Chuck Darwin<p>Project 2025, the sweeping right-wing blueprint for a new kind of U.S. presidency, <br>would ♦️sabotage science-based policies♦️ that address <br>climate change, <br>the environment, <br>abortion, <br>health care access, <br>technology and <br>education. </p><p>It would impose <a href="https://c.im/tags/religious" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>religious</span></a> and <a href="https://c.im/tags/conservative" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>conservative</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/ideology" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ideology</span></a> on the federal civil service <br>to such an extent that Republican presidential candidate Donald <a href="https://c.im/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Trump</span></a> has, dubiously, <br>tried to distance himself from the plan. </p><p>But in 2022 Trump said the Heritage Foundation<br>—the think tank that authored Project 2025<br>—would “lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do.” </p><p>The project’s main document, a lengthy policy agenda, was published the following year.<br>Although Trump is not among its 34 authors, more than half are appointees and staff from his time as president; <br>the words “Trump” and “Trump Administration” appear 300 times in its pages. </p><p>At least 140 former Trump officials are involved in Project 2025, according to a CNN tally. <br>It’s reasonable to expect that a second Trump presidency would follow many of the project’s recommendations.</p><p>Project 2025 presents a long-standing conservative vision of a <a href="https://c.im/tags/smaller" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>smaller</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/government" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>government</span></a><br> and describes specific, detailed steps to achieve this goal.<br> It would shrink some federal departments and agencies while <a href="https://c.im/tags/eliminating" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>eliminating</span></a> others</p><p>—<a href="https://c.im/tags/dividing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>dividing</span></a> the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into two weaker entities, for instance, <br>and <a href="https://c.im/tags/abolishing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>abolishing</span></a> the Department of Education (ED) entirely.</p><p>What is even more unusual, and also mapped out in detail, is a plan to exert more <a href="https://c.im/tags/presidential" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>presidential</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/control" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>control</span></a> over traditionally nonpartisan governmental workers<br>—those Trump might describe as members of the “deep state,” <br>or regulatory bureaucracy. </p><p>For example, Project 2025 claims that the the "National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration" <br>and other scientific institutions are <br>“vulnerable to obstructionism” <br>unless appointees at these agencies are<br> “wholly in sync” with presidential policy. </p><p>To that end, it would <a href="https://c.im/tags/reclassify" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>reclassify</span></a> tens of thousands of civil service jobs as political positions that answer to the president.</p><p>🔥“The independence of science is being attacked across the board in this document,” says Rachel Cleetus, <br>policy director of the Climate and Energy program at the nonpartisan Union of Concerned Scientists.</p><p> “The importance of this science is that’s how we can ensure people’s health and the environment are being safeguarded.” </p><p>(Cleetus notes that her comments address the policy agenda’s contents, not the upcoming presidential election.)</p><p>Career scientists who are now employed by the federal government are<br>💥 “terrified and polishing up their résumés,” says Jacqueline Simon, policy director of the "American Federation of Government Employees," or <a href="https://c.im/tags/AFGE" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>AFGE</span></a>, <br>a union that represents workers at the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the CDC and other agencies. </p><p>If Project 2025 becomes reality, she says, <br>❌“the very idea of scientific integrity will be flushed down the toilet.” </p><p>The Heritage Foundation did not respond to Scientific American’s request for comment.</p><p><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/project-2025-plan-for-trump-presidency-has-far-reaching-threats-to-science/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://www.</span><span class="ellipsis">scientificamerican.com/article</span><span class="invisible">/project-2025-plan-for-trump-presidency-has-far-reaching-threats-to-science/</span></a></p>