Long before President Trump’s second inauguration in January, it was clear that the Project 2025 blueprint for his administration’s Department of Defense would lead to executive overreach and would make the United States less safe. Aspects of the plan called for overstepping constitutional boundaries, engaging in an overtly partisan approach, and undermining congressional authority.
So, over two months into the second Trump presidency, how closely is his administration following the plan? Close enough that the director of the project, Paul Dans, has said that Trump’s actions are proving to go “ way beyond my wildest dreams ”. What does that look like?
A National Emergency at the Southern Border
One of the many actions issued on day one of Trump’s current presidency was “ Declaring A National Emergency At The Southern Border Of The United States.” This was a clearly defined goal of Project 2025, and though it is laid out in the chapter on the Department of Homeland Security, it calls for the Department of Defense to:
“Assist in aggressively building the border wall system on America’s southern border. Additionally, explicitly acknowledge and adjust personnel and priorities to participate actively in the defense of America’s borders, including using military personnel and hardware to prevent illegal crossings between ports of entry and channel all cross-border traffic to legal ports of entry.”
Consequently, Trump’s January 20th action calls for the Secretary of Defense to deploy the military to support the Secretary of Homeland Security in securing the southern border, including:
· Providing detention space, transportation (such as aircraft), and other logistical support for civilian law enforcement operations.
· Taking immediate action to construct additional physical barriers along the southern border.
· Revising policies and strategies to prioritize preventing unauthorized physical entry of individuals across the southern border.
· Ensuring that use-of-force policies prioritize the safety and security of Department of Homeland Security personnel and members of the Armed Forces.
Addressing Culture Wars
One of the most specific goals laid out by Christopher Miller, former Secretary of Defense and author of the Department of Defense chapter of Project 2025, was to kick transgender individuals out of the military. He called to:
“Restore standards of lethality and excellence. Entrance criteria for military service and specific occupational career fields should be based on the needs of those positions. Exceptions for individuals who are already predisposed to require medical treatment (for example, HIV positive or suffering from gender dysphoria) should be removed, and those with gender dysphoria should be expelled from military service.”
In “ Prioritizing Military Excellence And Readiness ”, issued on January 27th, Trump ordered that it be “the policy of the United States Government to establish high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity. This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria. This policy is also inconsistent with shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex.”
A New ‘Star Wars’ For a New Generation
One of the primary goals listed in the Project 2025 DOD section is to champion the benefits of missile defense.
“Invest in new track-and-intercept capabilities ... Accelerate the program to deploy space-based sensors that can detect and track missiles flying on nonballistic trajectories.”
In quick fulfillment of this recommendation, Trump issued “ The Iron Dome for America ” Executive Order on January 27, just one week into his presidency. It calls upon the Secretary of Defense to provide the President, within 60 days, a reference architecture, capabilities-based requirements, and an implementation plan for the next-generation missile defense shield.
Reinstating COVID Vaccination Refusers
Another very specific goal of Project 2025 was to “reinstate servicemembers to active duty who were discharged for not receiving the COVID vaccine, restore their appropriate rank, and provide back pay.”
In the Executive Order “ Reinstating Service Members Discharged Under The Military’s COVID-19 Vaccination Mandate,” Trump ordered exactly that be done, ordering the Secretary of Defense to “make reinstatement available to all members of the military (active and reserve) who were discharged solely for refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and who request to be reinstated ... enable those service members reinstated under this section to revert to their former rank and receive full back pay, benefits, bonus payments, or compensation.”
Kristina Becvar is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and Executive Director of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.
U.S. President Donald Trump boards Air Force One on August 14, 2026 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. Trump is traveling to Long Island to tour law enforcement facilities in Nassau County and rally support for local Republican candidates ahead of the upcoming midterm elections
Travel Far Enough, You Meet Yourself
Is it possible that our President has simply not traveled enough?
Born and raised in Queens and attending Fordham University in the Bronx, Donald Trump has no record of traveling outside New York until he was over 20, when he transferred to a college in the neighboring state of Pennsylvania. Were his formative years amiss, then, in his learning about other places and other people?
Is his view akin to the famous New Yorker cover by Saul Steinberg, an illustration of the United States with New York City as the epicenter of the country and the Hudson River the border of the known world? We can now at least add Washington, D.C., and Mar-a-Lago to the map of “the realm.”
Our President has now traveled some, but what we recommend is another kind of travel. Not a state-sponsored trip or a venture to scout locations for future Trump Towers. This would be a genuine travel experience, enriching and eye-opening, showcasing other cultures and ways of living.
It will extend far beyond viewing military parades, hobnobbing with such “understanding” world leaders as Kim Jong Un, or taking tea with the King.
WHERE, then, should the President go? As Elon Musk’s Starship spacecraft is not yet ready to take passengers to Mars, perhaps he could explore our own vast country?
Maybe he could travel to “flyover country,” the farming states, where his ying-yanging tariffs and trade restrictions have played havoc with rural economies. Or possibly to California, number one in homeless U. S. citizens, and while there, regale homeless veterans (approximately 32,500 nationwide) with tales of his brave exploits invading and bombing foreign countries.
Or he might tour the Great Lakes, and rename the other four?
WHEN should he go? This will be tough, as he is very busy building his ballroom and renaming bodies of water.
How about a trip in early November, around the midterm elections? Despite the long-discredited accusation of widespread voter fraud, it would be reassuring to know he might be so caught up divvying out ladles of soup in a soup kitchen somewhere that he wouldn’t remember to deploy the military for “election security.”
HOW will he travel? He should definitely not take his Qatari-donated, newly renovated 747, especially after last time, when he had to be smuggled off clandestinely in a catering truck. It’s unlikely any traveling companions, like the Secretary of State or of the Treasury, are going to fall for the ruse a second time. Besides, we may need those people. No more decoys!
Perhaps the President could fly commercially, although this likely would expose him to undue suffering. Without gold bathroom fixtures and maple wood floors, the trip will be no “Luxury Experience.” If only he still had his “Trump Shuttle,” bought with a massive loan he later defaulted on, saying then, “I’m smart. I got out at a good time.”
Considering the potential pitfalls, maybe it’s best the President travel incognito, disguised perhaps as an elderly woman wearing a lot of bronzer.
Wherever, whenever, however: our President needs a vacation.
Moreover, we need a vacation from him.
If the President refuses our travel suggestions, here’s another idea:
Let’s get him a pet! He has never owned a pet. As we know with our children, pets teach essential life lessons: compassion and empathy; they instill a sense of responsibility. There is a well-established connection between those who can care for a pet and those who can care for people.
So, which pet should we choose? A puppy? A kitten? A boa constrictor?
Imagine, the President may even decide he likes having a pet. After all, what is more obedient than a well-trained dog, besides possibly the Cabinet? And what is more docile than a sweet kitten, other than plausibly the Supreme Court?
The President may even become more mellow with a pet afoot and less likely to slap tariffs on our allies, or attempt to annex our neighbors, or bully our Congress. (Realizing, of course, a bully requires active participation from the bullied to maintain his status.)
Maybe we should do both: get the President a pet and devise a travel plan for him. (Do you think we could possibly convince him to leave his phone at home?)
Let’s go for it! After all:
Travel far enough, you meet yourself. (David Mitchell)
And for our President, that would likely be the most profound discovery of all.
Amy Lockard is an Iowa resident who regularly contributes to regional newspapers and periodicals. She is working on the second of a four-book fictional series based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice."