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Trump could follow this political agenda – instead of the 2025 project

Topline

While Democrats have criticized the right-wing policy program Project 2025 for crafting extreme policies for a second Trump presidency, reports suggest it is the America First Policy Institute that could actually influence a second term for former President Donald Trump the right-wing political group apparently does We will provide Trump with both policy proposals and financial aid.

Important facts

The America First Policy Institute is a right-wing think tank dedicated to “progress.”[ing] “Politics,” consistent with conservative values, has developed its own political agenda, which it describes as a “policy-setting plan that always puts America first.”

Publications including Politico and The New York Times report that the group has become the Trump campaign's “major partner” in crafting plans for a second Trump presidency, proposing and engaging with hundreds of executive orders that Trump can implement Lobbyists who want to influence Trump's second term in office.

America First is a separate entity from the Trump transition team and told the New York Times that it “does not speak on behalf of any candidate, campaign or transition,” but the Wall Street Journal reports that Republicans are calling it a “shadow “Transitional operation”. An anonymous source familiar with the transition plans told Politico: “AFPI will not transition…” [but] AFPI and the transition can be a distinction without a difference.”

The organization's president, Brooke Rollins, was Trump's director of domestic policy and its staff includes former Trump administration officials — including former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway and former acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf — and Linda McMahon, the wife of billionaire Vince McMahon, an official, serves as both CEO of America First and chair of the formal Trump transition team.

While Trump lashed out at Project 2025 — a similar policy initiative launched by the Heritage Foundation — and denied having any connection to it, the former president did not comment on America First or attempt to distance himself from it, according to the Times The group has worked hard to remain in Trump's “good hands,” including by not making public its preparations for a second Trump presidency.

The America First Policy Institute and the Trump campaign have not yet responded to requests for comment on the relationship between the two groups.

Is America the first to raise money for Trump?

Possibly. Documents filed with the Federal Election Commission show that a political action committee called the America First Action Fund was registered on Oct. 22. The PAC appears to be affiliated with the policy institute and lists Ashley Hayek, the nonprofit's chief engagement officer, as its administrator on records, but the America First Policy Institute has not yet responded to a request for comment about its affiliation. While America First's political arm is a nonprofit organization that cannot support political candidates and their campaigns, its super PAC could spend money directly supporting Trump, although in most cases it still would not be able to to coordinate directly with his campaign. The PAC's formation so late in the election cycle also means it doesn't have to publicly disclose its donors until after Election Day.

What's on America First's political agenda?

America First's policy blueprint lays out a set of priorities consistent with the policy views that Trump and his allies have espoused, including imposing tariffs on imported goods, reducing corporate tax rates, protecting “religious freedom,” increasing of domestic oil and gas production and the elimination of oil and gas production of climate change efforts, the rejection of measures promoting transgender rights, the rejection of any gun control measures, the imposition of work requirements for Medicaid recipients, the curbing of immigration and the Reducing America's role in assisting in international conflicts. The agenda does not call for banning abortion entirely at the federal level, but does advocate for defunding Planned Parenthood. It also does not adopt Trump's proposal to mass deport undocumented immigrants, but calls for completing the U.S.-Mexico border wall, increasing funding for border agents and ending legal immigration programs such as family-based immigration pathways and the visa lottery.

How is America First different from Project 2025?

America First's agenda is overall less extreme than Project 2025, which proposes a drastic overhaul of the executive branch that would include the complete abolition of several federal agencies, such as the Department of Education and the Department of Homeland Security. However, both agendas largely align in their values, pushing conservative principles and focusing on the federal government prioritizing “nuclear families” and policies that promote two-parent households. They also both suggest that if elected, Trump should undertake a major overhaul of the federal workforce and replace career civil servants with political appointees, with America First arguing that all government employees should be able to be fired “at will” – making it easier for Trump to get rid by anyone who takes steps they don’t like – and only political appointees should be able to make regulations.

What we don't know

Who funds America First's work? As a 501(c)3 nonprofit, America First is not required to publicly disclose its donors, and federal tax returns indicate that much of the group's money is funneled through “dark money” groups the origin of a donation is further obscured. Among the groups donating money to America First, according to tax filings, is a foundation linked to billionaire Timothy Dunn. The Times reported that Dunn helped found the political group after the 2020 election and still sits on the organization's board.

tangent

The America First Action Fund is one of several “pop-up PACs” being created at the last minute before Election Day. Political donations made after October 16th are not publicly reported to the FEC until Election Day, meaning super PACs can register and raise money after October 16th knowing their information will not be made public until after the election . In addition to the America First PAC, another group called “RBG PAC” has registered with the FEC in recent days and is now spending $20 million to defend Trump's record on abortion, the Times reports. The PAC references the late Chief Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in its ads, which her family has denounced. Granddaughter Clara Spera called the PAC's use of the judge's name “appalling” and an “insult to my late grandmother's legacy.”

Important background

News of America First's involvement in the Trump transition effort comes as Democrats have made Project 2025 one of the party's main arguments against a second Trump presidency, highlighting its extreme proposals in recent months as the election approaches moved. Trump has been vocal in his opposition to Project 2025 — despite his alleged ties to the Heritage Foundation — and has sought to distance himself from the operation as it faces widespread scrutiny. His campaign is reportedly planning to blacklist people who worked on it from serving in a second Trump administration. The Times reports that America First intentionally kept its operations secret amid Trump's resentment over Project 2025, keeping it mostly under wraps as Project 2025 made national headlines. The political group's preparations for a second Trump presidency come amid reports that Trump's formal transition team is behind in its own preparations and has not yet signed agreements with the federal government that would allow the administration to share information and restrict access to the Improve transition to state funding. These agreements also require transition teams to follow ethics rules and disclose their donors, which has led Democrats to speculate that Trump is not signing the agreements yet to avoid those requirements.

Further reading

Project 2025 Explained: What to Know About the Right-Wing Political Map Ahead of Today's Vice Presidential Debate (Forbes)

Meet the think tank planning a second Trump administration. (It's not Project 2025.) (Politico)

The group at the center of Trump's second-term plans is one you've never heard of (The New York Times)

Inside Trump World's Preparation for a Second Term (Wall Street Journal)

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