Project 2025: Trump’s New Age of Christian Nationalism?

Trump is often relegated to the ambiguous category of “right-wing populist.” This, of course, does not really reveal much in terms of ideology. It doesn’t tell us anything about their views, apart from, perhaps, the fact that they may be broadly aligned with social conservatism.

Nonetheless, some did attempt to neatly square Trump into a particular political family, i.e., that of Christian nationalism.

For example, Robert P. Jones, an academic specializing in questions related to religion and politics, wrote a few months back in an article published in TIME Magazine:

The beating heart of the speech was the projection of a white Christian nationalist vision. Trump told the enthusiastic crowd—many of whom sported red hats emblazoned with the words “Make America Pray Again”—that he knew they were “under siege.” He declared that one of his first acts of his second term would be to set up a task force to root out “anti-Christian bias” and pledged to protect “pro-God context and content.” He received spontaneous applause for vows to promote school vouchers for private Christian schools and seal the United States’ southern border against “an illegal alien invasion by the world’s most sadistic criminals and savage gangs.”

Unsurprisingly, Trump is not the first significant figure in the political history of America to have been accused of deploying a “white Christian nationalist vision.” Not too long ago, African-American Lerone Martin released a book about how J. Edgar Hoover—the first Director of the FBI (serving from 1935 to 1972) and someone who was instrumental in transforming it into a potent force of internal security by means of technology—was also a proponent of a “white Christian nationalist vision.”

Christian nationalism is usually defined as the idea that Christian values should influence society when it comes to politics, economics, and social issues (such as abortion).

Christian nationalism is a notable force within American society, particularly so among Trump supporters. In its 2023 findings, the Public Religion Research Institute delineates Christian nationalist support as follows:

Three in ten Americans qualify as Christian nationalism Adherents (10%) or Sympathizers (20%) […] among those who hold favorable views of Trump, 55% qualify as Christian nationalists (21% Adherents and 34% Sympathizers).

We thus see that around a third of all Americans subscribe to or are sympathetic to some form of Christian nationalism. However, among Trump supporters in particular, this number shoots up to more than half. Tens of millions from the American population therefore support Christian nationalism as an ideology, with the focal demographics fueling “Trumpism.”

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A few years ago, it was suggested that it was the alt-right which made up the base of Trumpism, but a 2020 research article found out that only 10% of Trump supporters consider themselves to be ideologically close to the alt-right. So, instead, we could consider Christian nationalism as being almost-synonymous, in terms of ideology, with Trumpism—independently, of course, of the personal faith of Donald Trump himself. (In 2020, Pew Research found that, aside from the White Evangelicals, among every other religious demographic, less than half considered Trump to be “religious,” with the lowest numbers being found among Black Protestants, where only 14% considered Trump to be “religious.”)

But will Trump actually implement a “Christian nationalist” agenda?

In order to get any closer to answering this question, we must take a look at the so-called “Project 2025,” a set of policy recommendations put forward by The Heritage Foundation (a conservative think tank that initially gained prominence during the presidency of Ronald Reagan).

The “About Project 2025” page on the official website states:

The actions of liberal politicians in Washington have created a desperate need and unique opportunity for conservatives to start undoing the damage the Left has wrought and build a better country for all Americans in 2025.

 

It is not enough for conservatives to win elections. If we are going to rescue the country from the grip of the radical Left, we need both a governing agenda and the right people in place, ready to carry this agenda out on day one of the next conservative administration.

 

This is the goal of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project. The project will build on four pillars that will, collectively, pave the way for an effective conservative administration: a policy agenda, personnel, training, and a 180-day playbook.

 

The project is the effort of a broad coalition of conservative organizations that have come together to ensure a successful administration begins in January 2025. With the right conservative policy recommendations and properly vetted and trained personnel to implement them, we will take back our government.

In the legacy media, journalists have noted that many individuals associated with the project, such as authors, advisors, etc., have entertained close links with Trump. It has even been spun as some sort of huge conspiracy theory, i.e., that of (White) Christian nationalists plotting to reverse the left-liberalization of the United States.

Trump had initially distanced himself from the manifesto, denying any association whatsoever, including during the recent presidential campaign where he stated explicitly that he had “nothing to do with Project 2025.”

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Yet, as we read in an article published in The New York Times just a few days ago, he seems to have shifted gears and may now actually be ready to embrace it all:

During the campaign, President-elect Donald J. Trump swore he had “nothing to do with” a right-wing policy blueprint known as Project 2025 that would overhaul the federal government, even though many of those involved in developing the plans were his allies.

 

Mr. Trump even described many of the policy goals as “absolutely ridiculous.” And during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, he said he was “not going to read it.”

 

Now, as he plans his agenda for his return to the White House, Mr. Trump has recruited at least a half dozen architects and supporters of the plan to oversee key issues, including the federal budget, intelligence gathering and his promised plans for mass deportations. The shift, his critics say, is not exactly a surprise. Mr. Trump disavowed the 900-page manifesto when polls showed it was extremely unpopular with voters. Now that he has won a second term, they say, he appears to be brushing those concerns aside.

 

“President-elect Trump has dropped all pretense and is charging ahead hand in hand with the right-wing industry players shaping an agenda he denied for the whole campaign,” said Tony Carrk, the executive director of Accountable.US, a watchdog group that has been tracking Mr. Trump’s cabinet picks with ties to the project.

But what exactly is Project 2025?

In her critical assessment, Maura Casey describes it as a “blueprint for Christian nationalist regime change,” highlighting how it aims to review American policies surrounding LGBTQ+ and critical race theory identity politics, as well as how it wants to reevaluate the place of women within the country, especially pertaining to their roles as wives and mothers. The author also expresses her alarm at how “laws” and “whole agencies” would be abolished. Ultimately, the author considers it to be an American adaptation of the policies of Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán.

For those who can’t be bothered to read through the hundreds of pages from the actual report, the official website provides a “fact check” of some of the policy recommendations.

For example, it mentions regarding pornography: