NATO, Biden, and Project 2025
Welcome back to Politics Explained! This week we’ll cover some updates on the recent NATO summit, Biden’s bid for presidency, and what “Project 2025” is. If you want to stay up to date on all things US Politics throughout the week, go and follow our Instagram @PoliticsExplained1776 and our X @PoliticsExp1776. Additionally, we’re starting a brand new TikTok page @PoliticsExplained1776, so stay tuned!! With that being said, let’s get started.
This past week, leaders from 32 different countries came to Washington D.C. for the NATO summit. President Joe Biden had much on his agenda for this occasion, including creating a picture of himself as a strong candidate to win the 2024 election. After his shaky debate which continues to create worry within the Democratic party, he wanted to use this summit to rally support. However, early on while Biden was introducing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he accidentally referred to him as Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two presidents’ names can be confusing, but mixing them up while they’re actively at war with one another only raises more concern over Biden’s ability to lead the US. Other key takeaways from Biden’s summit performance include his emphasis on the importance of gun control, support for Ukraine, and Trump’s lack of strength in terms of foreign policy.
As mentioned in the last paragraph, the hot topic in US politics nowadays is the health of our president: Joe Biden. The question that has many panicking is, “Can Joe Biden even serve another four years?” Many have already come to an answer to this, including those in the Democratic party. This past week, donors to a pro-Biden Super PAC* decided to withhold around $90 million as long as Biden stays on top of the election ticket. Also this past week, Biden lost the support of George Clooney, a strong ally up until this point, and other organizations, figures, and American politicians have called for him to step down. Additionally, in a White House press conference following the recent NATO summit, Biden mistakenly referred to Kamala Harris as “Vice President Trump,” again confusing the names of figures we view as polar opposites. When asked about the importance of this election on his legacy, Biden emphasized, “I’m not in this for my legacy. I’m in this to finish the job I started.” Although Biden’s overall performance in this press conference was much better than what we saw in the debate, he will remain under the most critical eye with any mistake to be used against him. Stay tuned to follow developments about Joe Biden’s bid for the presidency.
Lastly, I’d like to discuss/define Project 2025, something I believe necessary to understand ahead of the upcoming election. If you’ve paid attention to recent news headlines or are following the Biden campaign’s arguments against Trump, it’s most likely that you’ve seen something about this “Project 2025.” What you should know is that it’s not a creation of the Trump campaign (although it mentions Trump and his campaign hundreds of times), but actually of a conservative think-tank called the Heritage Foundation. Many think tanks, both liberal and conservative, develop “projects” such as these to offer ideas of policy and actions for politicians to use at their disposal. However, the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 tends to be on the more extreme side of such think tanks and projects. Kevin Roberts, head of the Heritage Foundation, claims that “‘We are in the process of the second American Revolution,’” which “‘will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.’” Now, to get into what Project 2025 really proposes, I’ll make it easy and list some of the key takeaways of the 900-page-plan out:
Criminalize pornography
Disband the Commerce and Education departments
Reject the idea of abortion as health care
Destroy climate protections
Support military deployment for arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border
Give more power to the president
End diversity, equity and inclusion programs and the “toxic normalization of transgenderism”
Give federal jobs to appointees loyal to the president
ETC.
Project 2025 is a radical and ultra-conservative list of proposals which has raised alarm across the nation. Although Trump has said himself that he disagrees with many of the policies outlined in the plan, many other policies of his align with the project. Despite Trump’s efforts to avoid affiliation with the plan, the values in which Project 2025 is built upon are the exact same values Trump will bring into his presidency.
*Definition of the week (PAC): Political Action Committee - A term for a political committee organized for the purpose of raising and spending money to elect and defeat candidates.
