The tone of this year’s presidential election may have shifted since Joe Biden ended his reelection bid and passed the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris. But Democratic lawmakers are still sounding the alarm about what they say are the threats of a Donald Trump presidency.

“People should stay woke,” Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a founding member of the Stop Project 2025 Task Force, told Capital B in a recent phone interview. “The same mega donors that are influencing Justice [Samuel] Alito and Justice [Clarence] Thomas with lavish gifts are the same mega donors who bankrolled The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025,” she said.

Although Trump’s campaign has sought to distance itself from Project 2025, Pressley and others say the manifesto’s ideas — written by Trump associates and published in April 2023 — are sprinkled throughout the former president’s plans. Trump started posting videos of his policy ideas, if he were to return to the White House, in December 2022, and called it Agenda 47. 

Agenda 47’s plans — to restrict prosecutorial discretion when it comes to enforcing immigration laws, give state leaders power over their education system by eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, and weaponize the U.S. Department of Justice’s criminal and civil rights divisions — are similar to the plans outlined in Project 2025. 

The 922-page Project 2025 dedicates 36 pages to the DOJ. The proposed transition plan — officially titled “Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise” — is spearheaded by The Heritage Foundation — a right-wing think tank — for the next Republican president. Their outlook for the DOJ mirrors what Americans witnessed with Jeff Sessions and William Barr in charge.

“Sunlight is the best disinfectant. We will continue to shine a light on Project 2025, [which is] institutionalized Trumpism that we have every reason to believe would be made real if Donald Trump is elected to another term in the White House,” Pressley told Capital B. 

This week, the Massachusetts Democrat and others from Congress signed a letter to the president of the Heritage Foundation requesting he release the fourth pillar of Project 2025. It’s described “as a roadmap of comprehensive, concrete, early actions for each federal agency” within the president’s first 180 days.

Pressley is also a sponsor and co-sponsor of several proposed bills that may be affected by Project 2025 if it comes to fruition. 

Capital B spoke to her about some key areas of Project 2025 that she believes voters should pay closer attention to.

This Q&A has been lightly edited for clarity. 

Capital B: Why do you think Project 2025 plans are alarming?

Ayanna Pressley: I was immediately alarmed because I saw what was laid out in this manifesto as plans. Not ideas, but plans. A policy plan, and a transition plan for institutionalized Trumpism, and, in my opinion, a weaponized White House, DOJ, and Supreme Court.

The Justice Department under Trump had two attorneys general, Sessions and Barr, who split the four-year term. During their short tenures, they collectively shutdown the DOJ’s civil rights division’s ability to launch pattern and practice investigations against police departments with allegations of misconduct. They also allowed the federal executions of more people in a six-month period than any other administration.

Current U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has sought to reverse the previous administration’s actions, with a moratorium on executing anyone on federal death row; a review launched into the use of the lethal injection; and a revitalization of the civil rights division with Kristen Clarke as its new leader.

Given the education that I’ve gotten — and we all received from these extremists in the last five years — they do not make threats, they make promises.” 

What parts of Project 2025 stand out to you? 

I would encourage people to read it. Dobbs was just the beginning. (Pressley was referring to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.)

Project 2025’s ideas for the DOJ are in one chapter that, in part, calls for federal prosecutors to override local prosecutor’s discretion. And prosecute crimes the local prosecutor won’t.

[It also calls for] an end to investigating voter suppression and election interference allegations. It also calls for a review of all active consent decrees implemented in law enforcement agencies across the country and surrounding U.S. territories before eliminating the practice altogether.

[There’s also a] coordinated, unrelenting effort that includes defunding diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; dismantling the U.S. Department of Education; and weaponizing the U.S. Supreme Court.  If you just look at the contrast here, they want to control every aspect of our lives. 

And so when we say that this institutionalized Trumpism laid out in this extremist blueprint, this policy, and transition plan of Project 2025, that it is an existential threat — it is a real threat. 

This story has been updated.