Project 2025: Half of Americans Want Soldiers on U.S-Mexico Border

Almost half of Americans would like to see serving soldiers stationed at the U.S. Mexico border, a survey suggests.

Data from YouGov shows that 49 per cent of U.S. citizens approved of the proposal, making it the most popular policy featured in Project 2025.

The project, produced by the conservative thinktank Heritage Foundation, is designed to serve as a policy roadmap for an incoming right-wing government.

Asked if they agreed with "using active-duty members of the military to help with arrests along the U.S.-Mexico border", 49 per cent either strongly or somewhat supported the policy. Some 37 per cent opposed the idea, with a further 15 per cent undecided.

Awareness of Project 2025 remains relatively low among the general public but several individual policies included in the initiative have gained traction - the most notable being the use of military force to deal with immigration along the southern border.

Former president Donald Trump has recently distanced himself from the project, calling some of the policies "absolutely ridiculous and abysmal."

The 900-page handbook contributed, to which more than a hundred conservative organisations have contributed, has been influential in political circles but some 42 per cent of U.S. adults surveyed said that they've heard nothing about it at all. Only 20 per cent said they've heard a lot about it.

Democrats are significantly more opposed to the proposals outlined in Project 2025 than Republicans, and are also 22 per cent more likely to have heard of the initiative. Majorities of Democrats oppose 11 out of the 12 policies polled, which included banning transgender people from the military, eliminating the Department of Education, and abolishing the Federal Reserve.

The most divisive policy was the outlawing of pornography, which was supported and opposed by 42% of the population on each side. A further 16% of Americans were undecided.

Raising awareness of Project 2025 and the policies proposed in it has become a larger part of Democratic campaigning in recent weeks, as strategists see it as a powerful motivator to get the vote out. Last week, President Joe Biden tweeted the single sentence: "Google Project 2025", which resulted in a massive spike in searches for the project that reportedly eclipsed searches for Taylor Swift.

Newsweek contacted the Heritage Foundation for comment via email.

Despite Project 2025's stated conservative stance, Donald Trump has publicly and repeatedly disavowed the plan. Last week, he wrote on Truth Social: "I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it.

"I disagree with some of the things they're saying and some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them."

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