Unsurprisingly, the Mandate for Leadership; A Conservative Promise has enough interesting content for me to write a second article! If you are reading this article after the first addition of the series, then I want to give you a warm welcome back. If this is the first article of the series you’re delving into, then I’ll give you a run down. The Mandate for Leadership, also known by many as Project 2025, is a 900-page list of potential reforms to the government that can be executed if a conservative administration, i.e. the Trump Administration, were to take office in 2025. The Mandate is mainly thanks to the Heritage Foundation and the work of over 400 conservative scholars and policy makers, and covers potential reforms in a plethora of departments. In this article, we will discuss proposals related to the Department of Homeland Security (section2, chapter 5), the Department of State (section 2, chapter 6), and the Department of Justice (section 3, chapter 17). Also, I wanted to quickly add a recommendation of the first article I wrote about the Mandate for Leadership if you haven’t already read it. They don’t need to be read in order.
Department of Homeland Security
To start off this segment, one of the Mandate’s larger wishes is to dismantle the Department of Homeland Security, and move its individual missions into the care of other departments. If the dismantling is unable to happen, then the ideas explained below are the next plans.
A major conservative talking point is the current border crisis and how resident Biden is handling all of it. If a conservative administration is put into office in 2025, then the administration would focus more extensively on the border, including maneuvers such as having the CBP publish data collection related to the border, increasing flexibility for the use of temporary immigration detention facilities (the Mandate insisted on tents), and granting the ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations the ability to remove undocumented immigrants from the country without the need of a warrant. Another wish is to rescind any and all ICE “sensitive zones” where ICE personnel are prohibited, making it easier for ICE to detain and remove undocumented immigrants. There would also be stricter regulations for visas and grants for asylum, including but not limited to:
Eliminating the T and U visas, which grant asylum for victims of human trafficking. The Mandate claims that the S visa, which is given to those acting as a witness in an investigation, is already enough for granting asylum to victims.
Not granting asylum to victims of domestic or gang violence.
Decreasing the amount of visas offered to students from aversive countries.
Allowing federally subsidized housing only to American citizens.
The Mandate also states that unaccompanied children attempting to cross the border illegally should be sent back to the original country “in a safe and efficient manner”. The Mandate does not give any details relating to the potential system that would be put in place to return said children. Another point relating to students and immigration is that the Mandate wishes to deny loan access to students who attend schools who provide tuition to illegal immigrants.
Department of Justice
One of the main goals that the Mandate insists the next administration act upon is restoring the integrity of the FBI. One of the ways it wishes to restore this integrity is to “[c]onduct an immediate, comprehensive review of all major active FBI investigations and activities and terminate any that are unlawful or contrary to the national interest”. What is considered unlawful or contrary remains vague in the Mandate. The Mandate also wishes to prohibit the FBI from looking into any material that may be considered mis/disinformation, and should instead focus on monitoring and acting on potential threats. The Mandate also wants to implement education for the American people on economic threats posed by other countries.
Another wish is to abolish what conservatives believe to be a double standard of the FACE Act (Freedom of Access to Clinical Entrances). The claim made by the Mandate is that only pro-life advocates are being arrested during altercations with pro-choice advocates, who in turn are not being arrested. The DOJ would also enforce a federal law to prevent the provision and distribution of abortion pills.
Finally, the Mandate wishes for the DOJ to better enforce the death penalty, stating that there are currently over 40 inmates on death row who have yet to meet corporal punishment. The death penalty would be enforced in cases of violence against children and child sexual abuse, though in a different chapter of the Mandate, what is considered to be child violence and abuse is also changed. This will be discussed further in a subsequent article.
Department of State
Like any other administration, if the Trump administration enters office as the Mandate hopes for, then new appointees will be selected, such as senior advisor positions and deputy assistant secretaries. The difference is that the Mandate states that the next administration should assert these said appointees without Senate confirmation, and terminate former appointees on January 20.
On the discussion of international relationships, the Mandate would like the next administration to strengthen its ties with the Middle East and North Africa in case the countries of those regions fall victim to adversarial attacks. The Mandate would also like the Department of State to “re-hemisphere” industries and companies by installation closer to the United States, preferably in South America, so that the country does not need to rely so much on overseas trade. Back to the discussion of the Middle East and North Africa, the Mandate states that more funding should be provided to Israel in order for the small nation to defend itself against its neighbors; this comes with the recent conflict between Israel and Palestine, where the Mandate also wishes to defund the Palestinian Authority, not to be confused with Hamas. In regards to Africa, the Mandate states that the US should not intervene with any laws made in African countries pertaining to the poor treatment of their LGBTQ+ citizens, and should continue to strengthen its bond with African countries built by shared goals and rejection of “divisive policies”, since the Mandate also insists that African pro-LGBTQ initiatives are social policies created by American culture wars.
The Mandate also insists that the US should not assist European countries in potentially having to defend themselves in an attack if said country goes against US views and objectives. The Mandate states that the US should not support international organizations that display goals that do not align with American interests.
Conclusion
While many of the things discussed in this article may not pertain to the everyday-high school student, it is important to learn about and understand the plans of powerful figures who may one day be able to influence the policies of a distant future.