In June of last year, I wrote a post about a particular section of The Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” that dealt with Deep State bureaucracy. “Project 2025” wasn’t on a lot of people’s radar then, but it certainly is now. The Left are scared of it, and Donald Trump is even distancing himself from it. (Though it isn’t his plan, I think he is actually more aware of it than he admits publicly, because he wants to edge a bit toward the center in hopes of picking up more votes from people who usually vote Democrat.)

Someone on the Left has spread the following internet meme in order to scare those Democrats (and maybe some Republicans and Independents):

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Problem is, most claims in the meme are either outright lies or misleading half-truths. (I count 4 TRUEs and 1 MOSTLY TRUE, and I completely agree with the reasons given.) It’s amazing how easily Democrats and other anti-Trumpers seem to be buying into this blatant misrepresentation, though. In response, Heritage has published the following corrective on X:

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MYTHS VS. FACTS ABOUT PROJECT 2025

We are not affiliated with former President Trump. We are a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups advocating policy and personnel recommendations.

1. End no fault divorce: FALSE

Divorce is not mentioned in our policy handbook, Mandate for Leadership.

2. Complete ban on abortions without exceptions: FALSE

Mandate for Leadership calls for the government to comply with laws that prevent federal funding of abortion. It also calls for federal support for alternatives to abortion, including adoption.

3. Ban contraceptives: FALSE

Mandate for Leadership says nothing about banning or restricting contraception.

4. Additional tax breaks for corporations and the 1%: MISLEADING

Mandate for Leadership calls for LOWER taxes for ALL Americans, to stimulate economic growth and put more money in Americans’ pockets.

5. Higher taxes for the working class: FALSE

Mandate for Leadership calls for LOWER taxes for ALL Americans. Individuals spend their money in more productive ways than the government does.

6. Elimination of unions and worker protections: FALSE

Mandate for Leadership presents different ideas about a conservative labor policy. It calls for combatting the excesses of the Deep State’s bloated federal employee unions, which have ensured that federal employees keep their jobs even if they engage in illegal behavior or perform their jobs poorly.

7. Raise the retirement age: FALSE

Raising the retirement age is nowhere advocated in Mandate for Leadership.

8. Cut Social Security: FALSE

Mandate for Leadership does not advocate cutting Social Security.

9. End Affordable Care Act: FALSE

Mandate for Leadership offers policy suggestions to curb the abuses of the Affordable Care Act.

10. Raise prescription drug prices: FALSE

Mandate for Leadership offers proposals to lower drug prices through competition and innovation.

11. Eliminate the Department of Education: TRUE

Mandate for Leadership calls for an end to the Department of Education. Since the Department was created, educational outcomes have not improved, and the American school system has increasingly fallen behind other countries. Giving more control back to state and local governments and expanding school choice would improve education outcomes for all Americans, especially underprivileged communities. Some functions of the Department would be moved to other departments including Labor, Justice, and Commerce.

12. Use public, taxpayer money for private religious schools: TRUE

Americans are able to use taxpayer money to choose where they shop for groceries, attain housing, and obtain higher education. Religious schools often outperform public schools, and families should have the choice to send their children to these schools.

13. Teach Christian religious beliefs in public schools: FALSE

Mandate for Leadership advocates for all educational opportunities, and for parental rights in education.

14. End free and discounted school lunch programs: FALSE

Mandate for Leadership advocates that the Food and Nutrition Service be moved from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Health and Human Services. Mandate condemns the Biden administration’s decision to threaten schools that do not comply with radical transgender policies by taking away their funding for school meals for needy students. Additionally, Mandate supports prioritizing school meal programs for those students who are truly needy, not creating an entitlement for almost all students regardless of family income levels.

15. End civil rights and DEI protections in government: MOSTLY FALSE

Mandate for Leadership calls for respecting the civil rights of all Americans, including those who have been censored by the government or had it weaponized against them. Mandate advocates for the end of divisive, race-based, anti-American propaganda in the federal workforce.

16. Ban African American and gender studies in all levels of education: FALSE

Mandate for Leadership does not mention African American studies or gender studies.

17. Ban books and curriculum about slavery: FALSE

Mandate for Leadership does not advocate for banning books or curriculum about slavery.

18. Ending climate protections: FALSE

Mandate for Leadership advocates policies that will produce economic growth through abundant, affordable energy. Farmers, hunters, and fishers know how to protect our environment better than D.C. bureaucrats. The Biden administration’s relentless focus on climate has made America less competitive and wasted crucial taxpayer dollars.

19. Increase Arctic drilling: TRUE

The Arctic is of immense strategic importance to America. Mandate for Leadership advocates a strong pursuit of American interests in the region, through economic freedom, through ensuring free and open shipping lanes, and through the development of the vast energy resources of the Arctic.

20. Deregulate big business and the oil industry: MOSTLY TRUE

America needs energy that is plentiful and affordable. Mandate for Leadership calls for an all-of-the-above energy policy that would promote the development of our domestic energy supply, and for fewer burdensome regulations for ALL businesses.

21. Promote and expedite capital punishment: TRUE

The appropriateness of capital punishment divides Americans, and conservatives, of good will. Mandate for Leadership calls for the enforcement of the federal death penalty where appropriate and applicable, and recommends a future presidential administration pursue the death penalty for the most heinous crimes, including those involving violence and the sexual abuse of children, unless Congress says otherwise through legislation.

22. End marriage equality: FALSE

The legal recognition of same-sex marriage is not discussed in Mandate for Leadership. Mandate calls for the protection of faith-based grant recipients who maintain support for the traditional definition of marriage. Mandate also supports conscience protections for those who do not wish to participate in same-sex marriages.

23. Condemn single mothers while promoting only “traditional families”: FALSE

Mandate suggests that a future HHS Secretary replace the policies of the Biden administration that prioritize LGBTQ+ equality, subsidize single motherhood, disincentivize work, and penalize marriage with policies that instead encourage marriage, work, motherhood, fatherhood, and nuclear families.

24. Defund the FBI and Homeland Security: FALSE

Mandate for Leadership supports de-weaponizing the federal government, including the FBI. Mandate’s chapter on the Department of Homeland Security advocates the legislative creation of a standalone Cabinet-level agency with a focus on the border and immigration, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR), and the Office of Immigration Litigation (OIL). It also recommends that legislation be pursued to move other component parts of DHS to other agencies, including the Department of Transportation, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Treasury, and the FBI.

25. Use military to break up domestic protests: FALSE

The “protests” referenced in Mandate for Leadership are protests in Iran against its anti-American leadership; and protests of parents at school board meetings in opposition to critical race theory and COVID mandates. Both protests are referenced positively. Mandate also protests the FBI’s harassment of protesting parents and condemns the arrest by armed FBI agents of a man who had protested at an abortion clinic a year earlier.

26. Mass deportation of immigrants and incarceration in “camps”: MISLEADING

Mandate supports an orderly and lawful immigration system. It advocates that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Removal Operations be primarily responsible for enforcing civil immigration regulations, including the removal of those who have violated our immigration laws. It also calls for additional resources to put an end to President Biden’s border crisis and enforce immigration laws.

27. End birthright citizenship: FALSE

There is no mention of ending birthright citizenship in Mandate for Leadership.

28. Ban Muslims from entering the country: FALSE

There is no mention of banning Muslims from entering the United States in Mandate for Leadership.

29. Eliminate federal agencies like the FDA, EPA, NOAA and more: FALSE

Mandate for Leadership’s plan would not eliminate the FDA or the EPA, and NOAA’s functions would be transferred to other agencies, the private sector, and states and territories.

30. Continue to pack the Supreme Court and lower courts with right-wing judges: FALSE

The only people calling for packing the judiciary are those on the Left, who do it every time the Supreme Court or a lower court makes decisions they don’t like.

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If you check closely, you will notice that the “Cut Medicare” claim from the meme (9th one down) is not addressed in Heritage’s response. Not sure why. In any case, I did a quick search on “medicare” in the Mandate document and it is indeed discussed on several pages. In short (p.463), “Medicare should be reformed according to four goals and principles:” 1) Increase Medicare beneficiaries’ control of their health care. 2) Reduce regulatory burdens on doctors. 3) Ensure sustainability and value for beneficiaries and taxpayers. 4) Reduce waste, fraud, and abuse. I’ll leave it to those who have the time and inclination to study the whole section to determine if the meme’s claim is FALSE, MOSTLY FALSE, MISLEADING, MOSTLY TRUE, or TRUE.

If you see people using the above meme as a scaremongering tactic, please share the link to this post or to Heritage’s post on X here.

If you want to download the full Mandate for Leadership policy handbook or just check out any chapters in particular, go here.

Tags: correcting meme claims, Democrat claims proven false, Donald Trump, GOP, lies and misinformation, Mandate for Leadership, Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation

Posted in Politics
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