Project 2025 and the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election

By Tibor Nagy
July 25, 2024

Recent Democrat hyper bloviating would lead one to think the Republic is in great danger of falling because of the conservative Heritage Foundation’ s “Presidential Transition Project” – better known as Project 2025. Every Democratic candidate’s “talking points,” ads, and even President Biden’s remarks warn that in case of a Republican victory in November, American society will be cast back centuries with citizens losing their basic freedoms. The current alarmism exceeds even the over-the-top 1964 Johnson campaign ad against Goldwater showing a little girl picking flowers as a nuclear bomb explodes, or the 2012 Democratic ad against Republicans showing then House Speaker Paul Ryan pushing granny over a cliff in a wheelchair.

In reality, Project 2025 is a 900-page strategic plan produced by over 400 conservative scholars and policy experts in partnership with 100 plus organizations laying out recommendations across the board for the next conservative administration. What it is not is a party platform or the policy objectives of any single candidate. Given the huge scope of covered topics, and the wide range of contributing organizations, I doubt if there is anyone who supports all of the recommendations it contains. Even former President Trump has said he disagrees with some of the content. This is perfectly normal and understandable for “Big Tent” political movements whose members hold a wide spectrum of policy positions.

It’s certainly true as well for the political Left, where key segments of the Democratic party strongly support the following actions with which many in their own movement disagree, e.g., defunding the police; maintaining totally open borders; abolishing the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency; giving illegal immigrants the vote; remaking America into a socialist nation; stopping all support to Israel. Since the great majority of Americans disagree with such outlying policies, they have not been implemented and hopefully never will be.

Instead of falling for scaremongering, Americans should check out the document for themselves and make up their own minds about its merits. (Policy | Project 2025) While I haven’t read the entire 900 pages, I am quite familiar with the proposals regarding US foreign policy and the operations of the US Department of State, where I worked for decades. I am also serving as one of the members of the Project 2025 “US State Department” team.

(2025_MandateForLeadership_CHAPTER-06.pdf (project2025.org)

And I would bet that most folks in West Texas would support the foreign policy priorities and operational recommendations contained in that section. Some of the top recommendations include that the US should: respond vigorously to China’s many threats; prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons; work with Mexico to control its violent cartels which threaten the US and smuggle Chinese supplied fentanyl into our country; confront North Korea’s rogue behavior; and take seriously the national security threat from uncontrolled immigration. The section also fairly lays out the current disagreement within the conservative movement over how to deal with Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine. There is also a recommendation to expand the previous Trump Administration’s pioneering Abraham Accords, which have been an invaluable asset in the current Gaza crisis by enabling Israel to deal directly with Arab states with which it established relations under the Accords. Other key recommendations are that US foreign assistance should support US policy goals, and that the US should practice “tough love” with international organizations – i.e., support those which advance US interests and leave those which oppose US interests. Altogether very common sensical policies.

I also strongly support recommendations related to remaking the State Department to better reflect the realities and priorities of the 21st century, since it’s currently an institution better suited to the conditions of centuries past. From my personal experience, I know “State” desperately needs reform to eliminate redundancies, reduce waste, and improve performance. I have written in previous columns about the ridiculous bureaucratic processes which lead the agency to produce papers, rather than results, and the unacceptably large number of people involved in arriving at even the simplest of decisions.

Another area where US taxpayers should be outraged is the failure of the Biden administration to return Government workers to their offices, despite recurring pledges to do so – because of Democrats’ trepidation over not alienating public sector unions. I often laugh when I hear entitled Federal workers in Washington described as Public or Civil “Servants.” An average citizen’s interaction with many of these folks will quickly show who is considered the “servant.” But the fact is that “service” should indeed characterize every Federal employee’s DNA. For example, when I returned to the State Department as Assistant Secretary after 15 years at Texas Tech University, I was outraged to learn that in one of our offices an employee had, for over a year, been abusing coworkers, cussing regularly, failing to show up for work, and not doing anything productive. Supervisors had done nothing, fearing that any disciplinary action would boomerang making them the subject of a grievance. Within a month that person was gone – since I wasn’t worried about protecting my career. So yes, in my view the federal workforce needs drastic reform so employees who work hard and provide a public service are rewarded, and employees who don’t, face consequences.

Please take a look at what all the fuss is about with Project 2025 and make up your own mind. I guarantee that there will be recommendations with which some will disagree but knowing the phenomenal common-sense West Texans possess, I believe the overall impression will be positive. And please remember, in November you will not be voting for a document, but for a Presidential candidate who, if elected, will decide what the policy priorities will be. Hopefully Project 2025 will offer some useful guidance.

Ambassador Tibor Nagy was most recently Assistant Secretary of State for Africa after serving as Texas Tech’s Vice Provost for International Affairs and a 30-year career as a US Diplomat. Follow him on Twitter @TiborPNagyJr