Project 2025 will not be "bloodless"

Heritage president Kevin Roberts is not hiding his intentions

Last week, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts issued a not-so-veiled threat to the American left on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast.

“We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless—if the left allows it to be.”

You know, the left—the party famous for its defense of “second amendment rights.”

While that quote has received a lot of attention, and even forced Donald Trump (among other conservatives) to pretend to be ignorant of Project 2025—an initiative Roberts is spearheading—that’s not all Roberts said worth paying attention to.

Roberts called the recent SCOTUS decision on Trump v United States “vital.” He references Federalist 70, in which Alexander Hamilton argues for a “strong executive leader.” Hamilton goes on:

Energy in the executive is the leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks…to the steady administration of the laws, to the protection of property…to justice; [and] to the security of liberty….

This is important to note as the premise of Project 2025 is to implement the unitary executive theory, a long-held fringe conservative belief that all branches of government are beholden to the president. 

While based on a particular reading of Article Two in the Constitution, Roberts and other fans of authoritarian power seek any confirmation hinting at kingly power. Regardless of how different the world is today from the late 18th century when Hamilton wrote those words, Roberts will happily co-opt the meaning.

Given that Project 2025 is rooted in Christian nationalism—right-wing biblical readings are spread through the book’s 920 pages—having a ruler beholden to no other branch of government would be useful for achieving their agenda. 

Roberts goes on. After calling this moment a “second American revolution,” he remarks on the Chevron decision, calling this SCOTUS session the “second most memorable” after Dobbs overturned Roe v Wade. Overturning Chevron is an essential piece of Project 2025 as well, as it defangs government agencies from instituting regulations on the environment, healthcare, and much more.

Roberts claims that overturning Chevron returns the power to the American people, a distraction from the true impact of this decision: it gives corporations unchecked powers with an endless stream of get out of jail free cards. In fact, they won’t even need those cards, given that regulatory agencies will barely be able to…regulate.

Over 400 people contributed to the immense Project 2025 document. The book marries conservative, libertarian, and Christian nationalist ideologies, tapping into white racial anxiety and religious bigotry to push an authoritarian agenda that will greatly curtail or outright abolish free speech, bodily autonomy, religious freedom (and freedom from religion), and basic democratic principles.

Let’s look at one example.