Project 2025's anti-LGBTQ agenda fuels Musk's dismantling of USAID

Constitutional crisis, ongoing coup, call it what you want, but unelected oligarchs controlling our government puts us in uncharted territory. Here's the reason behind Musk's takeover of USAID.

Credit: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Image

Yes, things are as crazy as they seem. Yes, this is unprecedented and overwhelming and it is what it looks like—what I’ve struggled to come to grips with: we are witnessing a coup of nearly all our institutions, a silencing of opposition, and a dismantling of checks and balances. I don’t say this to scare you; I say this because I’ve wrestled with it myself and I can’t reach any other conclusion. There are lots of ways to do something about all this and I’ll provide those links as they come to mind like I did here. Also, I won’t waste your time with a big long pitch but if you want to subscribe or support my work you can get a discount here. Independent journalism isn’t going to prevent authoritarianism from fully taking hold but at least you can get some reputable information in your inbox a couple times a week. Godspeed out there. - jg

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The ongoing crisis in Washington continues with Elon Musk’s infiltration of several government agencies, including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Musk’s “DOGE” team—which includes an apparently-unvetted group of young staffers and at least one neo-Nazi enthusiast—has also gained access to sensitive security, personnel, payment, and contract systems of the Treasury Department.

To reiterate: the richest man in the world whose various companies have untold billions’ worth of contracts with the federal government is now effectively in charge of the systems that disperse our tax dollars. Musk and his team are also now apparently in charge of USAID, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio weakly claiming that he is the agency’s interim director, while blaming the agency for being “completely uncooperative” and saying “we had no choice but to take dramatic steps to bring this thing under control.”

USAID is responsible for billions of dollars in humanitarian aid programs around the globe, including life-saving efforts on AIDS in Africa and elsewhere, and support for Ukraine and other struggling democracies. Now, Musk is dismantling it from within.

Much of the news of Musk’s takeover of government agencies has focused on the what of these actions—that they’re occurring and causing turmoil—but little has been said about the why. Simply put, Musk is carrying out the edicts set forth in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, and much of those recommendations are rooted in Christian nationalist, far-right economic and anti-science principles.

Primarily, Project 2025 seeks to dismantle USAID because of its stance and work on the issues of reproductive rights and LGBTQ+ issues, American Doom has learned.

Project 2025 claims that USAID enriches “the progressive Left,” through its aid programs, has a “bullying LGBTQ+ agenda,” supports “climate change fanaticism,” and foments “bias against men.” The author of Project 2025’s chapter on USAID, Max Primorac, served as the agency’s director during the first Trump administration.

White House communications director Stephen Cheung did not respond to questions about whether the Trump administration or Musk’s “DOGE” team have discussed their work at USAID with Primorac or the Heritage Foundation. Primorac also did not respond to a request for comment, but Utah Sen. Mike Lee did. Lee is one of the sponsors of a bill—the Protecting Life in Foreign Assistance Act—that would prohibit U.S. aid dollars from being used on reproductive rights.

“American tax dollars should not be used to perform or promote abortion, at home or abroad,” Lee said in a statement to American Doom. “President Trump [...] is cutting funding to USAID programs that the Biden administration used to promote abortion internationally. I look forward to making these advancements permanent by passing the Protecting Life in Foreign Assistance Act.”

In January, Primorac appeared on a show hosted by Frank Gaffney, an Islamaphobe and founder of the far-right think tank, Center for Security Policy. On Gaffney’s show, Primorac touched on some of the claims made in his Project 2025 chapter on USAID, saying that African leaders, in particular, were incensed by USAID’s policies of acceptance for LGBTQ+ members, and programs supporting reproductive rights like access to abortion care.

“Our multi-billion AIDS program has been infested with” pro-choice and pro-LGBTQ+ policies, Primorac complained. “[Africa] is shocked that they have to accept these very anti-Christian ideologies.”

Primorac then said that Africans had been “praying for president Trump to be re-elected president and end this ideological violence.”

Ongoing authoritarian coup links

• The Trump administration is working to shut down the Department of Education, multiple news outlets reported Monday night.

• The State Department is also working to dismantled the nation’s aid and diplomacy infrastructure, firing contractors who worked on democracy and human rights programs, according to the Washington Post.

• Trump’s U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia has threatened federal employees with prosecution if they “obstruct” Musk’s infiltration of government agencies.

• An administrative judge with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission emailed the agency’s Trump-appointed director, Andrea Lucas, to contest recent executive orders that end the prohibition on discrimination against members of the LGBTQ+ community. “The tactics you are employing and actions you have taken in lock step with this new administration are illegal and unconstitutional,” the unnamed administrative judge wrote. “I will not participate in attempts to target private citizens and colleagues through the recent illegal executive orders. [...] If you want to continue following the illegal and unethical orders of our president and the unelected leader of “doge” that’s on you.”

• Trump signed another executive order Monday that proposed to create a “sovereign wealth fund” that would ostensibly be funded by any surplus accrued in Treasury’s coffers. Where will the federal government get this new influx of cash? Maybe from all the programs and initiatives that Musk and Trump are killing at agencies like Treasury and USAID.

• Trump’s FCC is demanding that 60 Minutes turn over all footage of its interview with Kamala Harris. This is part of Trump’s silencing lawsuit against CBS in which he claims the broadcaster gave Harris what amounts to a campaign contribution by offering air time on the network. Pretty rich coming from Trump, who is the most recorded and watched president ever. Trump has been winning these silencing lawsuits left and right, with Meta last week agreeing to pay the president $25 million for suspending his accounts following the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. Musk is doing the same, basically arguing that advertisers shouldn’t have been able to boycott X after it became awash in racist messages after he took over the site. In other silencing news, the FCC has opened a politically-motivated investigation into NPR and PBS.

• A new bill passed by Republicans in Tennessee criminalizes policies implemented by so-called “sanctuary cities,” making public officials who introduce or support those policies susceptible to prosecution and even jail time.

• Arizona’s Rep. Andy Biggs, an extremely outspoken election denier, has once again introduced a bill to abolish OSHA. It’s completely failed in the past but I wouldn’t put anything past this Congress.

• ICE is now saying it will deport immigrants even if they haven’t committed a crime—completely contradicting the administration’s claims that it’s only going after criminal migrants. Meanwhile, local law enforcement is in many places only too happy to help Trump carry out his mass deportation project. In Mississippi, a district attorney has announced a “bounty hunter” program in which citizens can volunteer to hunt down migrants for deportation. In Missouri, Republicans have introduced a bill that would award citizens a $1,000 bounty for information that leads to the detainment of an undocumented migrant.

• On his first trip as Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth traveled to Fort Bliss in El Paso, signaling his heightened role in immigration enforcement. No members of the Pentagon press corps were invited on the trip. This slight is in addition to the Trump administration removing reputable news outlets from their spaces in the Pentagon, to be replaced by outlets like Breitbart News.