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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. I'm Stephen Carol and

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Speaker 1: this is Here's Why, where we take one news story

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Speaker 1: and explain it in just a few minutes with our

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Speaker 1: experts here at Bloomberg. Now. It's a pretty bland name

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Speaker 1: for something aspiring to be the most important political blueprint

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Speaker 1: in America. Project twenty twenty five is getting plenty of attention.

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Speaker 2: Their campaign is Project twenty twenty five. It is taking

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Speaker 2: away reproductive freedom across this country.

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Speaker 3: Donald Trump is also trying to distract people. He wants

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Speaker 3: to direct attention away from his record and his Project

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty five plan.

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Speaker 1: The plan's stated goal is to rescue the US from

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Speaker 1: the quote grip of the radical left. It's architects want

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Speaker 1: it to be the policy framework for Donald Trump if

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Speaker 1: he wins re election in November. The Republican nominee has

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Speaker 1: tried to distance himself from it, though, but the Democrats

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Speaker 1: want Trump to be linked to its more radical ideas.

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Speaker 1: In a sign of how politically sensitive it's become. The

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Speaker 1: man who directed it, Paul Dan's a step down after

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Speaker 1: criticism from Trump. So here's why Project twenty twenty five

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Speaker 1: has America's attention. Our senior editor at Wendy Benjaminson joins

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Speaker 1: us from Washington for more high Wendy sou First of all,

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Speaker 1: who is behind Project twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 2: Well, this was led by the Heritage Foundation, which is

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Speaker 2: a longstanding conservative think tank in Washington. But it rose

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Speaker 2: to power really during the Reagan administration of one of

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Speaker 2: those very sort of old school conservative things, and it

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Speaker 2: has evolved, along with the Republican Party into sort of

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Speaker 2: a mago organization. But they were joined by one hundred

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Speaker 2: conservative groups around the country that wanted to sort of

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Speaker 2: Donald Trump a to do list for his presidency. And

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Speaker 2: the policy ranged all over the place, from really really

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Speaker 2: extreme to things that Donald Trump has said that have

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Speaker 2: long been conservative doctrine.

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Speaker 1: So what's going to happen to it now that Paul

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Speaker 1: Don's has gone.

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm not really sure because one of the funny

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Speaker 2: things about this is that even though Trump has said

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Speaker 2: some of the policies are ridiculous and all of that,

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Speaker 2: the trouble is a lot of them are the things

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Speaker 2: he says every time he gets in front of a microphone.

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Speaker 2: You know, to have mass deportations of illegal immigrants, to

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Speaker 2: get rid of federal agencies that he doesn't like to

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Speaker 2: politicize the federal bureaucracy. One of the major points that

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Speaker 2: he disagrees with him on is abortion. Donald Trump has

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Speaker 2: never been a really strong anti abortion person. He's a

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Speaker 2: New Yorker or all that, but he has adopted a

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Speaker 2: more liberal, if you will, stands on abortion because he

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Speaker 2: wants to win the election. And America is two thirds

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Speaker 2: to three quarters in favor of some abortion rights and

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Speaker 2: this one calls for absolutely no abortions and mandated by Congress.

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Speaker 1: So it's not the sort of dilemma that he's facing

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Speaker 1: that even though this project very neatly puts together, as

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Speaker 1: you say, lots of things that he said before, there

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Speaker 1: are things that he doesn't like. Or is it about

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Speaker 1: him not accepting the premise that this is a blueprint

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Speaker 1: that's being onto him or to do list.

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Speaker 2: Honestly, I think what's happening is he's running from it

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Speaker 2: because the Democrats are quite effectively wrapping it around his neck.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 2: They're saying, this is what Donald Trump is going to

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Speaker 2: bring to the country. Look here and you'll see the

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Speaker 2: Trump administration, you know, laid out in front of you

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Speaker 2: for twenty twenty four to twenty twenty eight. You know,

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Speaker 2: some of them are very extreme. One of them would

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Speaker 2: limit the powers of the federal agency called OSHA, Occupational

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Speaker 2: Safety and Health Administration that keeps workers safe on their jobs.

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Speaker 2: It would not only limit their power, but allow miners

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Speaker 2: to do inherently dangerous work, allow child dangerous labor in

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Speaker 2: this country. Again, so there are parts of it that

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Speaker 2: he's saying, come on this, I'm not going to do that,

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Speaker 2: but he actually hasn't specified what he will and will

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Speaker 2: not do. It's just that the Democrats have so perfectly

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Speaker 2: wrapped this around his neck and said this is what

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Speaker 2: you're going to get.

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Speaker 1: So this is in a lot of ways a very

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Speaker 1: useful political tool for the Democrats. As you've outlined. Surely

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Speaker 1: they don't want to see Project twenty twenty five jettisoned

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Speaker 1: for now.

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Speaker 2: And they're not going to let it happen. They are

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Speaker 2: going to continue to open this big gift box that

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Speaker 2: the Heritage Foundation gave them, and every day, every rally,

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Speaker 2: every AD is going to mention Project twenty twenty five

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Speaker 2: and all of the really startling policies in it, which

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Speaker 2: include the US military conducting mass deportations of proposedly illegal immigrants.

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Speaker 2: Who knows how many people could get wrapped up in

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Speaker 2: mass deportations. It gets rid of the Department of Education.

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Speaker 2: The most scary thing in it is that it politicizes

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Speaker 2: the federal bureaucracy, so that even administrative assistance in the

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Speaker 2: Department of Energy or a biologist at the Environmental Protection

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Speaker 2: Agency would have to be loyal to Donald Trump, not

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Speaker 2: to the people of the United States. Those federal agencies

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Speaker 2: are supposed to be staffed below the top levels with

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Speaker 2: people who are working through across administrations, and the politicization

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Speaker 2: of the federal bureaucracy would be quite a sea change

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Speaker 2: for the United States.

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Speaker 1: Maybe another way that the Heritage Foundation and some of

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Speaker 1: those behind Project twenty twenty five might hope to have

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Speaker 1: influence is in personnel terms, to try and get people

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Speaker 1: into the key jobs if Donald Trump were to win

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Speaker 1: the election. Is that perhaps how this agenda stays relevant.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely, that is how it would stay relevant. The people

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Speaker 2: who wrote Project twenty twenty five Paul Dan's it's Ben Carson,

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Speaker 2: the former Housing secretary, and other people who were extremely

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Speaker 2: close to Trump in his first administration who wrote this.

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Speaker 2: So presumably Trump will appoint some people who were involved

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Speaker 2: in Project twenty twenty five, or simply agree with some

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Speaker 2: of the policies in Project twenty twenty five, and so

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Speaker 2: it can find its way into Americans' lives of if

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Speaker 2: Donald Trump is elected, no matter whether he says he

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Speaker 2: likes it or not.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and that's one of the reasons that we might

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Speaker 1: hear so much more about it over the next few months.

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Speaker 1: Wendy Benjaminson in Washington, Thank you so much for joining

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Speaker 1: us for more explanations like this one from our team

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Speaker 1: of twenty seven hundred journalists and analysts around the world.

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Speaker 1: Search for quick take on the Bloomberg website or Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Business app. I'm Stephen Caroll. This is here's why. I'll

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Speaker 1: be back next week with more. Thanks for listening.

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Speaker 2: They don't do the thing