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I’ve spent a fair amount of time recently talking about Trump’s Project 2025, a document written in 2024 but reads like it should have been written in 1924 and could impact this country until 2084. I’ve talked about how we know that Donald Trump will implement this agenda because he did the same thing with Project 2017 when he implemented 215 of that plan’s 344 recommendations like providing new tax cuts for the rich, cutting the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program, attacking reproductive freedom and more.
What I haven’t done is talk about how Trump’s Project 2025 will impact Black Americans, how it paints a target on our backs and promotes the fundamental MAGA belief that Black Americans aren’t real Americans. So let me rectify that right now.
Reproductive Freedom
We already know that Trump’s Project 2025 will ramp up the MAGA war on reproductive freedom by, among other things, using a 150-year-old law to ban abortion medication nationwide. But we don’t talk about how this plan raised even more obstacles for Black women and women from marginalized communities who already face systemic barriers to healthcare.
Let me put it another way. Right now American women are dying from pregnancy-related causes at a faster rate than in any other developed nation in the world and Black women are three times more likely to die in pregnancy than white. That’s already a crisis but, by creating even more barriers to healthcare, Trump’s Project 2025 wants to make it even worse.
Student Debt
We already know that Black Americans are disproportionately harmed by student debt. On average, Black graduates owe $25,000 more in student loan debt than white and even four years after graduation the pain continues with Black students owing 188% more than white students borrowed.
In 2020, President Biden and Vice President Harris addressed this crisis with a plan to erase $400 billion in student debt forgiving the debt of nearly all 40 million federal student loan borrowers. Unfortunately, the MAGA Republicans took aim and led the charge that pushed the right-wing Supreme Court to that plan.
But President Biden and Vice President Harris didn’t give up and, since taking office, they’ve delivered $146 billion in student debt relief for 4 million Americans. They cut undergraduate loan payments in half and helped drop monthly payments for millions of borrowers down to $0. Earlier this year, they laid out a new plan to expand student debt relief to more than 30 million Americans.
Now Trump’s Project 2025 wants to roll back that relief too and saddle another generation with the same backbreaking debt that keeps them from buying a home, starting a business, investing in their communities and providing their children a real shot at the American Dream.
Healthcare
Thanks to Obamacare, more Black families have health insurance right now than at any time in history. Now, if you asked me, that’s good news. But Donald Trump doesn’t think so. That’s why, after 14 years of progress, Trump’s Project 2025 is still calling for the repeal of Obamacare which would not only bring back pre-existing conditions, but would eliminate the Medicaid expansion that has helped make healthcare accessible for so many Black families.
On top of that, Trump’s Project 2025 is calling for new Medicaid work requirements and coverage limits putting nearly two in every five Black Americans and 60% of Black children at risk because that’s how many who rely on Medicaid or another public program for their health coverage.
Education
From eliminating free school meal programs that primarily serve children of color to ramping up the school-to-prison pipeline, Trump’s Project 2025 isn’t satisfied with Black parents. It’s targeting our kids too.
The federal government’s Title I program provides $18.4 Billion to low-income school districts nationwide. It’s not only our nation’s largest federal K-12 program, it supports primarily minority children in poor schools. Trump’s Project 2025 wants to eliminate it.
Head Start has been directly helping poor families for nearly 60 years. The long-term health, educational and economic benefits to its participants are dramatic. Roughly two-thirds of all Head Start enrollees are children of color. Trump’s Project 2025 wants to eliminate it.
You know those Department of Justice investigations taking on schools that are expelling Black kids for behavior they overlook in white kids? Trump’s Project 2025 will end them.
Opportunity
Of course, there’s more.
When he was president, Trump tried to gut laws that protected minorities from racial discrimination when they were trying to get a mortgage. He was unsuccessful but Trump’s Project 2025 lays out a strategy for him to try again. In fact, Trump’s Project 2025 has plans to eliminate every diversity, equity and inclusion initiative in the federal government including affirmative action because, for him, anything that is pro-equality is anti-white.
So, whether you’re a mail carrier or an FBI agent, if you’re Black and a federal employee, say goodbye to your job if Trump gets elected again. That’s even if you’re willing to pledge allegiance to Trump because, according to Trump’s Project 2025, anyone who doesn’t is fired anyway.
So, let’s not kid ourselves. Trump’s Project 2025 is on the ballot this November. Our lives are on the ballot. Govern yourselves accordingly.
Antjuan Seawright is a Democratic political strategist, founder and CEO of Blueprint Strategy LLC and a senior visiting fellow at Third Way. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter @antjuansea.
SEE ALSO:
Advocates Breakdown Project 2025 And Other Important Issues For Black Voters
NAACP President Derrick Johnson Delivers Powerful Breakdown Of Project 2025’s Impact On Black People
