Kamala Harris, the US vice-president, has described the ultra-conservative instruction manual known as Project 2025 as an “assault on democracy”.
Trump has eschewed the 922-page document, which called for the appointment of vetted Trump loyalists as civil servants, enabling them to enact sweeping tax cuts and other proposals.
What is Project 2025?
Produced by a conservative think tank, the document sets out a potential blueprint for a Trump administration, should he win the election in November.
Democrats are hoping that it contains enough ammunition to take down Trump.
What is included in the document?
The Heritage Foundation, the think tank behind the project, says that it paves the way for an “effective conservative administration” and can be used to prize the country from the hands of the “radical Left”.
In several key areas, the document echoes positions that Trump has set out in the past and outlines how he could implement them as president.
It proposes mass deportations of more than 11 million illegal immigrants; Trump has pledged to carry out “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history”.
It proposes giving the executive power to sack thousands of civil servants in favour of political appointees – a move Trump ordered but did not have time to usher in before leaving office.
And it proposes bringing the justice department and FBI under the president’s control. Trump has called for both to be “defunded” following his criminal indictments, and said he would weaponise them against political rivals.
Ms Harris has said that Project 2025 will cut social security, remove the price cap on insulin and abolish the department of education.
But most worryingly, Ms Harris told supporters: “If implemented this plan will be the latest attack in Donald Trump’s full-on assault on reproductive freedom.”
Abortion access would be further restricted and limits on birth control introduced, she added.
Does Trump support Project 2025?
Trump has reportedly eschewed the document, with reports saying the project was killed off following the intervention of a senior Trump campaign official, Chris LaCivita.
“President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the president in any way,” the Trump campaign said in a statement.
“Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign – it will not end well for you.”
In a bid to appear more moderate on issues such as abortion access, Trump had already sought to distance himself from the project in recent months, even though many of the groups and individuals that support it are closely linked to him.
Those behind Project 2025 have floated in and out of Trump orbit over the last eight years.
In some areas the sprawling policy document goes well beyond Trump’s publicly stated views.
As Ms Harris said, it endorses limiting access to the abortion pill mifepristone.
The official Republican platform, released this week, omitted a national abortion ban as an ambition for the first time in 40 years.
Project 2025 also calls for limits to be placed on Medicare claims, to “disincentivise permanent dependence” on the health insurance programme among over-65s.
Trump was forced to furiously backpedal earlier this year when he appeared to be considering cuts to Medicare. The newly released Republican platform vowed to maintain current levels of spending – softening another longstanding position.
Who is behind Project 2025?
Kevin Roberts, the foundation’s president, had said he believed the document would help transform US politics.
“We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless – if the Left allows it to be,” he said.
In total, 31 authors and editors of Project 2025 were Trump administration officials, according to the Biden campaign.
The director is Paul Dans, who served in the Office of Personnel Management during Trump’s term in the White House. The document was co-edited by Steven Groves, who spent three years in the administration, while Spencer Chretien, the former special assistant to the president, is the project’s associate director.
One chapter was written by Russ Vought, Trump’s director of the office of management and budget. Earlier this year, Trump named Mr Vought as policy director to craft the Republican party platform ahead of its national convention.
Ed Martin, the platform’s deputy policy director, leads a conservative pressure group listed on the Project 2025 advisory board.
Stephen Miller, a longtime Trump adviser, is the president of America First Legal, which also advises the project, and appears on a video promoting its “presidential transition academy”.
Ben Carson, Trump’s former housing secretary; Peter Navarro, the former White House trade adviser; and Mark Meadows, Trump’s final chief of staff, are all involved in the project.