Reading Project 2025, part 7: rethinking government and the economy

How might a likely second Trump administration impact higher education? How can academics plan for and anticipate that major event, should it occur?

This week we continue our reading of Project 2025, a key document in understanding the near- and medium-term future of American politics. This is an online, open, and distributed reading and anyone can participate. Here’s a post explaining how it works. You can find all of our Project 2025 posts here.

In today’s post I’ll summarize this week’s reading, concluding the big “The General Welfare” section at last, then diving into “The Economy,” all found on pages 619–715. I’ll draw out the bits which bear directly on higher education. Next I’ll add some reflections and then several discussion questions. At the end I’ll add some more resources.

Please join in with comments below. In last week’s blog post comments Glen McGee offers a detailed, AI-assisted critique of one chapter’s labor regulations. sibyledu observes that a returned president Trump wouldn’t have to authorize each item on the Project 2025 agenda; instead, the plan has so much detail that newly appointed subordinates can put their respective parts of the manifesto into action on their own, without Trump’s involvement.

There was more commentary on last week’s reading on Facebook. Joey Lusk calls the drive to end anti-misinformation work as “telling on yourself.” Ian Rowcliffe notes that Project 2025 might influence…