decisive influence on proceedings against him and others who, among other things, were involved in the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. It would also enable him to take action against people who initiated these proceedings.

The Departments of Education and Homeland Security, for example, are to be abolished, and the US Federal Police FBI, “an increasingly lawless organization,” is to be completely overhauled.

This time everything should be done quickly, consistently and sustainably, without the chaos of Trump’s first term, says Hans Noel, a political scientist at Georgetown University. He takes a critical look at “Project 2025”. “It’s a pretty aggressive strategy. The aggressiveness is to give the president more power, more power,” says Noel.

As an example, he cites the FEC, the state election authority, which also oversees campaign finance rules. So far it is balanced between Democrats and Republicans. “The project goal here is: Let’s make sure that everyone is on our side.”

Radicals Personnel exchange at the federal authorities

Furthermore, a radical exchange of personnel in the federal authorities is planned, in which thousands of employees are to be replaced by a right-wing conservative following. Potential candidates for jobs in the government apparatus have already been checked for their attitudes as part of “Project 2025”. This is what it says in the foreword to the pamphlet:

This step is aimed at the “state within the state” (“deep state”) identified by the ultra-right forces, which they believe defended themselves against his radical plans during Trump’s first term in office.

Migration, abortion, environment

“Project 2025” envisages the implementation of an ultra-conservative agenda on numerous issues. These include a rigorous migration policy with mass deportations and the completion of the construction of a continuous wall on the border with Mexico, which Trump began in his first term in office.

Abortion rights should be tightened, for example by banning the abortion pill mifepristone.

In environmental policy, programs for clean energies should be buried, emissions restrictions should be overturned and the exploitation of fossil energies should be strongly supported again.

NATO and war in Ukraine

And what does “Project 2025” say about NATO and Ukraine? During his first term in office, Trump threatened to withdraw the United States from NATO. “The project program basically says that a president has a lot of power, but NATO is based on a treaty. Pulling the plug here is not that easy,” emphasizes Noel.

But especially when it comes to supporting Ukraine, the following applies to the West as a whole: “If one of the most important players, the USA, changes direction, that will change a lot.” Trump’s former EU ambassador, the entrepreneur Gordon Sondland, appeases and says about the war against Ukraine: “Of course he wouldn’t solve it in 24 hours. What he says is: It will be solved quickly. He would put so much pressure on both sides “They have to come to a solution,” Sondland recently said on NPR radio.

Before the election, Trump said he would end Russia’s war in Ukraine within “24 hours” before he actually took office, without explaining how that would happen. At the same time, he said that he got along great with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

What has Trump said about this so far?

On election night, Trump himself spoke of a golden age that was now beginning. His election program is called Agenda 47, a reference to the fact that if he wins, he will be the 47th President of the United States.

However, when asked about “Project 2025,” the Republican always distanced himself from it. He neither knows the authors behind it nor has he read it. One thing is certain: the authors of the program include consultants close to him as well as former employees. In key points it is congruent with his political positions. Just recently, his former security adviser John Bolton warned on CNN of a “presidency of retaliation.”