By Mike Lillis - 09/19/24

House Democrats are seeking outside help in deciphering conservatives’ plans for launching their Project 2025 agenda under the next Republican president.

Leaders of the Democrats’ Project 2025 task force — a group formed in June to push back against the expansive right-wing policy document — launched a confidential tip line on Thursday designed to glean the details of that nebulous rollout strategy, which the groups behind Project 2025 are pushing to deliver in the first six months of the next conservative administration.

That “180-day transition playbook” is the fourth of four “pillars” making up Project 2025 — and the only one that hasn’t yet been publicized.

Democrats are voicing concerns that former President Trump, if he wins a second term, will use the playbook to expand his power over virtually all executive agencies — including the Justice Department — to advance his own interests even if they undermine those of the country.

“The American people are deeply and rightfully alarmed about Trump’s Project 2025 – and we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg since its architects refuse to disclose the secret ‘Fourth Pillar’ of executive orders and emergency actions that would roll out in the first hours of a second Trump presidency,” Reps. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), the co-founders of the Stop Project 2025 Task Force, said in a statement.

“The MAGA authors of Project 2025 proclaim that it is part of a ‘second American revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it be,’” the Democrats said.

“Yet the American people on the left, right, and center want nothing to do with this ‘revolution.’ They understand that Trump’s Project 2025 is a dangerous scheme to take over the government, pack it with partisan loyalists, and control the lives of everyone who calls America home.”

Last month, Democrats on the task force penned a letter to Kevin Roberts, the head of the Heritage Foundation, the powerhouse conservative group that spearheaded Project 2025, requesting that he come to Capitol Hill to brief lawmakers on the fourth pillar.

Roberts ignored the entreaty, the Democrats said, leading them to introduce the tip line in hopes that other in-the-know figures will fill in the blanks.

“The feckless leader of the Heritage Foundation, Kevin Roberts, is afraid to respond to our inquiry about the secret ‘Fourth Pillar’ but he has already said the quiet part out loud by admitting that Heritage is keeping this critical part of Project 2025 secret because it is too controversial for the public to see,” Huffman and Pressley said.

The Heritage Foundation did not respond Wednesday to questions related to the fourth pillar.

The launch of the tip line is just the latest in a long series of Democratic efforts to highlight Project 2025 to voters heading into November’s elections, when the race for the House, Senate and White House are all neck-and-neck.

Polls have consistently shown that voters, even many Republicans, are wary of some of the policy prescriptions that are central to Project 2025, including proposals to restrict abortion access; eliminate the Department of Education; deny the legitimacy of gay marriage; and end federal efforts to tackle climate change.

A number of the conservative groups that helped design the Project 2025 agenda are led by figures with close ties to Trump, including Russell Vought, who served as Trump’s head of the Office of Management and Budget, and Stephen Miller, a former Trump speechwriter and senior adviser.

Trump, for his part, has sought to distance himself from the controversial document. During this month’s presidential debate, Vice President Harris framed Project 2025 as a “dangerous plan” that Trump would adopt “if he were elected again” — a charge Trump quickly refuted.

“I have nothing to do with Project 2025,” he said.

The issue has emerged as a major theme on the campaign trail, as Democrats seek to tie the agenda to Republicans up and down the ticket. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), who leads the House Democrats’ campaign arm, said the message is resonating with voters even as Republicans try to distance themselves from Project 2025’s more controversial provisions.

“Americans are well aware of Project 2025, and they don’t like it,” DelBene told reporters Wednesday in the Capitol.

Leaders of the Democrats’ task force are hoping to lend more fuel to that message with their new tip line.

“Given the scorched-earth extremism of the published parts of Trump’s Project 2025, and the evasiveness Heritage and its coalition have shown in hiding the most controversial elements of their scheme, we call upon the public — anyone who may have seen, authored, or come across any part of the secret ‘Fourth Pillar’ of Project 2025 — to share what information they have through our dedicated tip line,” Huffman and Pressley wrote.

“The American people deserve to see the secret 180-Day Playbook for a second Trump presidency so that they can understand how it would impact their government and their lives.”