This article aims to demonstrate that Project 2025, or the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, developed by the Heritage Foundation, is an attempted neo-fascist coup d'état to benefit President Donald Trump. Project 2025 is an integrated and resource-rich architecture designed for the conquest of total power by the President of the Republic, that is, by Donald Trump. The initiative is based on the creation of policies (Master Plan), personnel recruitment (Personnel Database), ideological indoctrination (Management Academy), and an operational plan (First 180 Days Manual) to ensure the implementation of Donald Trump's neo-fascist power project with Project 2025. The successful implementation of Project 2025 could lead to the institutionalization of Donald Trump's absolute presidential control over the entire Executive Branch, effectively dismantling the institutional independence of police forces, financial regulatory bodies, public health agencies, and non-partisan career civil servants. This drastic change fundamentally alters the constitutional balance of power, creating an environment in which the traditional oversight roles of the National Congress and the Judiciary would be severely undermined by a strengthened Executive Branch with the participation of individuals loyal to it and legally protected by a maximalist doctrine of the Unitary Executive Theory.

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DEMOCRACY IN THE UNITED STATES IS THREATENED BY THE NEO-
FASCIST PROJECT 2025, WHICH SERVES DONALD TRUMP
Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to demonstrate that Project 2025, or the 2025 Presidential Transition
Project, developed by the Heritage Foundation, is a neo-fascist project in service of
President Donald Trump that threatens democracy in the United States. Project 2025 [1]
is a political plan developed by the Heritage Foundation (with the participation of many
other conservative groups), formally published in 2023 under the title Mandate for
Leadership: The Conservative Promise. Project 2025 is a detailed neo-fascist political and
presidential transition agenda. Its objective is to reshape the Executive Branch of the
United States federal government to align it with conservative principles, focusing on a
wide range of domestic and foreign policy areas.
The idea behind Project 2025 was to present a ready-made “plan” for a future
conservative president to reshape the United States federal government, both in terms of
personnel (“who runs the government”) and policies (“what the government does”).
Project 2025 is not limited to proposing new laws. It envisions sweeping administrative
and structural changes in nearly all major US federal agencies: from the Department of
Education and Homeland Security to the Departments of Justice, Health, Environment,
etc. Project 2025 aims to radically restructure the Executive Branch of the United States
government by adopting far-right neo-fascist policies, which are being implemented by
the Donald Trump administration, its main beneficiary [1].
Project 2025 is structured around four mutually reinforcing pillars for the neofascist
takeover of the US Executive Branch, designed to achieve rapid and consistent execution
in favor of its radical conservative agenda. The four pillars for the neofascist takeover of
the US Executive Branch are described below [1]:
1. Master Plan: This is the detailed policy guide. It is a Mandate for Leadership,
providing plans, agency by agency, for the restructuring or abolition of all federal
departments and agencies.
2. Personnel Database: This component is dedicated to collecting and verifying
thousands of resumes of federal employees to identify those who are "loyal to Donald
Trump's MAGA (Make America Great Again)." The stated goal is the mass replacement
of nonpartisan career civil servants with political appointees who pass a mandatory
loyalty test to Trumpism.
3. Administration Academy: Functioning as a private training center, the Administration
Academy is established to educate and prepare individuals loyal to Trumpism for
government positions. Its operation politicizes the process of replacing civil service
personnel, ensuring that new appointees are ideologically aligned with Donald Trump's
MAGA (Make America Great Again) ideals and prepared for a rapid institutional
takeover.
4. First 180 Days Manual: Described as a "secret action plan," this pillar details
immediate executive orders and other actions, some of which are considered "too
controversial to be published," ensuring rapid implementation before institutional
opposition or the National Congress effectively objects.
These four pillars, taken together, constitute a comprehensive architecture for the rapid
takeover of administrative control of the United States government. They ensure that

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policy recommendations are ready (the Master Plan), that human capital is recruited and
evaluated (Personnel Database), that the team is ideologically aligned and trained
(Management Academy) and that the operational plan is sequenced for immediate effect
(First 180 Days Manual) [1].
The pillars of the Personnel Database and the Administration Academy ensure that the
personnel selection process prioritizes ideological adherence to Donald Trump's MAGA
(Make America Great Again) over the traditional merit of public service [1]. Candidates
for executive branch positions in the United States are subjected to a "loyalty test to
MAGA," that is, to Donald Trump. Numerous candidates for the Project 2025 talent pool
have expressed admiration for figures associated with authoritarianism and anti-
democratic thought. Specifically, dozens of candidates cited admiration for Carl Schmitt,
a German political theorist often referred to as the "crown jurist of the Third Reich,"
whose intellectual legacy is inextricably linked to collaboration with the Nazi regime.
The Project 2025 political agenda establishes that the entirety of the Executive Branch
should be constitutionally subordinate to the President of the Republic, that is, to Donald
Trump, granting the Head of the Executive Branch total control over all executive
functions, including the right to subordinate or eliminate agencies and personnel. This
interpretation serves as the legal basis for the project's explicitly stated goal of
consolidating "unrestricted presidential power" by "eliminating existing checks and
balances" [1].
One of the main operational objectives is to end the independence of federal regulatory
agencies, which are normally protected from direct presidential control through "just
cause" removal protections for their directors. Project 2025 explicitly advocates for the
removal of these protections. This transformation shifts the separation of powers from a
system of institutional restraint to a system of executive hierarchy, thus legally justifying
the creation of what critics describe as an "imperial presidency," which is what Donald
Trump desires [1].
Project 2025 is based on the concept of consolidated and unlimited presidential power.
This initiative represents an "authoritarian strategy" that seeks the "widespread violation
of norms and laws," thus overriding the democratic system, the constitutional role, and
the legislative authority of the United States Congress. Project 2025 is structured with the
purpose of granting President Donald Trump "absolute immunity from the Supreme
Court." This initiative is based on the premise that the most constitutionally aggressive
actions planned by President Donald Trump, particularly those involving the systematic
restructuring of the government and the use of federal agencies for partisan purposes,
require judicial immunity from criminal or civil liability, specifically through an
expanded definition of immunity for presidential "official acts" [1].
The main legal confrontation concerns the constitutional authority of the President to
unilaterally dissolve or radically restructure agencies created by Congress through
legislation, specifically challenging the fundamental architecture of the United States rule
of law. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has published a series of memoranda
detailing the challenges to civil rights and civil liberties presented by the potential
implementation of Project 2025 [2]. The ACLU outlined a roadmap to combat these
changes, emphasizing the use of all available tools, from litigation and lawsuits to
advocacy and community organizing, to protect the democratic norms and institutions of
the United States.

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Legal analyses by critics argue that a significant number of the initiatives proposed by the
Trump administration, particularly those affecting freedom of speech, reproductive rights,
and racial justice, are considered "utterly unconstitutional" and therefore should face
immediate and aggressive legal challenges as soon as their implementation is attempted
[2]. Despite extensive media coverage of Project 2025, a significant gap in public
knowledge persists [1]. Only 20% of adult citizens in the United States report having
heard of the project. Among those who have an opinion, they are largely unfavorable to
Project 2025.
In summary, the main components and objectives of Project 2025 are as follows:
1. Project 2025 Personnel Database and Training
• Presidential Personnel Database: Creation of a qualified database with thousands of
conservative MAGA-aligned professionals ready to fill key positions in federal agencies.
• Training Programs: Preparing individuals with political knowledge and administrative
strategies to effectively implement the MAGA agenda from day one.
2. Project 2025 Comprehensive Policy Agenda ("The Mandate for Leadership")
• Project 2025 is a detailed, multi-volume policy book outlining recommendations for all
major federal departments and agencies.
• Project 2025 aims to decentralize federal power, deregulate sectors, and strengthen
presidential authority based on the MAGA agenda.
• Project 2025 aims, among other things, to reverse many Biden administration policies
and promote conservative priorities.
3. Restructuring of the Executive Branch under Project 2025 under the Donald
Trump Administration
• Project 2025 proposes a significant reorganization to increase direct and authoritarian
presidential control over traditionally independent agencies and the federal bureaucracy.
• Project 2025 suggests reclassifying many federal employees as "Annex F", making them
easier to fire and replace to ensure ideological political alignment with personnel aligned
with Donald Trump.
4. Key Policy Areas of Project 2025 under the Donald Trump Administration
• Economic Policy: Large tax cuts, deregulation, and reduction of federal spending.
• Energy and Environment: Maximize fossil fuel production, repeal climate regulations,
and withdraw from international climate agreements such as the Paris Agreement.
• Social Policy: Restrict women's access to abortion, limit the rights of LGBTQ+
personnel (especially transgender rights), and promote "traditional family values."
• Health: Reduce the reach of the Affordable Care Act to the population and promote
alternatives based on market laws.
• Education: Reduce the role of the federal government in education and restrict the
authority of the Department of Education.
• Immigration: Strict enforcement of immigration laws, increased border security
(including the construction of walls), and reduction of legal immigration.

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• Foreign Policy and National Security: Focus on "hard power," increased military
spending, and a firmer stance toward China and Russia.
• Law and Justice: Increase executive power over the Department of Justice and the FBI,
and pursuit of a conservative legal agenda.
5. Expected results with the implementation of Project 2025 under the Donald
Trump administration
• Restructuring of the federal civil service: Replacement of many career civil servants
(with legal protections) with political appointees aligned with MAGA, thus increasing
direct executive/presidential control over agencies.
• Abolition or drastic restructuring of major agencies: Includes dismantling or drastically
reducing departments responsible for education, homeland security, environmental
regulation, public health, and much more.
• Rollback of social policy protections: Project 2025 recommends limiting or eliminating
protections for LGBTQ+ people, dismantling diversity and inclusion programs, and
removing legal safeguards against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender
identity.
• Restrictive immigration policies: Mass deportations, increased enforcement powers,
restrictions on visas and benefits for immigrants, possibly targeting undocumented
immigrants.
• Weakening or removal of regulations on the environment, health, and social programs:
Includes cuts in funding for public education, social safety nets (such as
Medicaid/Medicare), reduced environmental regulation, and limited access to
reproductive health services, including abortion and contraception, and public health.
6. The Neofascist Character of Project 2025 Under the Donald Trump
Administration
• Project 2025 is a serious threat to democratic norms and civil rights in the United States.
• Project 2025 concentrates total power in the presidency, weakening institutional
mechanisms of checks and balances by politicizing independent agencies and the civil
service, and undermining the system of checks and balances.
• Project 2025 undermines independent agencies that regulate the environment, health,
justice, and education, potentially weakening public accountability, standards, and
protections.
• Project 2025 jeopardizes civil and human rights, particularly those of minorities,
immigrants, and LGBTQ+ people, by endorsing discrimination, revoking protections, and
limiting individual freedoms, as well as presenting proposals on abortion that are seen as
harmful by progressive and moderate groups.
• Project 2025 proposes the aggressive relaxation of environmental regulations,
considered irresponsible in the face of the global climate crisis.
• Project 2025 is questioned by some experts regarding the legality and practicality of
certain proposals, such as the mass reclassification of federal employees.
• Project 2025 adopts a more ideological government administration, with governance
shaped by conservative/nationalist values.

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7. Political Context of Project 2025 under the Donald Trump Administration
• Project 2025 is closely aligned with the political objectives of President Donald Trump.
• Many former officials from the first Trump administration were involved in the drafting
of Project 2025.
• Trump's presidential campaign stated that it had its own government transition plans,
but that Project 2025 offers a valuable resource.
• Many of the creators of Project 2025 play important roles in Donald Trump's second
term.
Conclusion
From the above, it is concluded that Project 2025 is an integrated and resource-rich
architecture designed for the conquest of total power by the President of the Republic,
that is, by Donald Trump. The initiative is based on the creation of policies (Master Plan),
personnel recruitment (Personnel Database), ideological indoctrination (Administration
Academy), and the operational plan (First 180 Days Manual) to ensure the
implementation of Donald Trump's neo-fascist power project with Project 2025.
The successful implementation of this model could lead to the institutionalization of
Donald Trump's absolute presidential control over the entire Executive Branch,
effectively dismantling the institutional independence of police forces, financial
regulatory bodies, public health agencies, and non-partisan career civil servants. This
drastic change fundamentally alters the constitutional balance of power, creating an
environment in which the traditional oversight roles of the National Congress and the
Judiciary would be severely undermined by an Executive Branch strengthened with the
participation of people loyal to it and legally protected by a maximalist doctrine of the
Unitary Executive Theory.
The long-term implications of Project 2025 are structural. The proposed dismantling of
executive departments such as the Department of Homeland Security and the Department
of Education, combined with the systematic implementation of Annex F to remove up to
50,000 essential policy-making civil servants, aims to create profound and likely
permanent administrative inertia. These changes are not intended merely for a temporary
political victory, but for a fundamental and difficult-to-reverse restructuring of the
American administrative state, ensuring that a return to a meritocratic and apolitical
bureaucracy will be extremely challenging for future administrations. Project 2025 is,
therefore, an initiative focused on achieving profound institutional transformation.
Project 2025 is an ambitious and controversial neo-fascist plan for a conservative
transformation of the United States federal government under Donald Trump. Project
2025 could lead to the end of the democratic process in the United States. Project 2025 is
an attempted coup d'état representing a systematic effort to prepare the ground for a
Republican president, Donald Trump, to rapidly implement a broad conservative agenda
starting in 2025, with a strong emphasis on increasing presidential authority and altering
the structure of the federal bureaucracy. Its possible implementation will have profound
implications for future American governance and policies.
In 2025, with Donald J. Trump back in the Presidency of the United States, many of the
executive decisions and administrative measures he adopts are closely aligned with the
proposals of Project 2025. Several policy changes, including the restructuring of agencies,

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personnel changes, and regulatory rollbacks, indicate that Project 2025 is in full
execution. Project 2025 is not just another political proposal; it represents a systemic plan
to reshape the United States government from a neo-fascist perspective. If fully
implemented, it could mark a drastic shift in how the US federal government, currently
operating with independent institutions possessing regulatory power and ensuring
continuity of public service, would operate as a highly centralized executive apparatus
guided by neo-fascist ideological priorities.
REFERENCES
1. WENDLING, Mike. Project 2025: The right-wing wish list for Trump's second
term. Available on the website <https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c977njnvq2do>.
2. ACLU. Project 2025, Explained. Available on the website
<https://www.aclu.org/project-2025-explained>.

Fernando Alcoforado, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member
of the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and IPB- Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer
from the UFBA Polytechnic School and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the
University of Barcelona, college professor (Engineering, Economics and Administration) and consultant in
the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems,
was Advisor to the Vice President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power
distribution company from Rio de Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and
Development Center, Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is
the author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a
Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel,
São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Doctoral thesis. Barcelona
University, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento
(Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos
Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic
and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft &
Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e
Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os
Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia
no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba,
2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua
convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o
mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019), A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência
(Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021), A escalada da ciência e da tecnologia e sua contribuição ao progresso
e à sobrevivência da humanidade (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2022), a chapter in the book Flood Handbook
(CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida United States, 2022), How to protect human beings from threats to their
existence and avoid the extinction of humanity (Generis Publishing, Europe, Republic of Moldova,
Chișinău, 2023), A revolução da educação necessária ao Brasil na era contemporânea (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2023), Como construir um mundo de paz, progresso e felicidade para toda a humanidade (Editora
CRV, Curitiba, 2024) and How to build a world of peace, progress and happiness for all humanity (Editora
CRV, Curitiba, 2024).