Project 2025:
When Trump takes office in January, sexual and reproductive rights will face threats at the federal level. Guided by Project 2025, the Trump-Vance administration’s ideas of blocking abortion nationwide, defunding Planned Parenthood, or restricting protection against discrimination have been circulating the U.S. Despite his initial promise of allowing states to set their own laws concerning abortion, he has since taken such statements back. Although he is not planning to propose a federal abortion ban, it is possible he will work around the ban, heavily restricting abortion access. The more likely outcome is restriction on abortion pills, which currently account for 63% of abortions in the U.S. Along with this comes reinstating the Comstock act, a law originally from 1873, prohibiting “mailing and receiving obscene materials,” with the “materials” being abortion pills. He is also planning to eliminate gender-affirming care for minors, threatening to block physicians who offer this care, as well as having the DOJ investigate any providers.
Administration:
Members of the Cabinet and administration are in the process of being appointed by President Trump, traditionally instated upon the Senate’s approval. Republicans have won the Senate majority; however, approval could still go either way. Since the election, Trump has been quick to announce appointees, already choosing more than a dozen. Many worry that the President is searching for cabinet members solely out of loyalty, and picks may be unqualified. Some choices have citizens uneasy, like appointing Elon Musk for co-chair of the Department of Government Efficiency, a new government department. With lack of experience, and Musk being viewed as Trump’s cult follower, many are worried about what role he may play in Trump’s term. Some working as a part of the Trump-Vance campaign have even claimed he is “overstepping his role in the transition,” according to NBC News. Musk is not the only controversial choice either, many are criticizing Matt Gaetz, the pick for Attorney General, as well as Pete Hegseth, the pick for Defense Secretary. Both have faced sexual assault allegations, Gaetz’s specifically involving a minor. Trump picked Gaetz with the means of conducting a purge on the Justice Department, believing he was the one to do the job. For obvious reasons, these choices have received backlash.
Project 2025:
Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project, is a four-pronged plan acting as a blueprint for the Republican party. The Trump-Vance team worked to distance themselves from the plan, however, Trump’s plans have been tied to the project and members of his first administration worked on the document. Many of his immigration and economic policies directly correlate to the project as well. The project also includes policies such as misinformation allowance, enabling mass deportation, expanding harmful digital surveillance, and more. It also plans to affect students through policies dismantling the department of education, resending civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ students, and reducing funding for students with disabilities. The policy list goes on, with none being guaranteed to be implemented.
Immigration:
His first day back in office, January 20, 2025, President-elect Trump claims he will “crack down” on immigration and set his notorious border plans into motion. Daunting promises, like “on Day one, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history,” have been vocalized innumerable times by Trump.
Immigration is visibly a main focus in Trump’s second term, as 175 immigration actions are included in the controversial Project 2025 composed of writing by longtime Trump loyalists and administration associates. In response to baseless claims and conspiracies regarding immigrants, Trump has put emphasis on his disdain for the “animals” [immigrants] and his plan to “start with Springfield and Aurora” in his deportation scheme.
Contrary to his guarantee to bring more business to the country, U.S. GDP is estimated to shrink by $1.1 trillion to $1.7 trillion as a result of anti-immigration action. During his campaign, Trump pledged to put an end to the Temporary Protected Status, the status allows for workers hailing from select countries to migrate to the U.S. for work. If larger deportation endeavors–such as voiding TPS–materialize, experts predict the effects will seep into numerous sectors of the economy, construction, agriculture and housing particularly.
Compensating for roughly 3% of the U.S. population, over 11 million undocumented immigrants face displacement in these coming years. Nearly 80% of those immigrants have lived in the U.S. for a decade or more. “I got a message to the millions of illegal aliens that Joe Biden’s released in our country, you better start packing now,” Tom Homan threatened at the Republican National Convention this past summer. Homan, coined the name ‘border czar’ by the President-elect, served as former head of ICE and will join his administration to serve as overseer of border control.
Trump looks to reintroduce his contentious ‘Muslim ban,’ following President Biden’s extensive and victorious efforts to rescind it in 2021 with the “Proclamation on Ending Discriminatory Bans on Entry to The United States.” Originally consisting of seven predominantly Muslim countries, (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen), President-elect Trump vowed to reinstate and even expand the ban precisely to prevent refugees from war-torn Gaza from entering the U.S.
After dozens of efforts made by President Biden to reverse and undo the border policies of his predecessor, Trump returns with even stricter policies. Although illegal border crossings reached their lowest point in roughly four years this past August, due partially to executive actions taken by President Biden, Trump vows to seal the border entirely.
Local Implications:
In the wake of an election in which many Republican candidates were elected for positions all over the country, Washington continued its legacy of electing Democratic candidates. The biggest result in Washington state’s elections was Governor-Elect Bob Ferguson’s win for governor. Ferguson will replace Jay Inslee and be Washington’s first new governor in 12 years and uphold Washington’s longest streak of Democratic governors which has lasted 40 years.
“Trump-proofing” the state seems to be Ferguson’s main priority. As the Washington State attorney general, he already has a long history of filing lawsuits against the Trump administration during his first term as president. He specifically cited his concerns about the Comstock Act and criminalizing birth control, the removal of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals which expedites the process of giving citizenship to children of immigrants, and the rewriting of federal law to remove LGBTQ rights. Despite these threats, Ferguson says his team has already been working on it for the past few months. Washington’s outgoing governor Jay Inslee told reporters earlier this month that he believes Washington is in a good position to defend state policies and that “we can still move forward as the state of Washington – he cannot stop us,” Inslee said. “He cannot stop us in our effort against climate change.”
Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal won re-election this year. Since being originally elected in 2017, Reykdal has increased access to free lunches for hundreds of thousands of students, successfully advocated for market-rate salaries for teachers, and increased the number of CTE course equivalencies, which allow students to earn core academic credit requirements through CTE courses. In his new term, Reykdal wants to increase security and access to mental health resources in schools.
Initiative 2109, which proposed the repeal of a capital gains tax on individuals with capital gains over $250,000 (passed in 2021 and took effect in 2022), was voted against and did not pass. This initiative would have reduced funding for K-12 schools
Even some of Washington’s most Republican areas voted Democrat during the election. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez won re-election for the title of United States Representative. Two years ago, Gluesenkamp Perez took the seat from her republican opponent Joe Kent by less than 3,000 votes. Gluesenkamp Perez’s upset gives democrats in Washington and countrywide an indicator of possible ways to regain control of the congressional branches.
While the country is experiencing a massive transfer of power from one party to the other, and changes in policy are to be expected, Washington will stay more or less the same and continue on the same path with goals of protecting reproductive rights, education, and combating climate change.
FAFSA:
In recent years, we have seen an anti-higher education movement from within the Republican Party, so it’s no surprise that with President-Elect Donald Trump being reelected to office there is an expectation of lower funding for education.
During his first presidency, Trump’s budget proposals cut funding for financial aid programs including Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and Federal Work Study (FWS). With the plans outlined in Project 2025 and his words on the campaign trail it’s clear that he will continue with these efforts to reduce aid. This means that it may be harder for students to receive the necessary financial aid in order to access higher education. Budget cuts like this disproportionately affect lower income students and raise questions about class separation as well as removing pathways to join the middle class.
