The 2025 Presidential Transition Project details what the first 180 days could look like if a Republican candidate is elected. Among other things, it would give the president more executive power and put agencies like the Department of Justice under their control.
When Reno city councilmember Devon Reese first learned of Project 2025, he thought it was fake.
“Why would they put such radical, life-altering ideas in writing? Don’t they want to hide who they are until after they get elected?” he asked.
What Reese is most appalled by, is the proposed restrictions on access to reproductive care, and as a gay man, he’s worried about LGBTQ+ protections being rolled back and potential discrimination.
“It says we prioritize families, which are the traditional nuclear family, a husband and a wife and you have 2.3 kids. It means that my family is not valid,” Reese said. “Other families could have their protection stripped. I think, fundamentally too, although they’re not as loud about saying it, they’re definitely coming for marriage equality.”
Councilmember Miguel Martinez is worried about government employees being subjected to political pressure. Project 2025 proposes replacing federal workers with loyalists.
“A lot of those civil service positions that we have within our governments that keep our institutions running forward are at jeopardy of being at the whim of whatever leadership is there, and every four years that’s up for change in this country,” Martinez said.
The Heritage Foundation’s proposal also lists a number of strict immigration policies that Martinez said would impact the community members he represents.
“Whether we’re talking about criminal charges, deportation, denials of applications for citizenship or asylum,” Martinez said. “We do need to make sure that we have secure borders to keep our country safe, but I also understand that it’s more complex than that, and people’s lives are at stake.”
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he has nothing to do with Project 2025 or who’s behind it, but Nevada Democrats are working to make the associations clear.
At a campaign event in Reno last week for Vice President Kamala Harris, Nevada’s former Democratic Lieutenant Governor Kate Marshall said Trump distances himself from issues when it’s convenient.
“When the man wants to get elected, he says, ‘I’m telling you I’m going to overturn Roe v. Wade,’ and when he gets the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, then he says, ‘Oh, well, you know it’s up to the states.’ I'm sorry, but you can’t trust a thing that comes out of that man’s mouth,” Marshall said.
According to CNN, at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration helped create it.
