Trump comes to the Republican convention as the absolute leader and with a program in his own image and likeness USA elections

While President Joe Biden tries to dispel doubts about his candidacy, his campaign launched an apparently cryptic message on social media this week: “Google Project 2025.” This is the name of the Republicans’ alleged hidden agenda, the master plan that aims to review the executive branch and dismantle the federal administration if Donald Trump is re-elected president. But Trump, 78, …

While President Joe Biden tried to dispel doubts about his candidacy, his campaign launched an apparently cryptic message on social media this week: “Google Project 2025.” That’s the name of the Republicans’ alleged hidden agenda, the master plan that aims to review the executive branch and dismantle the federal administration if Donald Trump is re-elected president. But Trump, 78, got a reprieve from the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity — and the resulting delay in sentencing Stormy Daniels case-, comes to light with the baggage for the Republican Party’s national convention, which is being held in Milwaukee between this Monday, July 15, and Thursday, July 18. Compared to the 900 pages of Project 2025, 16 pages of the party’s electoral program are enough for Trump, with only 20 points and made in his image and likeness. Trump, who this Saturday had to be escorted out of a rally in Butler (Pennsylvania) after an alleged attack, is the leader who has shaped the program, not the other way around; something particularly notable in two issues: immigration and abortion. His coronation as a candidate, on Thursday, will also be the grave of some critical voices, if there are any left among them.

Though Democrats insist on linking them, the former president has done everything possible to distance himself from Project 2025, the vanguard of a “second American revolution.” think tank The ultraconservative Heritage Foundation, because its radicalism could alienate the undecided or independent people who will determine the outcome in November and for whom both parties fight. For this reason, the program adopted this Monday by the Republican Party is based on the issue of abortion, which it has been defending since 2022, when the Supreme Court abolished this right, one of the main electoral assets of the Democrats.

The official Republican program, dedicated “to the forgotten men and women of the United States,” will be approved this Monday, the first day of the convention. It closely follows Trump’s position that voluntary termination of pregnancy is a matter for the states, not Washington, and no longer mentions federal restrictions or protection of fetuses under the Constitution, aspects that were included in the 2016 and 2020 programs. Influential evangelicals.

The platform, which is not binding, also promises the construction of an anti-missile defense shield over the United States and the “largest deportation in history” of irregular immigrants from the country. If he wins in November, the tax cuts of his previous presidency will become permanent, in addition to a “tax cut for workers,” a novelty (the tax policy of his presidency favored the highest incomes and companies). Among the 20 points of the program, spelled out in threatening capital letters in the leaked document, is a declaration of war on foreign drug cartels, a proposal to “deport pro-Hamas radicals so that our campuses can once again be safe and patriotic” (point 18, in reference to the mobilization of the Great University in solidarity with Gaza) and also that public money be used to pay tuition for private schools.

In the area of ​​education, the Republican program dives even deeper into the trenches of the culture wars, with points like “cutting federal funding from any school that promotes critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content to our children.” The next point, number 17, ensures that eventually the Republican administration will “keep (trans) men out of women’s sports.”

Fight against irregular migration

Republicans will present at the convention this week the Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, the natural choice in case President Joe Biden leaves the race, as the “Queen of the Border” – the task entrusted to her in 2021 – but in a derogatory tone, to denounce her alleged incompetence. Because even above the economy (with vague proposals like “end inflation and make America affordable again”, point 3), the fight against irregular immigration, which echoes Trump’s message, is the key to the vault of the program from the first two points: “Seal the border and stop the migrant invasion” and “Carry out the largest deportation in the history of the United States.” He also associates foreigners with violence: “Stop the migrant crime epidemic, dismantle foreign drug cartels, crush gang violence, and lock up violent criminals.” Again, it is Trump’s words that resonate above the party.

Foreign policy is resolved into a vague mixed bag: “Prevent World War III, restore peace in Europe and the Middle East, and build a great iron dome of anti-missile defense around our entire country, all made in America.” As he promised in the June 27 debate against Biden, the Republican also wants to end the war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza with the stroke of a pen, but the real resonance of the program is the self-absorption of autocracy and isolationism that characterized his presidency (2017-2021).

“The Second American Revolution”

Although this program is Officerwhich will be adopted by the conference, suspicions about the possibility that Project 2025 is Trump’s hidden agenda if he returns to the White House are relevant to many. First of all, because the Heritage Foundation is a think tank That has shaped the policies and teams of Republican administrations since Ronald Reagan was president in the 1980s. Moreover, the project is largely crafted by former Trump advisers who could return to office if they don’t smile on the Democrats in November.

Despite this clear background, the candidate insists on distancing himself from this parallel agenda out of pure electoral calculation, keeping undecided and independent voters in mind. “I don’t know anything about Project 2025,” he wrote in Truth Social. “I don’t know who’s behind it. I don’t agree with some of their points and some of the things they are saying are absolutely ridiculous and disgusting. (In) whatever they do, I wish them the best of luck, but I have nothing to do with them.” Project 2025’s objectives include eliminating the rights of the LGBTI+ community and the spread of Christianity in society, but also, as a sap function aided by some recent Supreme Court decisions – which contradict environmental regulation agencies, for example, expand the powers of the president and reform the federal administration so that career officials are replaced by loyal ones.

The Heritage Foundation’s combative pronouncements suggest that Project 2025 will be a wedge between Republicans. Its president celebrated the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity with the following message on X (formerly Twitter): “We are in the process of a second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the Left allows it.” The echo of the violent attack on the Capitol, which Trump harped on, is nowhere clearer in the statement. And to warm up the engines, the ultraconservative group has spread the idea that Biden will resort to force to remain in the White House if he loses. Thus promoting the same false allegations of electoral fraud that fueled Trump’s efforts to stay in office, including the Capitol riot, and inverting the narrative about which candidate poses the greatest threat to the country’s democratic traditions (in stark contrast, of course, to Biden’s efforts to defend a threatened democracy).

The ultra-conservative premise has also been dropped that they might try to take over the White House “by force” if incumbent President Biden loses in November, a claim that Democrats flatly rejected Thursday. But the truth is that, in a clear display of power, as if this week’s convention were a call not from the party but from the Heritage Foundation, large signs hanging at the Milwaukee airport inform new arrivals: “Heritage welcomes you to the Republican National Convention.”

A convicted criminal but so far untainted, Trump is preparing to become emperor. Just a few months ago he faced a bleak prospect: accepting his party’s nomination with certain conviction and perhaps eventual punishment. Thanks to the Supreme Court. Stormy Daniels case has been postponed until September. Whoever appears in Milwaukee will be an exempt Trump with a light backpack. And if possible more daring, if the situation, which is inherent in his person, allows the degree: his team of lawyers urged the judge Stormy Daniels case to quash his conviction in the light of the Supreme Court’s decision. Truce There are serious doubts about Biden’s candidacy. Trump seems to have only the red carpet left.

Follow all the information about the elections in the United States Our weekly newsletter,