Why Project 2025 and the Republican platform bash California - Los Angeles Times
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Why Project 2025 and the GOP platform bash California

A photo collage of Trump, Biden, Democratic leaders from California and Kevin Roberts on a sideways yellow image of the state
(Photo illustration by Los Angeles Times)
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Good morning. It’s Thursday, July 18. Here’s what you need to know to start your day:

Project 2025 and GOP platform strategy: Blast California and possible Biden replacements

A large image of an orange fire on a stand between Gavin Newsom and Donald Trump as they sit and talk across a large table
Then-President Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, discussing wildfires in 2020, have long taken opposite sides on issues that affect the nation.
(Andrew Harnik / Associated Press)

After former President Trump survived an assassination attempt last Saturday and was lauded by former GOP rivals at the party’s national convention in Milwaukee, the Republican Party is riding a wave of momentum.

For conservative think tank leader Kevin Roberts and other acolytes, Trump’s reelection would signify a great triumph as they could begin implementing their plan for a massive overhaul of the federal government, also known as Project 2025.

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Trump says he knows “nothing” about the project and considers some of the plan’s ideas “absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.” But the 900-plus-page manifesto released last year was also worked on by prominent Trump advisors and former appointees.

A Heritage Foundation spokesperson told The Times that Project 2025 is a product of more than 100 conservative organizations and “does not speak for any candidate or campaign.”

As the president of the Heritage Foundation, Roberts routinely accuses California’s Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Gov. Gavin Newsom of being out-of-touch liberal elites who are destroying the country — a theme that also comes up in the 16-page Republican Party platform.

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My colleague Kevin Rector reported on the issues at play and the fight ahead:

To be, or not to be, California

Both Project 2025 and the GOP platform emphasize that California is a failing state, unable to control crime, homelessness and regulation.

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“Instances of California really going in a different direction from what the Republican Party wants is all over the [Project 2025] report,” Bruce Cain, a political science professor at Stanford University, told Kevin. “Everything from diversity, equity and inclusion … to high tech [companies] to homelessness.”

Both documents hope that Trump will use the powers of the executive branch to counter numerous California policies, such as those that protect undocumented immigrants, the environment, unionized workers, people seeking abortions and transgender youth.

For example, the GOP platform aims to “cut federal funding” to major California cities such as Los Angeles that do not use their police forces or city personnel to enforce immigration laws.

Other goals in Trump’s platform that contrast sharply with California policies include letting the oil and gas industry “DRILL, BABY, DRILL,” and strengthening “parental rights.” Citing the state’s requirement for LGBTQ+-inclusive curricula in schools, and a recent bill Newsom signed that bans schools from notifying parents whose kids use new gender identities if the students don’t want that information shared, the document and says such rules amount to “inappropriate political indoctrination of our children.”

Project 2025 is much more passionate about its position against California policies, calling on Trump, if elected, to “make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors.”

Apart from urging the removal of all references to queer identities, “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” and abortion and “reproductive health” from federal legislation and rules, the plan suggests that the Trump administration should “push as hard as possible to protect the unborn in every jurisdiction in America,” by working with Congress to enact antiabortion laws and enforce state reporting of abortion data to the federal government.

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Critics argue that such actions would equip conservative states that ban abortions with the power to identify and punish those who go to liberal states such as California for the procedure.

Conservatives look to discredit possible Biden replacements from California

Democrats, including Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, have repeatedly tied Project 2025 to Trump and have criticized it for calling for the dissolution of the U.S. Department of Education, cuts to Social Security and a nationwide abortion ban.

Anna Kelly, a Republican National Committee spokesperson, defended the GOP platform, writing to Kevin to say it “contains commonsense policies like cutting taxes, securing the border, ending absurd [electric vehicle] mandates, securing our elections, defending our constitutional rights, and keeping men out of women’s sports.”

“If reporters find those principles contradictory to values pushed by California leaders,” Kelly wrote, “maybe it’s time for Democrats to evaluate how their state is run.”

The debate over Biden’s ability to defeat Trump has remained prominent. If Harris or Newsom replace Biden, experts said, the conservative mockery of California and its policies will only increase, finding a larger sympathetic audience across the country.

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If Trump wins, experts said, California will have to lead the liberal resistance against Trump’s agenda, just as it did during his first term.

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Commentary and opinions

Today’s great reads

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(Lacy Atkins / Los Angeles Times)
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Wild claims of mass child molestation rocked an L.A. beach town. Truth was the first casualty. The McMartin Preschool trial ended with zero convictions. “McMartin” became a byword for social contagion, hysteria and the epic failure of trusted institutions: law enforcement, courts, the child-therapy establishment and the media.

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How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to [email protected].


For your downtime

A woman reads a book as she walks near the water on a beach, people and a pier with colorful attractions behind her
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Going out

Staying in

And finally ... from our archives

A newspaper story headlined "Dream Realized---Disneyland Opens," with a photo of a boy inside a pot reading "Adventureland"
(Los Angeles Times)

On July 17, 1955, Disneyland opened in Anaheim. It was a nightmare. Here’s what reporter Brady MacDonald wrote about it in 2015:

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Rides broke down. Restaurants ran out of food and drink, and a plumbers’ strike meant drinking fountains were in short supply. Long lines formed at bathrooms. Bunting hid unfinished attractions. Women’s high-heeled shoes sank into the fresh asphalt.

All in front of a national audience of 90 million, then the largest live broadcast in television history on a day that would be known in Disney lore as Black Sunday.

Have a great day, from the Essential California team

Defne Karabatur, fellow
Christian Orozco, assistant editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters

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