Project 2025 Implementation: Executive Orders 36 - 40

I know these posts are long, but I can't imagine how else to cover them completely without posting them one at a time. Trump has surpassed FDR's record for the most executive orders in an administration's first 100 days. FDR had signed 99 when he took over in 1933. Trump still has two weeks in his first 100 days and he has signed 116 orders. Many of them are over-reaches of executive power, and numerous have been challenged in court. Still, watching Trump try to consolidate power, implement his bigotry, and use his position to make himself and his wealthy friends even more wealthy has felt like one blow after another. 

4 of these 5 orders are related to the military, and Trump has not been demonstrated any loyalty to our allies so it seems within the realm of possibility that we could see more than a trade war during his term, as America further isolates itself and promotes toxic foreign policies. We're currently at 88% of executive orders representing an implementation of policies or goals detailed in Project 2025. Some are near verbatim quotes. 

EO# 36: Re-enforcing the Hyde Amendment - This one revoked executive orders Biden had issued on reproductive healthcare. Biden order 14076 - instructs the department of health and human services to establish a task force for reproductive healthcare access and take actions to protect healthcare data privacy, and 14079 allowed Medicaid to cover reproductive healthcare up to the point of legality. Because of the Hyde amendment, Medicaid cannot cover the cost of an abortion. And Biden knew he didn’t have the power to just undo that law. So this order which Trump is being rescinded allowed Medicaid to cover costs associated with the travel across state borders for reproductive care.

• Page 471 of Project 2025 says the appropriate agencies should “prohibit abortion travel funding” and specifically calls for the revocation of the executive order which authorized said funding.
  This blog is very pro-choice and I won't mince words about the issue. Reproductive healthcare is a preventative measure for abortion. Birth control is reproductive healthcare, and strengthening access to it prevents abortions. STI and STD testing is reproductive healthcare. Prenatal and postpartum care are reproductive healthcare. Pap smears and other tests for cervical cancer are reproductive healthcare. Every single person with a uterus should have access to reproductive healthcare and Medicaid plays a huge part in that.

EO#37 Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness - This order states that active duty is incompatible with trans identity, despite thousands of trans people currently serving in the United States military. It spells its own bigotry out with lies and misinformation about gender identity as it directs the Secretary of Defense to eliminate identification-based pronoun use and enforce the separation of gendered spaces so they align with sex assigned at birth.

• Page 104 of Project 2025: “Reverse policies that allow transgender individuals to serve in the military. Gender dysphoria is incompatible with the demands of military service, and the use of public monies for transgender surgeries or to facilitate abortion for service members should be ended.”
  Okay, let's say gender dysphoria does impact a person's ability to be a soldier. I'm not sure it does, but what about trans people who don’t experience gender dysphoria? For example, trans people who have received such affirming care to no longer experience gender dysphoria? What’s stopping them from being compatible with the demands of military service? Thousands of trans people are currently serving in the military, but are still less than 1% of service members, and they clearly do meet the demands of service because they serve. Rooting out trans people from military service does no one any good. It does not improve military readiness in any capacity.

EO#38: Reinstating Service Members Discharged Under the Military's covid-19 vaccination mandate - This order does what it says. It states that members of the military who were discharged for not getting the covid vaccine could return to work for the US military. Roughly 8200 military members were discharged in 2021 for failing to get the COVID vaccine. When the mandate was dropped in 2023, the Biden administration offered those service members the ability to re-enlist and only 113 of the 8200 service members who were discharged actually opted to return. However, this order calls for backpay, which was not offered before. 

• Page 103: "Reinstate servicemembers to active duty who were discharged for not receiving the COVID vaccine, restore their appropriate rank, and provide back pay."
  Since this order was published in January, about 650 people who were discharged have expressed interest in re-enlisting in the Marines or Army, but the Air force and Navy were waiting for more specific guidance before launching an outreach mission so we’ve yet to see how many servicemembers will actually opt to return. Now, while the COVID vaccine mandate was very controversial, the flu vaccine mandate for active duty military members is a bit of an elephant in the room. The fact is, the COVID vaccine is safe and protects against severe illness and death, just like the annual flu vaccine. I’m not sure why we would require one but not the other. 

EO#39: Restoring America's Fighting Force - This order calls for the elimination of all DEI offices and programs in the department of defense and military institutions including service academies which it also bars from teaching or promoting DEI concepts.

• Page 103: the department of defense should “Eliminate Marxist indoctrination and divisive critical race theory programs and abolish newly established diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and staff.”
  First off, I need someone to explain to me in what ways the military has been infiltrated by Marxist indoctrination, because that does not seem like a real thing. But more to the point: DEI initiatives in the military work against underrepresentation and subconscious bias which impacts both recruiting and promotions. The impact of this order, according to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, will be a “lower representation of Black Americans in specialized military roles and leadership pipelines.” DEI offices handle discrimination complaints, and teaching race-related historical topics in the military means teaching about the honest history of racial discrimination in the military. The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation points out that the military had led the way in civil rights advancements, including desegregating the military years before Brown v Board of Education, and this order marks an about-face on that tradition.

EO#40: The Iron Dome for America - We’re actually starting to see some movement on the implementation of this order. It calls on the Secretary of Defense to present a plan to the President for an advanced missile defense system for the United States, including hypersonics and space-based interceptors, to defend against missile attacks and “guarantee its secure second-strike capability”. Space command announced that options for this plan are ready to be presented to Trump.

• Page 127: "Invest in future advanced missile defense technologies like directed energy or space-based missile defense that could defend against more numerous missile threats." The concept of an Iron Dome was proposed by Reagan in the 80's but never came into fruition because of tech and cost issues. And it does seem like our military has been requesting these investments for a few years because of China’s advancements in orbital warhead technology. But I’m having a hard time understanding how we’re so strapped for cash that we need to be cutting social safety-nets and tearing down the federal workforce, but we somehow have the money to build apparatuses in space for military defense. If we don’t have money to support SNAP benefits to make sure people aren’t starving to death, maybe we don’t have the money for space-based weaponry. And I can't help but wonder if a sound approach to defense might include not being a chaos agent in the world.