Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley On the ‘Stop Project 2025’ Task Force and the Danger of a Trump Presidency

The “Stop Project 2025” task force is working to prevent a Trump White House, which Pressley says would threaten the future of Black Americans.

As a founding member of the “Stop Project 2025” task force, activist and Congresswom Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) is fighting to prevent the policy blueprint of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025—a “damning, frightening look into what could be possible if Donald Trump is reelected”—from becoming reality

Pressley spoke with BLACK ENTERPRISE about Project 2025 and what it foreshadows for the future of Black America. So, what is Project 2025?

“Institutionalized Trumpism,” she said of the document, which outlines what a “Trump White House, a weaponized Trump Supreme Court and Department of Justice” would mean for Black America. “Ultimately, it means harm to every American. It’s a far right-wing manifesto, a policy and transition plan.”

Preventing this policy blueprint is the main goal behind the assembly of the “Stop Project 2025” task force. “The aim of it is really to leverage every tool of congressional oversight and authority,” she said.

The task force hosts briefings, meetings, and hearings to ensure people are aware of the transition plan that has been laid out in the Project 2025 plan, which, among the many alarming policies, calls for a national abortion ban, threatens to defund Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and dismantle the Department of Consumer Protection.

“We have to do everything to ensure that it not become a reality, that this manifesto is not made manifest” Pressley said. “Not only does it have severe implications on the federal government and our democracy as we know it, [but] it also implicates a Supreme Court that we have already seen weaponized, that is in dire need of a binding code of ethics, thorough investigations into any impropriety of which there has been much.” She suggested the critical need to expand the bench, noting that the Supreme Court has been operating in the “absence of justice.”

Pressley asserted the importance of voters electing Vice President Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States as she emphasized the harm ahead if the election results in a Trump White House. She believes Harris, who has openly condemned Project 2025, will help build a more just America and and not take Black America backward.

She outlined several ways Project 2025 will impact Black Americans, addressing a national abortion ban as a major issue. A national ban on abortion means “a nation of forced birth,” which the congresswoman said is a “frightening” prospect. Such policies will have a severe impact on Black women.

“We still have a Black maternal morbidity crisis, regardless of socioeconomic status or education levels, that we are still three to four more times likely to die in childbirth or post-birth complications,” Pressley explained. Under the Trump White House, policies will be coming for birth control, contraceptives, IVF, and mifepristone, with additional plans to track pregnancies.

Project 2025 poses a weaponized and emboldened Department of Justice under Trump. Pressley recalled the execution rates under the former Republican president’s rule, putting more people to death in 13 days than in the last six decades. They would “go into a murdering spree,” she said.

Other plans include defunding DEI and even using he term, which poses a threat to any of the programs and initiatives that extend resources to underserved businesses, specifically small business administrations that support and invest in Black-owned businesses; ending Title I funding for K-12 education; and cutting social security and Medicare benefits that Black Americans have earned.

The legislator has already fought for action on student debt cancellation as a lead negotiator in the House, something Black borrowers benefitted from. Although more relief is ahead, Pressley recognized student debt as a racial justice issue. She warned that future relief will be met with a barrier if the Department of Education is dismantled.

Watch Pressley’s interview with BE and learn more about the “Stop Project 2025” task force above.