'Essence of authoritarianism': Expert warns 'Project 2025' would create a Trump 'autocracy'

The Heritage Foundation — a well-funded, influential far-right group in Washington, DC — has been quietly vetting tens of thousands of arch-conservative acolytes to staff up the federal government under the next Republican administration as part of its "Project 2025" presidential transition plan. One scholar of authoritarian movements around the globe is sounding the alarm over what that would mean should former President Donald Trump win a second term in the White House.

During a Saturday segment on MSNBC, New York University professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat told host Ali Velshi that Project 2025 would effectively transform American government from a meritocratic democracy to a regime resembling Vladimir Putin's Russia. She pointed to Heritage's calls to eliminate numerous government agencies that serve as checks on the executive branch as merely one example.

"The essence of authoritarianism is removing restraints on the leader and making him immune from prosecution by domesticating government," Ben-Ghiat said. "And so some of what Project 2025 proposes, like abolishing the DOJ and the FBI is designed for that end, to make it impossible to prosecute Trump and allow him to commit crimes with impunity."

READ MORE: The right-wing 'authoritarian' 2025 project aiming to destroy democracy: column

"The scale of this leads me to think about the way that authoritarian regimes actually operate," she continued. "If you get rid of a lot of government and you've got your smaller army of loyalists... they are the ones, the small number of people who actually run government, and they take away the rights of millions. And it's like a band of cronies."

Ben-Ghiat further elaborated that when entire agencies are abolished, cabinet secretaries — who have to be confirmed by the US Senate — are also abolished, which would leave a vacuum to be filled by loyalists. She said such a plan would result in entire departments coming under the control of "a band of criminals supported by oligarchs."

"You need corrupt people to come into power to sustain an autocracy," Ben-Ghiat said.

Should Trump win a second term, it's likely he would re-institute the "Schedule F" executive order governing the staffing of federal agencies he put in place toward the end of his term — which was almost immediately repealed by President Joe Biden once he took the oath of office in 2021. Under Schedule F, numerous employment protections for federal employees would be removed, allowing for Trump to replace approximately 50,000 government employees who make policy decisions with presidential appointees loyal to him. Many of those appointees would likely come from the list of pre-vetted personnel compiled as part of Project 2025.

READ MORE: Expert warns Trump's plan to pack government with allies will have 'nasty consequences'

Watch Ruth Ben-Ghiat's segment below, or by clicking this link.

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