Another plan for Trump’s second term could be worse than Project 2025

Project 2025 may be deeply connected to Donald Trump, but it’s not the only authoritarian agenda in town. There’s another that’s been written almost entirely by members of Trump’s former administration, and it’s just as bad as Project 2025 in its own special way.

It comes from the America First Policy Institute, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that legally cannot support a candidate for office. However, Trump’s Save America PAC has donated to it, and he has hosted fundraisers for it at Mar-a-Lago. AFPI also champions 2020 election denialism and is representing a Georgia official who wants the power to refuse to certify election results. And Trump tapped AFPI’s board chair, Linda McMahon, to co-lead his transition team. So it’s nonpartisan in the same way that Trump filming a campaign video at Arlington National Cemetery was respectful.

The AFPI plan doesn’t supersede Project 2025. It’s more of a partnership. While the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 focuses a good deal on new policies and on purging the federal government and populating its ranks with Trump loyalists, this plan is dedicated to crushing regulations and executive orders to swiftly erase just about everything that President Joe Biden has accomplished.