FACT CHECK: List Claiming To Show Project 2025 Policy Positions Is Misleading
A post shared on X claims to show a list of Project 2025 policy positions.
With fear for our Democracy, I dissent. pic.twitter.com/DOSMaBOZmf
— Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) July 6, 2024
Verdict: Misleading
Most of the policy positions in this image are either not from Project 2025 or are misleading. There are some that are true, such as eliminating the Department of Education.
Fact Check:
President Joe Biden has increased his attacks on Project 2025, a project that seeks to provide policy and personnel recommendations to the next Republican president, according to CBS News. Former President Donald Trump has distanced himself from the project while Biden’s campaign has sought to tie him to it, the outlet reported.
Social media users have been sharing an image claiming to show Project 2025 stances.
The Dispatch Fact Check has also fact-checked this image. Project 2025 also issued a lengthy tweet about the image. Check Your Fact is dividing the claims from false, to misleading to true.
What is false?
“End no fault divorce.”
There is nothing in the document that mentions divorce. Project 2025’s tweet states, “Divorce is not mentioned in our policy handbook, Mandate for Leadership.”
“Complete ban on abortions without exceptions.”
There is no mention of a complete ban on abortion. The plan would eliminate federal approval for the abortion pill and for ” [a]nnouncing a Campaign to Enforce the Criminal Prohibitions in 18 U.S. Code §§ 1461 and 1462 Against Providers and Distributors of Abortion Pills That Use the Mail.”
“Federal law prohibits mailing ‘[e]very article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion,” reads part of Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership.”
“Ban contraceptives.”
There is no mention of banning contraceptives such as birth control pills or condoms. The plan does mention removing ulipristal acetate from Obamacare’s “contraceptive mandate.”
“Like its close cousin, the abortion pill mifepristone, Ella is a progesterone blocker and can prevent a recently fertilized embryo from implanting in a woman’s uterus. HRSA should eliminate this potential abortifacient from the contraceptive mandate,” reads the document.
“Ban books and curriculum about slavery.”
There is no mention of banning books or curriculum about slavery. Project 2025 wrote, “Mandate for Leadership does not advocate for banning books or curriculum about slavery.”
“Elimination of unions and worker protections.”
“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,” Project 2025 stated in its tweet.
Raise the retirement age.”
There is no mention of raising the retirement age in the document. Project 2025 states, “Raising the retirement age is nowhere advocated in Mandate for Leadership.”
“Cut Social Security.”
The document does not mention cutting Social Security. Project 2025 states, “Mandate for Leadership does not advocate cutting Social Security.” (RELATED: Fact-Checking Joe Biden’s Claim That Mark Warner “Tried To Get” The Presidential Nomination)
“Teach Christian religious beliefs in public schools.”
There is nothing in the document that states Christian religious beliefs should be taught in public schools. Project 2025’s tweet reads, “Mandate for Leadership advocates for all educational opportunities, and for parental rights in education.”
“End marriage equality.”
“Protect faith-based grant recipients from religious liberty violations and maintain a biblically based, social science–reinforced definition of marriage and family,” Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership reads. Check Your Fact could not find any evidence it called for the end of same-sex marriage.
“End birthright citizenship.”
Birthright citizenship is not discussed in Project 2025. Project 2025’s tweet reads, “There is no mention of ending birthright citizenship in Mandate for Leadership.”
“Use the military to break up domestic protests.”
Project 2025 does not call for the military to break up domestic protests. Project 2025 refuted the claim in its July 9 tweet.
“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,” reads the tweet. “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.”
“Ban Muslims from entering the country.”
Check Your Fact reviewed the document and did not find any proposal for banning Muslims from entering the country. Project 2025 also said in its tweet that the claim was false.
“There is no mention of banning Muslims from entering the United States in Mandate for Leadership,” Project 2025’s tweet reads.
Ban African American and gender studies in all levels of education.”
There is no proposal in the document for banning African American or gender studies. Project 2025 states, “Mandate for Leadership does not mention African American studies or gender studies.” (RELATED: Viral Photo of Man is Not Trump Rally Shooter.)
Continue to pack the Supreme Court, and lower courts with right-wing judges.
Project 2025 does not touch on judicial nominations to the lower courts or the Supreme Court. Project 2025’s tweet reads, “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.”
What claims are true?
“Eliminate the Department of Education.”
The document calls for eliminating the Department of Education.
“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,” Project 2025 says in its tweet.
“Use public, taxpayer money for religious schools.”
It does call for people to be able to use taxpayer money for religious schools. The document reads, “Elementary and secondary education policy should follow the path outlined by Milton Friedman in 1955, wherein education is publicly funded but education decisions are made by families,” which could include religious schools.
“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,” Project 2025 states in its tweet.
“Put more guns in schools, through arming teachers.”
There is no mention of arming teachers in the document. The Dispatch Fact Check also did not find any mention of arming teachers.
“Additional tax breaks for corporations and the 1%.”
The plan calls for a lower tax rate for corporations from 21% to 18% and for setting income taxes for those making above $168,600 at 30%. The top rate today is 37%.
Project 2025 calls this claim misleading, stating, “Mandate for Leadership calls for LOWER taxes for ALL Americans, to stimulate economic growth and put more money in Americans’ pockets.”
David Burton, a senior fellow of economic policy at the Heritage Foundation and a Project 2025 author, told The Dispatch Fact Check, that the “core of is to do a substantial but still incremental tax reform in accordance with what conservatives have been trying to do for a long time: reduce marginal tax rates, eliminate loopholes, and simplify the taxes.”
“Increase Arctic drilling.”
Project 2025 does advocate for increasing Arctic drilling by calling for the reinstatement of SO 3352: National Petroleum Reserve—Alaska. This calls for the “clean and safe development of our Nation’s vast energy resources, while at the same time avoiding regulatory burdens that unnecessarily encumber energy production, constrain economic growth, and prevent job creation. The prudent development of these natural resources in Alaska and beyond is essential to ensuring the Nation’s geopolitical security.”
Project 2025 states that the claim is 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,” Project 2025’s tweet reads.
“Deregulate big business and the oil industry.”
Project 2025 states that this claim is mostly true, stating, “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.”
“Promote and expedite capital punishment.”
This claim is true.
“Capital punishment is a sensitive matter, as it should be, but the current crime wave makes deterrence vital at the federal, state, and local levels. However, providing this punishment without ever enforcing it provides justice neither for the victims’ families nor for the defendant. The next conservative Administration should therefore do everything possible to obtain finality for the 44 prisoners currently on federal death row. It should also pursue the death penalty for applicable crimes—particularly heinous crimes involving violence and sexual abuse of children—until Congress says otherwise through legislation,” Project 2025’s document reads.
Project 2025 also says this claim is true in its tweet, writing, “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,” reads the tweet.
What claims are misleading?
“Ending climate protections.”
There is no mentioning of eliminating all climate protections. Project 2025’s tweet reads, “Mandate for Leadership advocates policies that will produce economic growth through abundant, affordable energy. Famers, 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.”
“End the Affordable Care Act.”
Project 2025 tweet reads, “Mandate for Leadership offers policy suggestions to curb the abuses of the Affordable Care Act.” The document does not explicitly call for ending the Affordable Care Act but does state that there should be reforms, according to the Dispatch Fact Check.
“Higher taxes for the working class.”
The plan calls for two tax brackets: a 15% flat income tax for those making less than $168,600 and a 30% income tax for those making more than that, according to the document.
“The Treasury should work with Congress to simplify the tax code by enacting a simple two-rate individual tax system of 15 percent and 30 percent that eliminates most deductions, credits and exclusions,” the document reads.
The Dispatch Fact Check reported that while “this rate would be a tax cut for many working Americans, individuals currently in the lowest two marginal tax brackets—those making less than $47,150 per year—would see a slight increase in rates.”
“End free and discounted school lunch programs.”
Project 2025 does argue that the government should “restore programs to their original intent and reject efforts to create universal free school meals.”
“The USDA should work with lawmakers to restore NSLP and SBP to their original goal of providing food to K–12 students who otherwise would not have food to eat while at school,” the document reads.
“Federal school meals should be focused on children in need, and any efforts to expand student eligibility for federal school meals to include all K-12 students should be soundly rejected. Such expansion would allow an inefficient, wasteful program to grow, magnifying the amount of wasted taxpayer resources,” the document continues.
It does not, however, advocate for eliminating free school lunch programs.
“Cut Medicare.”
The document does state that it will “ensure sustainability and value for beneficiaries and taxpayers,” and “reduce waste, fraud, and abuse.” The document also states that it will work to increase “Medicare beneficiaries’ control of their health care” and for reducing “regulatory burdens on doctors.”
It also calls for repealing “harmful health policies enacted under the Obama and Biden Administrations such as the Medicare Shared Savings Program…and Inflation Reduction Act…”
“Defund the FBI and Homeland Security.”
The document calls for the president should pursue legislation that would “dismantle” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It does not call for defunding the current agencies under DHS such as the FBI. Project 2025’s tweet states that “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),” the tweet reads.
“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,” the tweet continues.
“End civil rights and DEI protections in government.”
The document does call for eliminating or restricting certain diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) elements, such as “reversing thee DEI Revolution in Labor Policy.” It does not, however, call for eliminating civil rights.
“The [DOJ] should also lead a whole-of-government recommitment to nondiscrimination and should be working with all other federal agencies, boards, and commissions to ensure that they are both complying with constitutional and legal requirements and using their authorities and funding to prevent discrimination not only internally, but also at the state, local, and private-sector levels,” the document reads.
Project 2025 stated in its tweet that the claim was “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,” the tweet reads.
“Eliminates federal agencies like the FDA, EPA, NOAA, and more.”
The document does not call for the elimination of the FDA or the EPA. It does state that the president should look to see if the “National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories.”
Project 2025’s tweet states, “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.”
Raise prescription drug prices.”
Project 2025 does call for eliminating Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug prices directly with companies which was passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. It states that the IRA “created a drug price negotiation program in Medicare that replaced the existing private-sector negotiations in Part D with government price controls for prescription drugs. These government price controls will limit access to medications and reduce patient access to new medication.”
The Dispatch Fact Check reported that Project 2025 calls for “repealing laws that prevent pharmaceutical competition, which it argues would expand the availability of generic drugs and drive prescription drug prices down.”
Project 2025 says the claim it would raise drug prices is false, writing, “Mandate for Leadership offers proposals to lower drug prices through competition and innovation.”
“Condemn single mothers while promoting only ‘traditional families.'”
There is no condemnation of single mothers in Mandate for Leadership. It does state that Preside Joe Biden’s HHS “are fraught with agenda items focusing on ‘LGBTQ+ equity,’ subsidizing single-motherhood, disincentivizing work, and penalizing marriage.”
“These policies should be repealed and replaced by policies that support the formation of stable, married, nuclear families,” the document reads.
Project 2025 states in its tweet that, “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.”
“Mass deportation of immigrants and incarceration in ‘camps.'”
Project 2025 does not call for “camps” for illegal immigrants, but it does call for “prioritizing border security and immigration enforcement.” (RELATED: Has Joe Biden Ordered The DOJ To Arrest Six Supreme Court Justices?)
“Prioritizing border security and immigration enforcement, including detention and deportation, is critical if we are to regain control of the border, repair the historic damage done by the Biden Administration, return to a lawful and orderly immigration system, and protect the homeland from terrorism and public safety threats. This also includes consolidating the pieces of the fragmented immigration system into one agency to fulfill the mission more efficiently.,” Project 2025’s document reads.
Project 2025 states that the claim is misleading in its July 9 tweet.
“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,” reads the tweet.
