They told us it couldn’t happen here. That American democracy was too strong, too sacred, too unshakable to fall prey to authoritarianism, but with each executive order, federal raid, and disregard for due process, Donald Trump isn’t just challenging that belief; he’s proving it wrong.
What we’re witnessing isn’t a chaotic second term, it’s the execution of a well-organized blueprint called Project 2025 — a political manifesto dressed in policy that seeks to dismantle the federal government as we know it and replace it with a regime loyal not to the Constitution, but to the man at the top.
As I previously wrote with The Great White Heist, what we’re deeming as incompetence is a ruse to keep us distracted and keep federal workers overwhelmed as they rapidly usher in the plan they had all along, and Donald Trump is becoming more and more vocal about that plan and his attempt to strong arm those in his way.
Let’s look at his most recent Oval Office interview with ABC’s Terry Moran, Donald Trump reaffirmed what many of us have been warning about for years: the slow, deliberate erosion of democratic norms is no longer hypothetical—it’s policy. With his attempt to seemingly coax Moran into lying about the gang participation of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, you can see how Trump is attempting to use his political power to silence those in opposition and who are following the law.
At the heart of Trump’s rhetoric is the idea that being elected gives him carte blanche authority to govern not by consensus, but by decree. When Moran pressed Trump about his mass deportation efforts and disregard for legal standards like due process, Trump dismissed the law with a flippant “they get whatever my lawyers say.” That offhand remark is more than bravado; it’s a direct echo of Project 2025’s playbook.
Project 2025’s co-author Russell Vought was caught during a hidden camera interview last year stating that the Center for Renewing America was secretly drafting hundreds of executive orders, regulations, and memos that would lay the groundwork for rapid action on Trump’s plans if he wins, describing his work as creating “shadow” agencies.
Sound familiar? He claimed that Donald Trump has “blessed” his organization and “he’s very supportive of what we do.” Vought added that the expulsion of millions of undocumented immigrants could help “save the country.”
“Eighty percent of my time is working on the plans of what’s necessary to take control of these bureaucracies,” Vought said. “And we are working doggedly on that, whether it’s destroying their agencies’ notion of independence … whether that is thinking through how the deportation would work.”
Once deportations begin, “you’re really going to be winning a debate along the way about what that looks like,” Vought said. “And so that’s going to cause us to get us off of multiculturalism, just to be able to sustain and defend the deportation, right?”
Project 2025 also calls for a sweeping restructuring of federal power, including eliminating prosecutorial discretion in immigration enforcement, expanding expedited removal across the country, and waiving statutory protections like those under the Administrative Procedure Act. These proposals don’t just restrict immigration — they gut the very principles of fairness and accountability that form the foundation of American democracy.
Let’s look at the most recent viral ICE incident involving a U.S. citizen, a mother and her three daughters in Oklahoma, who were subjected to a terrifying predawn raid by federal agents — armed, aggressive, and tragically misinformed. They were not the intended targets. Yet their home was stormed, their belongings confiscated, and their dignity trampled. This chilling event is not an isolated misstep. It’s the real-life manifestation of Project 2025’s proposed rollback of constitutional protections under the guise of national security and immigration control.
Donald Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act — a law from 1798 originally intended for wartime enemies — to justify deporting Venezuelan migrants, and potentially even American citizens, is especially dangerous. This is no longer political theater; it’s a systematic effort to legalize authoritarianism. Project 2025 backs this by advocating for the expansion of DHS authority to circumvent immigration laws when the Secretary deems “mass migration” a threat, regardless of judicial oversight.
Couple in the fact that Republicans unanimously voted against a proposed amendment by Democrats, prohibiting ICE from detaining or deporting U.S. citizens. No Republican members speak before the vote.
Republican House Judiciary Committee members may have arguments against the amendments on requiring due process for aliens before deportation and ensuring ICE does not detain or deport U.S. citizens. During this unusual markup, they never explained why they voted against the amendments, making it impossible to know.
Moreover, Trump’s vision to “reshape” the Department of Justice to investigate political enemies mirrors Project 2025’s emphasis on personnel loyalty. The idea that “personnel is policy” is not just a slogan — it’s a strategy.
Project 2025 outlines a detailed plan to purge civil servants and replace them with handpicked loyalists willing to carry out the president’s agenda, including defunding diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, revoking the independence of agencies like ICE and DOJ, and centralizing legal authority in the Executive Office.
Consider Donald Trump’s latest move to strip Harvard of $2.2 billion in federal funding and removing its tax exempt status for refusing to alter its admissions policies—an aggressive, punitive measure that aligns with Project 2025’s directive to reshape education, academia, and civil society to fit conservative orthodoxy. These decisions, often presented under the banner of “America First,” are actually assaults on pluralism, academic freedom, and due process.
And let’s not ignore his flirtation with authoritarian leaders. In the same interview with ABC, Donald Trump mused that Putin may be “tapping him along,” as if a war criminal’s intentions are negotiable depending on who’s in the White House. The plan to reshape U.S. foreign policy to favor strongmen while undermining multilateral institutions is straight from the Project 2025 foreign affairs chapter, which calls for cutting foreign aid programs that support LGBTQ+ rights and reproductive justice.
So when Donald Trump scoffs at being called authoritarian and says he’s simply “making America great again,” remember: he’s not. Instead, he’s following a maniacal blueprint. Project 2025 is no longer a fringe policy document. It’s the ideological backbone of an administration bent on dismantling checks and balances and dragging America backward to a time when executive power reigned unchecked, the vulnerable were voiceless, and freedom was conditional.
The clock is ticking, and we are not just inching toward authoritarianism; we are sprinting. The question is no longer if Trump and his allies will implement Project 2025; it’s how much of it they’ll get done before anyone stops them, and by then, it may be too late.
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