Democrats will put up billboards in swing states that show Donald Trump and tie him to Project 2025, a conservative manifesto that could become reality if he wins in November.
The Democratic National Committee’s paid media campaign escalates liberal efforts to publicize Project 2025 and tie it to the former president after he sought to distance himself from the plan. The blueprint for a second Trump administration is led by the rightwing thinktank the Heritage Foundation and counts support from more than 100 other conservative groups.
According to a plan first shared with the Guardian, 36 billboards in both English and Spanish will go up in nine cities in seven battleground states: Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Philadelphia, Green Bay, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Raleigh and Charlotte. They show Trump’s face alongside language such as “Trump’s plan to be a dictator on day 1: Project 2025. Google it” and say that the project “guts checks and balances, seeks revenge and bans abortion nationwide”.
Trump and his Republican allies “know that when Americans hear about Project 2025, they do not support it”, the DNC communications director, Rosemary Boeglin, said in a statement. “The DNC won’t let them get away with it.”
Joe Biden has used similar terms when discussing Project 2025 this week, posting on X: “Google Project 2025.” The president has also directed people to a website his campaign created that details the project’s goals and how they would affect Americans. But Biden did not bring up the project during the debate as some expected, missing an opportunity to attack Trump over extreme policies.
Project 2025 has become a trending topic in recent weeks as the left tries to warn voters of what Trump could do with a second term. The 900-plus-page document goes agency by agency to propose a wide variety of changes to US policy and law, a comprehensive dismantling and realignment of government.
Among its biggest ideas is stacking the government with more people politically beholden to the president, consolidating his power. It also proposes mass deportations and strict immigration restrictions, turning the health and human services department into the “department of life” and infusing the federal government with anti-abortion policies, and getting rid of agencies such as the Department of Education. The project is especially opposed to LGBTQ+-friendly policies and diversity initiatives, suggesting eliminating them throughout government.
Project 2025 is not Trump’s official platform – his campaign agenda is called Agenda47 and is detailed on his campaign website. The Republican National Committee also just adopted its own platform, which overlaps with many ideas in both Agenda47 and Project 2025.
Instead, the project is an attempt at conservative consensus over how to install policies if a rightwing president wins. Beyond the manifesto, the project is also gathering names for potential political appointments and aims to assist a new president’s transition team.
Trump’s attempt to disavow the project came after the Heritage president, Kevin Roberts, commented that “we are in the process of the second American revolution, which will remain bloodless, if the left allows it to be”. Trump then said he didn’t know what Project 2025 was or who was behind it, claims that fall flat. The project’s authors and editors are stacked with former Trump officials and allies – a CNN report found that at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025 – and much of the policies align with Trump’s own agenda.
