What is Project 2025 and why are people currently Googling it more often than Taylor Swift?

For more than a year, virtually no one had heard of “Project 2025,” a 900-page document compiled by a conservative think tank in April 2023 as a blueprint for a new Donald Trump administration.

But in the past three weeks, an HBO commentator, a famous actress and a right-wing political pundit began speaking out about it publicly, giving President Joe Biden an opportunity to condemn it and Trump himself an opportunity to distance himself from the script that some of his closest aides had concocted and that he viewed as a potential maneuver for his second presidency.

According to Parker Butler, who works for the Biden campaign and shared a screenshot of search data trends on Twitter, more people were Googling “Project 2025” than Taylor Swift or the NFL by Tuesday.

In this way, a complex and technical government treatise suddenly entered the collective consciousness.

What is Project 2025?

The document, officially called Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise, is a proposal for federal government reform based on a number of conservative ideas, many of which were first proposed in 1981 under the Ronald Reagan administration.

The list was also called a “wish list” for a second Trump presidency.

“Our goal is to assemble an army of like-minded, vetted, trained and prepared conservatives who will go to work from day one and deconstruct the administrative state,” Paul Dans, the project’s director, wrote on the project website.

The plan calls for the firing of thousands of civil servants, who could be replaced by political appointees who have proven their loyalty to Trump. It also calls for a massive expansion of presidential power, placing large parts of the government under executive control. It also calls for the dissolution of the Department of Education and other federal agencies and massive tax cuts.

Project 2025 envisages drastic cuts in federal funding for research and investment in renewable energy. It calls for the elimination of subsidies for electric cars and orders an end to the “war on oil and natural gas.” It also promises greater efforts by the federal government in the fight against illegal immigrants.

The project, which the FBI describes as “bloated, arrogant and increasingly lawless,” is intended to fundamentally reshape the organization and abolish the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The project recommends banning pornography and, some observers say, is intended to instill Judeo-Christian values ​​in the government.

While Project 2025 would remove the abortion pill mifepristone from the market, it would also increase parental control over schools and target so-called “woke propaganda” by dismantling federal protections for LGBTQ people, among other things.

It proposes removing a number of terms from federal regulations: “sexual orientation,” “diversity, equity and inclusion,” “gender equality,” “abortion,” and “reproductive rights.”

Led by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 has also received contributions from about 100 groups, including Tea Party Patriots, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Turning Point USA and Concerned Women for America.

In addition, the document was designed by several former Trump appointees: Project 2025 Director Paul Dans served as Trump’s chief of staff in the Office of Personnel Management, while Deputy Director Spencer Chretien served as Trump’s special assistant and deputy director of presidential personnel.

Also involved were Russ Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, and Roger Severino, director of the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Others involved, according to the Guardian, include John McEntee, Trump’s White House personnel chief, Stephen Miller, a senior adviser in his first administration, Ben Carson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in his cabinet, and Ken Cuccinelli, a former deputy secretary of homeland security.

How did the little-known Project 2025 gain so much notoriety so quickly?

A series of recent events have drawn the attention of millions of people to the document.

On June 16, John Oliver, host of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight,” devoted a monologue to the Republicans’ plan: “If Trump’s first term was one of chaos, then his second could be described as one of ruthless efficiency,” he said.

Two weeks later, actress Taraji Henson criticized the project while hosting the BET Awards. “Watch out,” she said. “It’s no secret, look it up. They’re attacking our most vulnerable citizens. The Project 2025 plan is not a game.”

On July 2, the President of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts discussed Project 2025 with a guest host on Steve Bannon’s podcast “War Room” and said Republicans are “taking this country back.”

“We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it,” Roberts said.

On July 5, Trump wrote on X:

“I don’t know anything about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I don’t agree with some of their statements and some of their statements are absolutely ridiculous and miserable. Whatever they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

On July 6, Biden then issued a harsh attack on the project, and Project 2025 became a hot topic on social media, with everyone from Lizzo to Mark Hamill commenting on it.

“Celebrities feel obligated to use their platforms to get people’s attention,” said sociologist Dustin Kidd of Temple University in an interview.

Project 2025 has now reached such critical mass, says Matt McAllister, professor of communications at Penn State University. In an interview, he said, “It diminishes the seemingly endless talk about Biden’s poor performance in the debate.”

Dan Pfeiffer, a former adviser to President Barack Obama, told the Washington Post that Project 2025 was “a political godsend.”

McAllister added that it was fitting that people from show business had helped to raise awareness of Project 2025 in the country. “After all, Donald Trump became famous primarily as a television star,” he said.

Project 2025 is so much a part of the national conversation right now that it inspired a group of self-described “gay furry hackers” to break into the Heritage Foundation’s computer system, according to Newsweek. The group says it posted online about two gigabytes of data that was allegedly retrieved from the foundation’s servers.

To what extent is Trump involved in Project 2025?

It is not clear whether Trump was personally involved in drafting the document, but it reflects many of his ideas about cracking down on immigration, taking out the “deep state,” shutting down the Department of Education and calling the FBI his enemy.

Experts and others, pointing to the large number of Trump associates involved in the project, have sharply criticized Trump’s claim that he knew nothing about the project.

“Trump is appeasing moderate voters who don’t like the idea of ​​a ‘revolution,’ as Roberts said,” said David Kahl Jr., a professor of communications at Penn State Behrend. “Trump is essentially saying, ‘Don’t worry, I’m not planning a revolution.'”

Trump was not prepared for his presidency in 2016 because “nobody thought he would win,” said Deborah Weinstein, executive director of the bipartisan Coalition on Human Needs, in an interview.

“What makes Project 2025 so significant,” she added, “is that it took the Heritage Foundation a while to figure out how to create an agenda for a possible second Trump term.”

“And now they have it.”