Project 2025 Revisited

 

Last August (2024), I posted a description of Project 2025, which at the time Trump was denying any knowledge of. It was so massively unpopular that he distanced himself from it like a Republican politician confronted with a tax increase. Well, Trump has been in office for eight months, so let’s take a quick look at the 50 points I listed over a year ago as a warning to see what Trump really thinks about Project 2025. I’ll put my assessment in bold after each point:

 

1. taking partisan control of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Commerce, Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and Federal Trade Commission (FTC);

Yes

2. dismantling the Department of Homeland Security (DHS);

No. Instead, Trump has done far worse. He has turned a division of DHS, ICE, into a colossally overfunded secret police force that refuses to identify itself as it disappears noncitizens and citizens and imprisons them without due process.

3. reducing environmental and climate change regulations to favor fossil fuels;

Yes

4. instituting tax cuts;

Yes

5. abolishing the Department of Education, whose programs would be transferred or terminated; 

Under way.

6. cutting funding for climate research; 

Yes

7. making the National Institutes of Health (NIH) less independent, stopping them from funding research with embryonic stem cells or using quotas to promote equal participation by women;

The funding cuts reach far further than this.

8. cutting Medicare and Medicaid, 

Yes on Medicaid. Medicare will surely follow.

9. explicitly rejecting abortion as health care; 

Many Republican states have accomplished this.

10. eliminating coverage of emergency contraception; 

Not yet

11. enforcing the Comstock Act to prosecute those who send and receive contraceptives and abortion pills; 

Several Republican states have passed laws to  this effect.

12. withdrawing approval of the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol;

Fourteen states have banned mifepristone.

13. criminalizing pornography;

Over 20 Republican states have required adult websites to verify the age of users.

14. removing legal protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; 

Yes

15. terminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and affirmative action by having the DOJ prosecute “anti-white racism”; 

Yes, the anti-DEI program has been extremely effective.

16. arresting, detaining, and deporting illegal immigrants; 

Yes, including many who are in the country legally and many who just look like they are illegal immigrants.

17. deploying the military for domestic law enforcement; 

Yes, in LA, D.C., and more to come.

18. enforcing capital punishment and the speedy “finality” of those sentences;

Apparently not high on the priority list, but we’ll have to see how this plays out with Tyler Robinson.

19. undoing almost everything implemented by the Biden Administration;

Yes

20. infusing Christian nationalism into every facet of government policy;

Yes

21. abolishing the Federal Reserve;

No, but Trump is trying very hard to take it over so that it loses its independence.

22. eventually moving from an income tax to a national sales tax;

Tariffs are a national sales tax, but the Republicans have just reduced taxes on the wealthy, not eliminated the income tax.

23. changing the tax code in ways that would likely increase taxes significantly on lower- and middle-income households;

Yes. Tariffs are a regressive tax, as is the inflation caused by tariffs and by gutting the agricultural, construction, and hospitality workforces through deportations.

24. reducing the corporate tax from 21 percent to 18 percent (before the Trump tax cuts, it was 35 percent);

Not exactly. The Big Ugly Billionaire Bill Act (BUBBA) made the 2017 rates permanent, but there were several other cuts in the bill that affect companies differently, depending on their products and circumstances.

25. reducing the capital gains tax from 20 percent to 15 percent;

No, but BUBBA expanded the capital gains tax exclusion for some investors.

26. abolishing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau;

Not yet, but according to NerdWallet, the CFPB is still standing—barely. Most of its activities have been stopped.

27. abolishing the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces antitrust laws;

No, but today (9/22/25) the Supreme Court allowed Trump to fire the last remaining Democratic commissioner, effectively neutering the FTC.

28. shrinking the role of the National Labor Relations Board, which protects employees’ ability to organize and fight unfair labor practices;

Trump has left the board without a quorum, which means it cannot decide cases. It is effectively paralyzed.

29. instituting work requirements for people reliant on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps);

Yes. And Medicaid.

30. allowing states to opt out of federal educational programs or standards;

Some. But states that do opt out lose federal funding.

31. making public funds for education available as school vouchers with no strings attached, even for parents to send their children to private or religious schools;

This varies by state, but the answer is yes for several states.

32. eliminating Head Start, a program that provides services to children of low-income families;

No, but the administration has take actions that negatively impact Head Start.

33. ensuring that “any research conducted with taxpayer dollars serves the national interest in a concrete way in line with conservative principles,” which would, for example, reduce funding for research in climatology;

Yes.

34. abandoning strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change, including by repealing regulations that curb emissions, downsizing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and abolishing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA);

Yes. The NOAA has not been abolished, but its funding has been cut.

35. preventing states from adopting stricter regulations on vehicular emissions;

No.

36. relaxing regulations on the fossil fuel industry;

YES!!

37. reversing a 2009 EPA finding that carbon dioxide emissions are harmful to human health, preventing the government from regulating greenhouse gas emissions;

YES!!

38. dismissing all Department of State employees and replacing them with Trump loyalists;

Maybe not all, but the replacement of federal civil servants is ongoing.

39. reclassifying tens of thousands of federal civil service workers as political appointees and replacing them with Trump loyalists, who would be willing to bend or break protocol and in some cases violate laws to achieve Trump’s goals;

Of course.

40. increasing the number of nuclear weapons above treaty limits and preparing to test new nuclear weapons despite the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty;

All I can find on this is that the U.S. signed but never ratified the 1992 treaty, which means we are not bound by it, but all presidents thus far have abided by its terms.

41. prohibiting Medicare from negotiating drug prices;

Not yet. The Inflation Reduction Act has not yet been overturned, but this may depend on the balance in Congress after the midterm elections.

42. denying gender-affirming care to transgender people;

Yes, in some states.

43. cutting funding for Medicaid in a number of ways, and allowing states to impose stricter work requirements for beneficiaries;

YES!!

44. increasing Medicaid eligibility determinations to make it harder to enroll in, apply for, and renew Medicaid;

YESS!!

45. withholding federal disaster relief funds to state or local governments that refuse to abide by federal immigration laws;

Despite Trump’s threats to withhold funding from California, he did release the funds.

46. ending same-sex marriage, removing protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual or gender identity, and eliminating provisions pertaining to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI);

Same-sex marriage has not been ended, but DEI programs have been attacked relentlessly.

47. defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting;

Yes.

48. allowing more media consolidation by converting local news programs into national news programs;

Nexstar and Sinclair, two right-wing companies, own hundreds of local stations and are appealing to have the rules changed so that they can accumulate more media power. This will undoubtedly be approved by Trump’s FCC, especially after the two companies followed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr’s orders to stop airing Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show.

49. reforming the Department of Justice and placing it under White House supervision;

Oh my! Reforming is too weak a word for what the DOJ has become under Pam Blondi (intentional misspelling). Trump is demanding that she go after his political “enemies” regardless of whether or not they have done anything wrong. Everyone who opposes Trump is guilty by default in his eyes.

50. making the director of the FBI personally accountable to the president.

The only way to do this was to not promote from within but to appoint a totally incompetent director from among Trump’s most fervent sycophants.

 

Well, considering that Trump denied any knowledge of Project 2025 during his campaign, he has followed it quite closely, and we’re only eight months into his second term. Most alarming, however, are all the unconstitutional acts he has ordered that go well beyond Project 2025, including but not limited to killing boaters in international waters without apprehending them and proving in a court of law that they are drug smugglers, easing restrictions on Russia and turning a blind eye to Putin’s escalation of his war on Ukraine, and demanding that the DOJ and FBI never reveal what is in the Epstein files (wonder why). So, welcome to the Banana Republic of America.

Book of Mormon Questions #7 (Characterization)

 To see the context for this and other questions in this series, please see the introduction, parts 1, 2, 3, and 4. 

Zoram—Na‘ar or Stock Character?

A year or two before I retired from BYU Studies, we considered an article that I argued against publishing (“Rediscovering Zoram: The Chief Na‘ar of the Commander of the Fortress”). I felt it fell under the category of apologetics that read way too much into the Book of Mormon account. Eventually, after some (but in my mind not enough) revision, we did publish the article. The main premise of the article, in a nutshell, was that Laban was the commander of the fortress in Jerusalem, and Zoram was his chief na‘ar, or right-hand man. Because of this assumption, the author also assumes that the brass plates that Laban had in the fortress’s treasury actually belonged to the king (even though the text says that Laban had the plates because he was a descendant of Joseph, as was Lehi). Zoram, being the commander’s right-hand man not only had the keys to the treasury but was also an experienced soldier and trusted advisor to Laban who would likely have been present when Nephi and his brothers came asking for the plates.

When I say nutshell, I mean it. This article is 38 pages long and goes into great depth in making the case for both Laban as commander of the fortress and Zoram as his na‘ar. Some of it seems reasonable, but the overall assumptions in the article just feel too far-fetched, based on what we are actually told about both Laban and Zoram.

Laban was obviously some kind of important man in Jerusalem. The only indications we have in the text that Laban was a military leader, however, are Laman’s complaint that Laban “is a mighty man, and he can command fifty, yea, even he can slay fifty; then why not us?” (1 Ne. 3:21) and the fact that when Nephi found him unconscious from too much wine, Laban was wearing armor and had a sword (1 Ne. 4:9, 19). There is no mention of a fortress. In fact, when Laman goes alone to ask for the plates and then when all four brothers go to barter for them, they go to Laban’s “house.” And when Laban covets their possessions and tries to have the brothers killed, he sends “servants,” not soldiers. This may be nitpicking, but even after Nephi has chopped off Laban’s head and has donned his clothing and armor, he goes straight to Laban’s treasury (not the king’s). I’ve always wondered how Nephi could chop off Laban’s head and take his clothing off without getting any blood on the attire, but that’s a mystery for another day. Significantly, there is no mention of Nephi having to gain access to a fortress, where guards would certainly be posted. Of course, maybe Nephi (apparently with the Lord’s help) can pass himself off as Laban, but that isn’t mentioned. In the account, he meets only the servant who has the keys to the treasury. And Zoram is perfectly fooled and willing to accompany Nephi out of the city with the brass plates.

Here’s where my major problems with the article begin. If Zoram really is the commander’s chief na‘ar and is an accomplished soldier, he certainly wouldn’t leave the city at night without his sword. And when it becomes apparent that Nephi is not Laban but is instead a large teenager who has stolen Laban’s clothing, armor, and sword, wouldn’t he put up a fight for the plates? Yes, he’s outnumbered once the three brothers show up, but if he’s the na‘ar, he would not be so easily cowed. But Young Nephi is able to put him in a half-nelson and extract a promise from him that he will accompany them as a free man into the wilderness. The assumption here, I suppose, is that Zoram is likely not a free man already, which, by the way, a chief na‘ar would be.

The story here just seems too convenient for me. Zoram doesn’t put up any sort of fight, which suggests he’s probably more a clerk than a soldier. He also apparently has no family in the city who will miss him. Certainly no wife and children. A little later, he marries the oldest daughter of Ishmael, which suggests that he is older than Laman. And yet he is endlessly devoted to Nephi, who is likely a teenager when he extracts the oath from the older Zoram. When Lehi blesses all his children and grandchildren in the promised land before he dies, he also blesses Zoram and tells him he is “a true friend unto my son, Nephi, forever” (2 Ne. 1:30). Zoram also goes with Nephi when the family splits after Lehi’s death. But if Zoram were some sort of accomplished soldier, why does he not come to Nephi’s aid when his brothers tie him up and otherwise mistreat him? No, Zoram just disappears during these fraternal conflicts. He’s sort of a shrinking violet. In fact, the odd convenience of this whole account makes Zoram seem more like a stock character than a real person. He’s certainly a conundrum, which is probably why this particular author goes to such great and creative lengths to try to account for who he is—and goes well beyond the evidence in the book to make Zoram into some sort of larger-than-life soldier/hero type.

The article points out that Zoram’s descendants are apparently a militaristic bunch. But that is hundreds of years later. In Nephi’s actual account of Zoram, there is nothing to suggest that Zoram himself is some sort of military man. Even in the wars with the Lamanites, it is Nephi who leads them to battle, not Zoram (see Jacob 1:10). To me, he seems to be a stock character added to make some of the plot work out. He’s rather one-dimensional.

Indeed, the whole brass plates adventure has me scratching my head. If it was so important for Lehi to have the brass plates, why didn’t the Lord just send an angel, put Zoram to sleep, extract the plates from the treasury, and deposit them on the doorstep of Lehi’s tent, as he did with the Liahona? Why cause Laban to be drunk, have Nephi murder him, and steal Zoram away from whatever family he had in Jerusalem? All this creates a more complicated storyline, but some of it doesn’t add up for me, at least not as it is told in the account of Nephi.

So, in conclusion, is Zoram a na‘ar or just a stock character? Maybe neither. Maybe he’s just a largely insignificant element in the story once they have the brass plates, and since engraving on plates is difficult and time-consuming, maybe Nephi just didn’t find him compelling enough to include more about him, his actions, or his background. Same goes, apparently, for Sam and the sons of Ishmael and younger brother Joseph and all the wives except maybe Sariah. And, while Laman and Lemuel are more two-dimensional, they too are pretty flat characters in the story. They serve as Nephi’s big nemesis, but what do we really know about their thoughts or feelings or motivations? Not much.  Nephi’s account is pretty much all about him and his dad.