- Philippines challenges China over South China Sea at ASEAN meet
- Mets advance on Lindor blast, Dodgers stay alive in MLB playoffs
- Injury-ravaged Krygios aiming to return at Australian Open
- Greek international Baldock, dead at 31: family
- EU talks deportation hubs to stem migration
- Deaths and repression sideline Suu Kyi's party ahead of Myanmar vote
- S. Africa offers a lesson on how not to shut down a coal plant
- China opens $71 bn 'swap facility' to boost markets
- Mets advance on Lindor grand slam, Yankees and Tigers win
- Taiwan President Lai vows to 'resist annexation' of island
- China's solar goes from supremacy to oversupply
- Asian markets track Wall St record as Hong Kong, Shanghai stabilise
- 'Denying my potential': women at Japan's top university call out gender imbalance
- China's central bank says opens up $70.6 bn in liquidity to boost market
- Zelensky on whirlwind tour of Europe ahead of US vote
- Youth facing unprecedented wave of violence, UN envoy warns
- 'A casino in every kitchen': Brazil's online gambling craze
- Nobel chemistry winner sees engineered proteins solving tough problems
- Lindor powers Mets past Phillies into NL Championship Series
- Wildlife populations plunge 73% since 1970: WWF
- 'Sleeper agent' bots on X fuel US election misinformation, study says
- Death toll rises to 109 after Haiti gang attack, official says
- Tigers beat Guardians and on brink of advancing in MLB playoffs
- Argentina MPs back Milei's veto of university funding
- Man City sink Barca in Women's Champions League as Bayern outgun Arsenal
- Greek international Baldock, 31, found dead in pool: state agency
- Florida seaside haven a ghost town as hurricane nears
- Pharrell Williams to co-chair Met Gala exploring Black dandyism
- Wall Street indices hit fresh records as Chinese shares tumble
- Taiwan's president to deliver key speech for National Day
- Sea row on the menu as ASEAN leaders meet China's Li
- Injured Kane won't start England's Nations League clash with Greece
- Discord seen as online home for renegades
- US forecasts severe solar storm starting Thursday
- Mozambique starts tallying votes in tense election
- Zelensky moves to court European leaders in drive for military aid
- Ratan Tata: Indian mogul who built a global powerhouse
- Rodgers rejects 'false' suggestions of role in Saleh dismissal
- One dead as storm Kirk tears through Spain, Portugal, France
- Indian business titan Ratan Tata dead at 86
- Lebanon facing 'catastrophic' situation as 600,000 displaced: UN
- US warns Israel not to repeat Gaza destruction in Lebanon
- Musk's X returns in Brazil after 40-day showdown with judge
- Call her savvy? Harris unleashes unconventional media blitz
- Lucian Freud 'masterpiece' fetches £13.9 million at London sale
- SoFi Stadium to hold next two CONCACAF Nations League finals
- McIlroy and DeChambeau set for PGA-LIV 'Showdown' in Vegas
- Fed minutes highlight divisions over rate cut decision
- Steve McQueen debuts new WWII film at London festival
- Run blitz edges India and South Africa closer to World Cup semi-finals
Project 2025: critics decry 'terrifying' agenda for Trump
As Republicans approved their policy platform at the party's national convention, a more radical shadow manifesto led by figures close to Donald Trump has raised fears for the future of American democracy.
Project 2025 -- a sweeping blueprint from the hard-right Heritage Foundation to remake the federal government in Trump's image -- has been characterized by opponents as an authoritarian, right-wing wish list.
Its 887-page "Mandate for Leadership" sets out how to replace thousands of federal workers with ultra-conservative loyalists should Trump prevail against Democratic President Joe Biden in November.
It calls for a makeover of almost every function of the federal government, reshaping its numerous agencies to centralize power in the White House and push policy to the right on everything from abortion to immigration.
"We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the Left allows it to be," Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts said in early July, adding: "We're in the process of taking this country back."
He gave his comments after a bombshell Supreme Court ruling that the president can break any and every law in the course of their official duties without fear of prosecution.
In spite of this, Trump has sought to distance himself from Project 2025, claiming to "know nothing" about the project or the figures behind it, as Roberts' remarks provoked a firestorm of outrage.
"I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, and, unlike our very well received Republican Platform, had nothing to do with it," he posted on Truth Social.
The official platform ratified at the Milwaukee convention is less conservative than Project 2025 in several areas, including abortion and entitlements.
But many of the more extreme proposals in the Heritage Foundation handbook are indistinguishable from Trump's remarks at his rallies and his own video statements on his Agenda 47 website.
- Biden pushes back -
Like Project 2025, Trump makes dark claims about retaliating on a federal government he baselessly says is "weaponized" against conservatives.
The plan also envisages the mass arrest and deportation of undocumented migrants -- a pledge Trump makes at almost every rally -- restricting asylum claims and completing the Mexico border wall.
The former president lauded the effort at a Heritage Foundation dinner in April 2022, previewing that it would be laying the groundwork "for exactly what our movement will do" in a second term.
Biden has made the roadmap a centerpiece of his campaign, accusing Trump of trying to hide his connections to the project and claiming it should "scare" every voter.
His Democrats point to numerous members of Trump's inner circle who have been linked to the handbook or helped craft it, from long-time senior aide Stephen Miller to former cabinet figures Ben Carson and Christopher Miller.
Meanwhile, Project 2025 has been vetting thousands of potential applicants to replace current government employees when the next Republican president takes office.
- A deep state 'hoax'? -
Many of the proposals that have alarmed liberals the most center around reproductive rights, including calls for ramped up "abortion surveillance" by state governments, a ban on abortion pill mifepristone and limits to emergency contraception.
On the environment, Project 2025 would reverse much of Biden's actions on man-made climate change, ending clean energy progams, dialing back emissions regulations and pushing for more aggressive exploitation of fossil fuels.
Control of policy would be centralized in the White House, after the abolition of the departments of Education and Homeland Security.
The Heritage Foundation countered Democratic criticism of Project 2025 at its day-long "Policy Fest" in Milwaukee, with speakers calling the liberal characterization "misinformation" and a "hoax" and accusing progressives of seeking to prop up the anti-conservative "deep state."
"This fourth illicit (government) branch, this administrative state, is really what we're going after," executive director Paul Dans told the audience at Monday's event.
"This idea of checks and balances on the president within his own branch of government is completely antithetical to the structure of the presidency."
But the Democratic National Committee pushed back with more than a dozen billboards across Milwaukee targeting Trump and his just-announced running mate J.D. Vance for "their terrifying Project 2025 agenda."
The party held a press conference in the city on Tuesday with America's largest union federation, the AFL-CIO, which said the project demonstrated Trump's intention to "pick up right where he left off: dissolving unions, gutting worker protections and defunding whole parts of the government people rely on."
P.Stevenson--AMWN