Project 2025, the extremist blueprint for the next Republican president, maps out the permanent reversal of more than 50 years of gains for American women and LGBTQ+ people. The authors of Project 2025—80 percent of whom served in the first Trump administration—paint a picture of a nation where women are fundamentally second class citizens.
Project 2025 contains an 887-page policy agenda. We read the whole thing, so you don’t have to. Here are the most terrifying things we found—from railing on mask and vaccine mandates, to denying climate change, to defining what makes a ‘good’ family.
On the state of America today:
“Look at America under the ruling and cultural elite today … Children suffer the toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries.”
—p. 1
On what makes a good society:
“These are the mediating institutions that serve as the building blocks of any healthy society. Marriage. Family. Work. Church. School. Volunteering.”
—p. 3
“Future leadership must address the widely promoted ‘woke’ culture that has spread throughout the federal government with identity politics and ‘social justice’ advocacy replacing such traditional American values as patriotism, colorblindness, and even workplace competence.”
—p. 204
“Families comprised of a married mother, father, and their children are the foundation of a well-ordered nation and healthy society. … The male–female dyad is essential to human nature and … every child has a right to a mother and father.”
— p. 451 and 461
On waging a culture war:
“The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (‘SOGI’), diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.”
—p. 4-5
On mask and vaccine mandates:
“Whether it be mask and vaccine mandates, school and business closures, efforts to keep Americans from driving gas cars or using gas stoves, or efforts to defund the police, indoctrinate schoolchildren, alter beloved books, abridge free speech, undermine the colorblind ideal, or deny the biological reality that there are only two sexes, the Left’s steady stream of insanity appears to be never-ending. …
“[Centers for Medicare] should … refrain from imposing general COVID-19 mask mandates on health care facilities or personnel.”
—p. 19 and 475
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) [are] the duo most responsible—along with President Joe Biden—for the irrational, destructive, un-American mask and vaccine mandates that were imposed upon an ostensibly free people during the COVID-19 pandemic. … Never again should CDC officials be allowed to say in their official capacity that school children ‘should be’ masked or vaccinated (through a schedule or otherwise) or prohibited from learning in a school building.”
—p. 454
“[The administrative state] must rein in agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which the Biden Administration weaponized to attempt to force COVID-19 vaccine mandates on 84 million Americans through their workplaces.”
—p. 886
On undoing Biden’s progress on climate change and racial justice:
“The next Administration will face a significant challenge in unwinding policies and procedures that are used to advance radical gender, racial, and equity initiatives under the banner of science. Similarly, the Biden Administration’s climate fanaticism will need a whole-of-government unwinding.”
—p. 60
On trans soldiers in the military:
“Reverse policies that allow transgender individuals to serve in the military. Gender dysphoria is incompatible with the demands of military service, and the use of public monies for transgender surgeries or to facilitate abortion for service members should be ended.”
—p. 104
On government aid for abortion:
“The U.S. government should not and cannot promote or fund abortion in international programs or multilateral organizations.”
—p. 192
“Biden declared a radical assault on the policy of protecting life, choosing instead to promote abortion on demand around the world under the guise of ‘sexual and reproductive health and rights.’ … The continued high rate of maternal and infant mortality is a persistent global tragedy. Contrary to current publicity, this problem is not solved by abortion. Families genuinely cherish children.”
—p. 260 and 265
“The Secretary must ensure that all HHS (Health and Human Services) programs and activities are rooted in a deep respect for innocent human life from day one until natural death: Abortion and euthanasia are not health care.”
— p. 450
“Policymakers should end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood and all other abortion providers and redirect funding to health centers that provide real health care for women. … Abortion is not health care, and states should be free to devise and implement programs that prioritize qualified providers that are not entangled with the abortion industry.”
—p. 472
“The Office of the Secretary should eliminate the HHS Reproductive Healthcare Access Task Force and install a pro-life task force to ensure that all of the department’s divisions seek to use their authority to promote the life and health of women and their unborn children.”
—p. 489
On abortion access for teenagers:
“Pregnant, unaccompanied girls should … not [be] trafficked across state lines to be victimized by the abortion industry.”
—p. 478
On public radio and TV:
“All Republican Presidents have recognized that public funding of domestic broadcasts is a mistake. … Conservatives will thus reward a President who eliminates this tyrannical situation. PBS and NPR do not even bother to run programming that would attract conservatives.”
—p. 246-247
On what makes a ‘woman’:
“Instead of protecting women’s and children’s unalienable human rights and propelling their ability to thrive in society, past Democrat Administrations have nearly erased what females are and what femininity is through ‘gender’ policies and practices. … As evidenced by the confirmation testimony of now-Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the progressive Left has so misused and altered the definition of what a ‘woman’ is that one of our U.S. Supreme Court Justices was unable to delineate clearly the fundamental biological and sexual traits that define the group of which she is a part.”
—p. 258-259
On what makes a quality education:
“The Secretary of Education should insist that the department serve parents and American ideals, not advocates whose message is that children can choose their own sex, that America is ‘systemically racist,’ that math itself is racist, and that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ideal of a colorblind society should be rejected in favor of reinstating a color-conscious society. … Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.”
—p. 285 and 319
On student loan forgiveness:
“Borrowers should be expected to repay their loans. … The new Administration must end the prior Administration’s abuse of the agency’s payment pause and HEA loan forgiveness programs, including borrower defense to repayment, closed school discharge, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness.”
—p. 322 and 340
On the rights of trans athletes, students and workers:
“The Biden Administration has sought to trample women’s and girls’ athletic opportunities and due process on campus, threaten free speech and religious liberty, and erode parental rights in elementary and secondary education regarding sensitive issues of sex.”
—p. 333
“No public education employee or contractor shall use a name to address a student other than the name listed on a student’s birth certificate, without the written permission of a student’s parents or guardians.
“No public education employee or contractor shall use a pronoun in addressing a student that is different from that student’s biological sex without the written permission of a student’s parents or guardians.
“No public institution may require an education employee or contractor to use a pronoun that does not match a person’s biological sex if contrary to the employee’s or contractor’s religious or moral convictions.”
—p. 346
On the insidiousness of critical race theory:
“Critical race theory … disrupts America’s Founding ideals of freedom and opportunity. So, when critical race theory is used as part of school activities such as mandatory affinity groups, teacher training programs in which educators are required to confess their privilege … the theory is actively disrupting the values that hold communities together such as equality under the law and colorblindness.”
—p. 342
“Treat the participation in any critical race theory or DEI initiative, without objecting on constitutional or moral grounds, as per se grounds for termination of employment.”
—p. 708
On environmental policy:
“Although the U.S. environmental story is very positive, there has been a return to fear-based rhetoric within the agency, especially as it pertains to the perceived threat of climate change … a favored tool that the Left uses to scare the American public into accepting their ineffective, liberty-crushing regulations, diminished private property rights, and exorbitant costs.”
—p. 419
“Climate-change research should be disbanded. … The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) should be broken up and downsized. … [The Office of Air and Radiation] … is the source of much of NOAA’s climate alarmism.”
—p. 675-676
On IVF and embryonic research:
“There is never any justification for ending a child’s life as part of research, and the research benefits from splicing or growing aborted fetal cells and aborted baby body parts can easily be provided by alternative sources. All research should be prohibited as a matter of law and policy. … Research using human embryonic stem cells also involves the destruction of human life and should not be subsidized with taxpayer dollars.”
—p. 455 and 460
On who should be allowed to get married and have children:
“Married men and women are the ideal, natural family structure because all children have a right to be raised by the men and women who conceived them.”
—p. 489
On saving those ‘born alive’ post-abortion:
“CDC should require monitoring and reporting for complications due to abortion and every instance of children being born alive after an abortion. … The undeniable reality of abortion is that it does do not always result in a dead baby, and these born-alive babies are left to die.”
—p 455 and 474
On the Comstock Act and the availability of mifepristone:
“The FDA is statutorily charged with guaranteeing the safety and efficacy of drugs and therefore should withdraw this drug [abortion pills] that is proven to be dangerous to women and by definition fatally unsafe for unborn children. … Stop promoting or approving mail-order abortions in violation of long-standing federal laws that prohibit the mailing and interstate carriage of abortion drugs.”
—p. 458
On the federal death penalty:
“Enforce the death penalty where appropriate and applicable … until Congress says otherwise through legislation.”
—p. 554
On child labor:
“With parental consent and proper training, certain young adults should be allowed to learn and work in more dangerous occupations.”
—p. 595
On eliminating the U.S. central banking system:
“The next Administration should think about proposing legislation that would ‘effectively abolish’ the Federal Reserve and replace it with ‘free banking.'”
—p. 661
“[The administrative state] … must rein in the Internal Revenue Service, including its 87,000 new employees hired to pick through every detail of what Americans make and how they spend their money.”
—p. 886
On the next census:
“The Census Bureau National Advisory Committee on Racial, Ethnic, and Other Populations (NAC) was established by the Obama Administration in 2012 and rechartered by the Biden Administration in 2022. The committee is a hotbed for left-wing activists intent upon injecting racial and social-justice theory into the governing philosophy of the Census Bureau. The NAC should immediately be abolished by the incoming Administration.”
—p. 682
Up next:
U.S. democracy is at a dangerous inflection point—from the demise of abortion rights, to a lack of pay equity and parental leave, to skyrocketing maternal mortality, and attacks on trans health. Left unchecked, these crises will lead to wider gaps in political participation and representation. For 50 years, Ms. has been forging feminist journalism—reporting, rebelling and truth-telling from the front-lines, championing the Equal Rights Amendment, and centering the stories of those most impacted. With all that’s at stake for equality, we are redoubling our commitment for the next 50 years. In turn, we need your help, Support Ms. today with a donation—any amount that is meaningful to you. For as little as $5 each month, you’ll receive the print magazine along with our e-newsletters, action alerts, and invitations to Ms. Studios events and podcasts. We are grateful for your loyalty and ferocity.