Progressive groups are preparing a coordinated counterattack against Donald Trump and Project 2025, a vast far-right policy initiative sponsored by the Heritage Foundation. Project 2025 promises major reforms to all areas of government when the next president returns to power next month.
Skye Perryman, CEO of Democracy Forward, a national legal organization, said she is launching a new “litigation, advocacy and policy group” aimed at “developing rapid legal defenses.” Democracy 2025, a collaborative organization, will take the lead in the counterattack. That meant it was stronger than the scramble President Trump sparked in 2017, when Democracy Forward was formed.
Perryman said, “After President Trump took office, people in American communities began to experience a variety of harms based on the policies that his administration had in place, including the very visible Muslim immigration ban.” This led to lawyers leaving their suitcases at the airport and being prevented from entering the country. The ACLU and other organizations that have filed lawsuits against these policies have also filed lawsuits against poor women’s access to family planning. Less obvious items, such as the reduced Title 10 gag rules, were not included.
“But there were many things the administration was doing that were less obvious but still negatively impacted millions of Americans and were often illegal. In fact, it was established to respond not only to threats to the people of the United States, but to the rule of law, and to the overall way in which government functions in different nature, extreme circumstances. And it was illegal.”
Democracy Forward reports on “the collection of information on individual voters through the Pence-Kobach Voter Fraud Commission, the sudden withdrawal of federal funds to cities and counties that support bipartisan health care programs, and more.” , took the first Trump administration to court more than 100 times. , teen pregnancy prevention programs, etc… lowering nutritional standards for school children, etc. ”
Mr. Perryman served as senior advisor to Democracy Forward and later served as general counsel, chief legal officer, and director of communications for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She returned to Democracy Forward in 2021, with Joe Biden in the White House and threats to fundamental rights in Republican states in full swing.
“After January 6, with President Trump out of office, it was clear that the threat to our democracy was not really abating,” she said of the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters. So we began to expand our efforts at the state, local, and federal levels to address judicial extremism and the far-right legal movements that are responsible for events like Dobbs.” The June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision stripped women of their rights to abortion.
In 2024, first Biden and then Kamala Harris ran on such threats to fundamental rights. At the same time, Perryman said Trump and his running mate, J.D. “I told them that it was unrelated.”
But “they did not deny their relationship with the many groups within the ecosystem that developed Project 2025, and some of these extreme actions. (And) they did not deny that during this transition period they I can see now that we didn’t waste any time presenting our plans.” We’re going to appoint some of those architects and execute those plans. That’s why we actively monitor a variety of threats and what recourse Americans have if the administration ignores the law. ”
That’s why Democracy 2025 was launched, supported by people and groups like Noah Bookbinder and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Norm Eisen, once Barack Obama’s ethics czar. National Women’s Law Center. and the National Immigration Law Center.
Perryman sees signs of hope as he prepares to fight not only in court but in the public square against a threat that is “far more extreme” than the policy plans developed by the Heritage Foundation over the past 40 years.
“What we know about the American people, and what we’ve seen since Dobbs… is that the vast majority do not support extremism, like in red states like Missouri and Florida. In places, we saw action on climate change in states such as Louisiana, where a majority of voters in these states voted to protect abortion rights on their ballots.
“Polls among conservatives, independents, and liberals found that Project 2025 was actually a lightning rod and extremely unpopular. That’s why I tried to distance myself from Project 2025.”
Republicans will soon control the White House and Congress. For Perryman, that doesn’t mean all is lost.
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“Importantly, the American people have a lot of levers of their power that they can use and build on in this day and age, and one of them is legal action. There are things that the president and the administration can’t do that the people can’t do. There are some things that the courts have to look at, like the rights they have, the laws about how government works, etc. We want people to have access to the courts and use them.”
Mr. Biden succeeded in appointing more judges than Mr. Trump did in his first term. The Supreme Court may lean firmly to the right, but it takes time for laws to become law. With just two years until the midterm elections, Republicans still have at least a slim majority in the House.
“The people still have a say in their elected officials,” Perryman said. “The president-elect’s party is balanced in the U.S. Congress, but it’s not a great balance, and a lot of what we see the presidential transition team at least proposing or trying to do is not going to work for everyone. This is deeply harmful to the American people and the many communities that have supported our president-elect, regardless of their political ideology.
“During the last Trump administration, Trump was very determined to overturn the Affordable Care Act and believed he had the votes in Congress to do so, but the fact is that public anger and people’s That effort failed because we gave our voices to members who needed to understand what kind of people they were responsible for.”
This time, Perryman said, “We’ve already seen Matt Gaetz’s nomination fail” for U.S. attorney general. “So I think part of the effort here is to make sure that the American people don’t lose their power.”
Democracy 2025 is not just about offensive operations. It could also serve as a defense, given reports that people close to President Trump are preparing legal attacks against progressive nonprofits.
“We know there is a strategy,” Perryman said. “Part of the work of protecting the American people and defending our democracy in this time is to use the tools that we have, all the tools that our democracy provides, the legal tools to represent people in our communities. be willing to continue to use and understand the tools of the We cannot allow the important work that needs to be done to be halted. ”
