To the Journal editor:

You may have heard about Project 2025 and are puzzled by the controversy surrounding it. This is the second of two letters to the editor explaining the 992-page Project 2025’s mandate and its implications for our country. Project 2025, a conservative mandate for a potential second Trump term, was published by the Heritage Foundation, a D.C. conservative think tank.

In our first letter, we saw how Project 2025’s extreme agenda will centralize Presidential power as never before, politicize the civil service, dismantle Federal agencies, slash social programs for the poor and middle-class, and inject Christian nationalism into the government. It has nauseated most political moderates and independent voters. That is why the Trump re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee have scrambled to distance themselves from the mandate. But they should not be allowed to escape the clear connection.

Mr. Trump has said, “I have no idea who is behind it” and “I know nothing about Project 2025” (Trump’s Truth Social). But 140 of his former Administration officials worked on the document, including six of his former cabinet secretaries [CNN, 7/11/24]. Trump also spoke about how his people and Heritage Foundation are, “laying the groundwork and detailed plans for our movement” [The New Republic, 7/11/24].

And many of the authors of Project 2025 also worked on the RNC and Trump’s re-election party platform. [ABC News, 7/9/24]. Over the years, he has mouthed most of the ideas in Project 2025. The connection to Trump is certain. Make no mistake, this radical plan will be implemented in a second Trump Administration.

Moreover, the document contains angry vitriol and endless name-calling. It makes unpleasant reading. The authors of Project 2025 offer a dark view of America and anyone who disagrees with them. The Federal Government is an “enemy of the people,” “the Left does not believe that all men are created equal, and Democrats are “the woke left.” The authors speak in apocalyptic terms: the time is short to “save our country from the brink of disaster.” Their policies toward, “Marriage. Family. Work. Church. School” are not inclusive and would take us back to the 1950’s. Their programs would in effect create a Christian theocracy. [Project 2025, Foreword].

To be sure, America has its problems, but we strive to fix them. Project 2025 only sees corruption everywhere: in Congress, among politicians, corporate America, and of course in the Federal workforce. It is a document of unremitting gloom.

Project 2025 is the product of a narrow group of ideologues. It is not representative of the political views of most Americans who are in the moderate center of politics. Project 2025 should give well-meaning Republicans pause and cause them to ask whether its proposals are really their cup of tea.

Rather than offer a fig branch of unity and hope, Project 2025 offers more polarization and division. We are better than this. America should advance the common good, unity and inclusion.