If Trump wins re-election, no one in America should be surprised by what comes next.
The plan is spelled out in a 920-page manifesto known as Project 2025.
The manifesto makes clear that, given a second chance, Republicans won't let Trump's incompetence and corruption prevent them from transforming their highly detailed Christo-fascist vision board into a terrifying new reality.
One person doing her level best to make sure you won't be surprised if Project 2025 does become reality is Andra Watkins.
Andra is a self-described survivor of Christian Nationalism and the author of the New York Times-bestselling memoir Not Without My Father: One Woman's 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace.
She recently launched the Substack newsletter How Project 2025 Will Ruin YOUR Life.
Fresh from her guest appearance on @LOLGOP's fantastic How Are You Feeling About Democracy? podcast, I invited Andra to participate in an email Q&A:
Q&A with Andra Watkins
What is Project 2025? And how will it ruin my life?
Project 2025 is a 920-page Christo-fascist manifesto sponsored by the far-right Heritage Foundation. It is a Republican plan to transform our federal government from a democracy to a theocracy. Because I grew up in a Christian Nationalist church and school, I translate the Christo-fascist language in P2025 and explain how it will ruin lives at my Substack, How Project 2025 Will Ruin YOUR Life.
It’s been said that Project 2025 puts the Bible above the Constitution. How true is that? And how dangerous is that?
It is true that Project 2025 puts the Bible above the Constitution. Christian Nationalists believe the Bible is God's infallible law, superior to human law. They believe God calls them to overturn laws that violate their interpretation of the Bible, God's law, and replace them with laws that adhere to God's law. It will apply the Christian Nationalist interpretation of the Bible to secular laws, requiring everyone to practice the Christian Nationalist version of Christianity whether one believes it or not.
Abortion bans are an example. Christian Nationalists believe the Bible says life begins at fertilization; anything that interferes with implantation is murder. They don't care that many other Christians don't even interpret the Bible that way. In their world, Christian Nationalists are right; everyone else is wrong. Forcing the majority to live by the minority's rules is the very definition of fascism. One needs to look at countries like Afghanistan or Iran to understand how dangerous that is.
How much of this nearly 1,000-page plan is designed to appeal to Trump’s dictator fantasies?
Project 2025 is written for the next conservative President. It isn't written specifically for 45. (I don't speak or type his name.) He's a convenient tool, because he doesn't care what they do as long as his narcissism is fed.
For background, The Heritage Foundation published their first version of P2025 in 1979. They've published one every 4 years since then. Whenever a Republican President adopted their policy recommendations, they moved the next edition further to the right. Project 2025 is the culmination of over 4 decades of work to capture state houses, to gerrymander, to suppress voting rights, to corrupt the judiciary. It is their far-right Christo-fascist vision for America. They will keep trying to implement this vision no matter what happens to 45.
Beyond a national abortion ban, how will Project 2025 affect issues like marriage, divorce, and contraception?
Christian Nationalists believe the Bible defines the family as one man married to one unrelated woman with as many children as God gives them. It is the only definition of family they acknowledge. Marriage is a holy covenant between God, the man, and the woman.
Obviously, this means the right to same-sex marriage would be rolled back, because it violates their definition of marriage and the family. But what about heterosexual divorce? Because they believe marriage is a holy covenant with God, I believe they won't stop with outlawing no-fault divorce; I think they will make ALL divorce next-to-impossible to obtain. They want to force people to stay married, because a holy covenant with God isn't something two people can break when life gets hard or the couple doesn't like each other anymore.
I also believe they will outlaw all contraception because they believe anything that interferes with conception is playing God. Pregnancy is a gift from God, something God decides to bestow or not. Contraception interferes with God's process, as does IVF. In the latter case, if God isn't giving a couple a baby, he must have a reason. They believe the couple should accept God's reason instead of using IVF to get pregnant.
They also teach that all contraception induces abortions. For example, my mom wouldn't let me take hormonal birth control for monthly cramps when I was a teenager. She told me hormonal birth control caused abortions. The anti-science lie that all contraception causes abortions exists to trick people into not interfering with "God's will" regarding pregnancy.
They also have a plan to “ban porn.” But how expansive will that plan be?
Judging by the current anti-pornography bill proposed by a Christo-fascist Republican in Oklahoma, their porn ban will be expansive. Most Americans don't realize that everything is porn to Christian Nationalists. If it makes Mike Johnson think about sex, it is porn. Most art is pornographic because of nudity. We've seen that play out in Florida with the ban on images of Michelangelo's David. Sexual situations and touching between one man and one woman who aren't married is porn. Homosexuality and transgenderism are porn. Masturbation is porn. Erotic novels and many romance novels are porn. Films with sex scenes — even PG or PG-13 rated — would be porn. An image of a woman in a swimsuit would be porn. Their goal is to reduce sex to something that happens between one man and one woman for the first time on their wedding night, and thereafter only for procreation. Sex should never be for pleasure.
People in Red States already see it happening. People in Blue States can’t imagine it will ever happen there. How will this unfold nationally and how will Trump and Christo-Fascists crush resistance along the way?
Project 2025 calls for them to be "ready to roll from the words 'so help me God'" on Inauguration Day 2025. So let's imagine 45 becomes 47. They will have at least 100 executive orders drafted for him to sign immediately after the Inauguration. These executive orders will abolish guardrails that impeded them during 45's last term. They will then fire career civil servants and replace them with yes-people they're already vetting. (One can go to Project 2025's website to see their call for recruits.) They will invoke the Insurrection Act and turn the military on demonstrators. I have no doubt protestors will die, but that show of force will also scare many Americans into compliance. Project 2025 also calls for the withholding of federal funds if blue states refuse to comply with federal directives. So for example, if California refuses to go along with a Christo-fascist national abortion ban, this administration will say, "Fine. That $116 billion in federal funding you get every year? We're not giving it to you." They will decimate blue states by withholding federal dollars to force them to fall in line.
Where to find Andra Watkins
- On Substack: "How Project 2025 Will Ruin YOUR Life"
- On Instagram: @andrawatkins
- On LinkedIn: @andrawatkins
- On the web: andrawatkins.com
Report a Project 2025 incident in your area at the "Not on Our Watch" Survey, a collaboration between Andra Watkins, The Democracy Labs, and Stop the Coup 2025.
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