Lesson 10: People are Policy
In the past week, people have been asking why Donald Trump is nominating people who are not capable of running their assigned agencies.
One way to understand this is to recognize that Project 2025 concludes by reminding its readers that people are policy. The idea is that the president’s first job is to choose people committed to following his agenda. That would be a commitment to the second of the project’s four guiding principles: dismantling the administrative state.
The nominees were not picked to run their departments; they were picked to tear them down. Supposedly, that is to eliminate the inefficiency of the deep state, but this is continually described as eliminating woke programs, i.e., any designed to promote racial diversity, gender sensitivity, or environmental discipline.
Beyond that, claiming people are policy raises many other questions.
Why do so many of Trump’s nominees lack character as well as skills? A recent headline read, “Trump Fills the White House with Men Accused of Sexual Misconduct.”
Why do many reject the science that is the foundation of their respective departments’ functioning? Almost all have loudly championed conspiracy theories.
Why do wealthy people want to destroy government programs designed to help the poor? The new administration pledges to maintain huge tax reductions for wealthy individuals and corporations by reducing funding for entitlement programs.
Elon Musk bundles all of these. He has become the unelected partner of the president and is in charge of the overall efficiency effort. You must question his motives when he constantly wears an “Occupy Mars” t-shirt. That is his answer to climate change, but it is also an advertisement for three of his many businesses. Like Trump capitalizing on his political exposure to sell watches, sneakers, trading cards, and Bibles, Musk always seems to be out to make a buck.
That is especially suspicious when much of his extreme wealth has been gained from government contracts and incentives. He claims he will eliminate 2/3 of the federal workforce, which, of course, can be read as eliminating regulations that limit his profits.
This fear of his exploitation of power is reinforced when he buys media such as Twitter and uses it to spread self-serving misinformation. It is also espoused in the way he treats women. Musk has gone through numerous wives and extramarital affairs.
There is good reason to argue that neither Trump nor Musk should be given the power associated with being president of the United States. Most of the other choices announced can be analyzed similarly.
When I began writing this essay, I was uncomfortable making statements like that. After all, Jesus tells us not to judge other people. I felt better when the media started to criticize the character as well as the skills of the nominees, and I felt even more so when I realized Jesus was talking about people being policy when he said we need good trees to produce good fruit. If we want good acts, we need good people. If we want good government, we need good officials. Jesus went on to vehemently criticize authorities who used their power to abuse the weak.
I think the People Are Policy primarily refers to picking people committed to the fourth principle of Project 2025, i.e., “secure our God-given rights to live freely, what our constitution calls the blessings of liberty.” This is pictured as unconditional individual freedom throughout the document. Dismantling the administrative state eliminates programs that promote and protect the common good, creating a situation where people can supposedly do anything they please. Jesus warns this means the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. He teaches a concept of love in which my freedom is bound up with other people’s freedom.
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Pastor Fritz: Your essay has, as always, enlightened and provoked.
Jesus was profound: for good fruit we need good trees.
Ted Lasso is also good: be curious, not judgmental. When what you observe is bad trees, it is not judgmental to point it out — even if doing so makes you uncomfortable. Your continuing curiosity (who else among us read the whole 2025 thing??) will set us free.
Well said! Thank you Fritz. The “Daily Show,” has said that our President-elect is choosing “mascots not leaders.”