McMorrow cracks open Project 2025 at DNC

BY JON KING, MICHIGAN ADVANCE

MICHIGAN—State Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) got a primetime slot on Monday night as the Democratic National Convention got under way at the United Center in Chicago.

McMorrow used her five minutes to speak about Project 2025, the authoritarian blueprint for a potential second term of former President Donald Trump.

Written by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, it seeks to radically rebalance the powers of the federal government, including, among other things, allowing Trump to mobilize the U.S. military against political dissent; ban the shipment of abortion pills as part of implementing a national ban on abortion; privatize Medicare; and dismiss more than 50,000 civil servants and replace them with loyalists.

Lugging an oversize bound copy of Project 2025, McMorrow said the plan, in effect, sought to make Trump an American dictator.

“If Donald Trump gets back into the White House, he’s going to fire civil servants like intelligence officers, engineers, and even federal prosecutors, if he decides that they don’t serve his personal agenda,” she said. “They’re talking about replacing the entire federal government with an army of loyalists who answer only to Donald Trump.”

McMorrow also warned Project 2025 would “weaponize” the U.S. Department of Justice so that Trump could retaliate against his political opponents.

“That is not how it works in America. That’s how it works in dictatorships. And that’s exactly what Donald Trump and his mega minions have in mind,” said McMorrow. “An expansion of presidential powers like no president has ever had or should ever have.”

McMorrow added that because of “Trump’s handpicked Supreme Court,” he would be immune from prosecution, even if he breaks the law.

“We believe in a system built up to serve everyone, not breaking a system to serve one petty, selfish man. The truth is, there’s only one way to stop him and to stop project 2025. How do we do it? We elect Kamala Harris this November,” she said.

Monday night was not McMorrow’s first turn on the national stage. She first gained widespread attention in April 2022 when, in a speech on the floor of the Michigan Senate, she forcefully denounced a fundraising email from a Republican colleague that insinuated she and other Democrats were grooming and sexualizing children because of their support for LGBTQ+ rights. That video went viral and even prompted a phone call from President Joe Biden.

READ MORE: 10 things Michiganders should know about Project 2025

This coverage was republished from Michigan Advance pursuant to a Creative Commons license.