Understanding the Threat Progress 2025 Poses to U.S. Democracy

Jul 18, 2024

In recent days there has been intense聽听辞惫别谤听, a 922-page document published by the right-wing Heritage Foundation that outlines a plan to essentially remake the federal government into a conservative, theocratic autocracy under a second Donald Trump administration. But the former president claims he knows , even though more than 100 people who once worked for Trump are involved in it.聽

In 2022, Trump spoke at a dinner sponsored by the Heritage Foundation where he , 鈥淭his is a great group, and they鈥檙e going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.鈥�

Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the , has been sounding the alarm on Project 2025 for months and spoke with 大象传媒 Senior Editor Sonali Kolhatkar on 大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up With Sonali about the plan to drastically reshape the U.S. government.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined 大象传媒 in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.