Amherst professor Austin Sarat examines Donald Trump’s repeated denial of any connection to Project 2025 during his campaign, despite extensive evidence that its policy goals are being actively implemented now in his second term. Professor Sarat argues that Trump’s deception about Project 2025 was deliberate and consequential, revealing his broader authoritarian ambitions and marking one of the most impactful political lies in modern American history.
University of Pennsylvania professor Marci A. Hamilton draws parallels between her experience clerking at the U.S. Supreme Court during efforts to undermine Roe v. Wade and the Trump administration’s implementation of its secretive Project 2025 policy agenda. Professor Hamilton argues that, much like the conservative clerk “cabal,” the administration operates through covert, coordinated strategies to impose unpopular ideology without public debate, using authoritarian means to bypass democratic norms.
Attorney Lauren Stiller Rikleen discusses the media’s response to Donald Trump’s executive orders at the start of his administration and their connection to Project 2025, a comprehensive plan to restructure the federal government. Ms. Rikleen argues that the media has failed on two fronts: by not adequately covering Project 2025’s blueprint for dismantling government institutions, and by reflexively framing valid democratic concerns as partisan fights, which “gives the advantage to those seeking to undermine democracy and weakens the function of journalism as a bulwark for a free society.”
Criminal defense attorney Jon May examines Project 2025, a plan developed by conservative organizations to overhaul the Executive Branch, with a focus on its potential impact on the Department of Justice under a second Trump administration. Mr. May argues that Project 2025 is a roadmap for subverting the rule of law and transforming the DOJ into an instrument of political oppression, warning that its implementation would lead to authoritarian control, the politicization of law enforcement, and a threat to democratic principles.
