Project 2025 and Libraries (Part 1)
This 4-part report details the specifics of how libraries and public education would be impacted by the once-celebrated conservative tome
Project 2025 has become a rallying cry; either a delineation of conservative thought about the government or a dangerous litany of proposals that recently have found the atmosphere outside the ideological bubble unsustainable.
Page one of the Mandate for Leadership, the Project 2025 version, accuses school libraries of providing pornography to school children in the era of books bans, criminalization efforts, and anti-library legislation. Plans to eliminate the Department of Education, threats to Federal funding which would include IMLS funding for school and public libraries, and the elimination of Title I, Title IX, and civil rights protections are all part of Project 2025. EveryLibrary Institute has released a primer for Project 2025 and libraries: How Will Project 2025 Impact Libraries. The report details the specifics of how libraries and public education would be impacted by the once-celebrated conservative tome, itself created as a roadmap for the next Republican presidential agenda and first announced in 2023.
Sign the petition to show that Americans stand against Project 2025!
Then, click to share the petition against Project 2025 on Facebook and Twitter
The first step to understanding the current political upheaval around Project 2025, is to explore its history and the clear connections between the Heritage Foundation; the GOP presidential and vice-presidential nominees; former, current, and future Trump aides; and the preparations underway for a second Trump administration. This four-part series pulls together the links that belie current claims that there are no connections and demonstrates how a strategy of doubling down can leave even the biggest self-proclaimed insider on the outside looking in when the polling shifts.
Disavowal, Denial, and the Disquieting Details
All In Before the Polling Turned Bad
Donald Trump and the Trump Campaign have gone to great lengths to disavow any connection with or knowledge of Project 2025 and to celebrate what it called “Project 2025’s demise.” Since July 2024, Donald Trump has repeatedly said he doesn’t know anything about Project 2025 or who is behind it. However, it is easy to follow the links, including the flights, the speeches, and even the book that connect the Heritage Foundation, its “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” the Republican nominee, his Vice-Presidential pick, and Trump administration loyalists and former/future aides who are preparing for Trump 47.
Click to share the petition against Project 2025 on Facebook and Twitter
Despite his claims that he doesn’t know who is behind Project 2025, Donald Trump was photographed with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts flying to give a speech before the Heritage Foundation in April 2022. During the one-hour plus speech, he called out multiple people in the crowd, including Kevin Roberts, and demonstrated his awareness of the foundation’s agenda setting:
“With the help of many people in this room, we saved our country once and together, we swear that we will save our country again…The critical job of institutions, such as Heritage is to lay the groundwork…And they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American give us a colossal mandate to save America and that’s coming. That’s coming…Never been in a position before and already we know a very big part of our agenda…”
A year later, Trump’s eventual vice-presidential nominee, Ohio Senator JD Vance, spoke at the 2023 Heritage Foundation leadership summit where he declared:
"We are gonna, hopefully in 2024, take back the White House, and this organization is gonna play a major role in helping us figure out how to govern at the White House, at the Senate, at the House and all across our great country.”
So close are the GOP vice presidential nominee and the Heritage Foundation president, that Vance has written the forward for a book authored by Kevin Roberts originally entitled: Dawn's Early Light: Burning Down Washington to Save America. He also wrote a review of the book declaring:
“‘Never before has a figure with Roberts's depth and stature within the American Right tried to articulate a genuinely new future for conservatism. We are now all realizing that it's time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.’”
Help fight for libraries by starting a monthly donation of $1, $3, or $5 today!
The book was supposed to be released in September but a new cover, subtitle (“Taking Back” instead of “Burning Down America”), and a new post-election release date have come post-shooting/post-disavowal. These disavowals are not limited to the Republican nominees and their campaign but former (and likely future) administration officials. Recent reporting by ProPublica reviewed more than 14-hours of content from the Presidential Administration Academy featuring former Trump officials, some of whom now claim to know little about Project 2025.
More on the Heritage Who’s Who in part two…
To support EveryLibrary and the EveryLibrary Institute and the work of advocating and building support for libraries, please consider joining a local campaign or beginning a campaign to support local libraries through the Fight for the First platform (https://fightforthefirst.org) or donating to EveryLibrary.
In this series: