By Geoffrey Lawrence, author of Societal Deception: Global Social Issues in Post-Truth Times

We live in a post-truth world where lies, misinformation, and disinformation are rife in the print, television and streaming media. And it is US-based right-wing think tanks which are fuelling voter distrust while, at the same time, promoting a far-right future for US citizens. Some want to loosen child labour laws (the Foundation for Government Accountability), dismantle unions (Donors Trust), privatise state assets (The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation), reduce women’s workplace benefits (Cato Institute), cut corporate tax levels (American Enterprise Institute), control university curricula (Manhattan Institute) and cut back on environmental protections (Heritage Foundation).

They employ disinformation on a regular basis. For example, one think tank has recently claimed that large numbers of non-citizens—foreigners living and working in the US, but who are ineligible to vote—are illegally registering to swing the vote towards the Democrats in the forthcoming presidential election. It claims that some 47,000 noncitizens would be voting in Georgia, alone—something labelled as ‘ludicrous’ and ‘manufactured’ by the Brennan Center for Justice. But such disinformation fuels public doubt about the legitimacy of the US voting system and highlights the supposed unscrupulousness of ‘illegals’.

Americans are then told what they can do about it. This is where Project 2025 comes in. It is a blueprint for right-wing, authoritarian rule under a forthcoming Republican (read: ‘Trump’) administration. To stamp out illegal voting it recommends major restrictions on immigration to the US. Removing the Temporary Protected Status of workers in the US would see the deportation of up to seven hundred thousand people. And it would also impact the estimated 12 million people on Green Cards.

What else might be in store from Project 2025? At least five areas should trouble liberal-thinking Americans. It recommends the restoration of a Schedule F executive order. Any civil servant who shows disloyalty to the President can be fired on the spot. Trump already has a strong taste for this—recall his actions on the celebrity TV show The Apprentice along with the many departures from his administration during his first term in office. He will sack those displaying any disloyalty and replace them with ‘Make America Great Again’ lackeys. Up to 50,000 bureaucrats could be summarily dismissed, with no recourse to protection or legal intervention.

Reproductive rights of women—already wound back following the reversal of Roe v Wade—will take another hit. Federal funding will be withdrawn from clinics providing contraception and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. The abortion pill will be withdrawn, and the very word ‘abortion’ will be removed from government statutes and regulations. Medicaid will be restructured so that penalties will apply to groups supporting planned parenthood.

LGBTQIA+ rights will be severely curtailed. Project 2025 considers that the Department of Health and Human Services has been involved in ‘woke transgender activism’ and wants this stopped. The next Secretary will be charged with eliminating current rules allowing parents and doctors to approve gender reassignment of minors.

Action on climate change will be revoked. Federal agencies pursing renewable energy strategies will have their funding cut. The Environmental Protection Agency—which Trump had attacked during his first administration—will again come under fire. This time, staff numbers will be reduced, and the environmental justice department eliminated. Trump is on record for claiming on the first day of any new presidency he would ‘drill, baby, drill’. It will be of no surprise to learn that many of the right-wing think tanks are backed billionaire oil magnates who want to see the Arctic targeted for new oil and gas wells. Members of these think tanks deny that climate change is happening.

Project 2025 considers ‘the Federal Department of Education should be eliminated’. Why, might you ask? Because government officials and teachers’ unions have undue influence over curricula, forcing students to endure seditious ‘left-of-centre’ ideas. With the Department of Education gone, a diversity of new schools will emerge. Parents will have vouchers to choose the type of education they want their children to receive—including more ‘faith-based’ institutions, presumably teaching creationism.

Trump has said he knows nothing about Project 2025. But he has been known to lie. (The Washington Post put Trump’s false and misleading claims at 30,573 during the four years of his presidency.) Over 140 people who worked closely with the first Trump administration have been involved in the Project.

The American ruling class has had enough. It will no longer tolerate the policies of a liberal democracy. Project 2025 hopes to strengthen the ideas cherished by conservatives. These include Christian fundamentalism, the nuclear family, small government, and the freedom of the wealthy to make money in any way they see fit—no matter the consequences for the poor and vulnerable, the environment, or the climate. The American public is being deceived by Project 2025. It is designed to take the US back to some imagined golden time of God-given stability and prosperity—one that has never existed.

Social science is crucial in exposing lengths to which the rich and powerful will go to in furthering their financial benefits. Social science is also crucial in examining alternatives to anti-democratic, illiberal, political policies and practices.

Trump and Harris are now neck-and-neck in the presidential race. If Trump gets back in, he will have at his fingertips a blueprint for disaster—Project 2025.

Geoffrey Lawrence is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at The University of Queensland, Australia, and author of Societal Deception: Global Social Issues in Post-Truth Times (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024).