Nadine Seiler has spent the past year chasing Donald Trump. She was at the federal courthouse in Miami last year when the former US president pleaded not guilty to mishandling classified documents.

She was outside the Fulton County jail last August when his infamous mugshot was taken after he was charged with election interference in Georgia, and in Washington, DC a few weeks later when he was arraigned for trying to overthrow President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

And last month, when Trump became the first former US president to be convicted of a crime, the small-business owner-turned-activist was there in New York too, holding up one of the banners she’s taken to every state, emblazoned with the words: Convict Trump Already!

But Seiler says her reason for crisscrossing the country isn’t solely about her desire to see Trump held accountable. Her main concern is a 920-page road map, known as Project 2025, that lays out exactly what a second Trump presidency might look like. In her view, it’s terrifying.

“They want to round up immigrants, get rid of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, demolish the Department of Education – it’s all pretty scary,” says Seiler, a Trinidad and Tobago native who has lived in the US for 37 years.

“But a lot of people aren’t aware of Project 2025, so my aim as I travel around is to educate them because democracy is literally on the line at this next election. I know that people want to sit it out or don’t want to vote for Biden because of Palestine, and I get that. I don’t want to vote for him either, but I’m going to if it means not having the other guy return to power.”

Led by the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 is essentially a transition plan to expand presidential power across every aspect of the federal government and unite conservatives “against elite rule and woke culture warriors”.

It draws on the views of about 100 conservative organisations and a string of ex-Trump administration officials, including Peter Navarro, Trump’s leading China hawk and trade secretary; Russ Vought, a Christian nationalist who worked as Trump’s budget chief; Ben Carson, the former Housing Department secretary and now a wildcard on Trump’s list of potential running mates; and Christopher Miller, a former acting defence secretary.

The plan, crafted over two years with a budget of $US22 million ($33 million), advocates for a crackdown on immigration, winds back LGBTQ rights, pushes for cuts to corporate taxes and calls for America to take far more aggressive action on China.

In some ways, the policies are what you would expect in a document branded by Democrats as a “MAGA manifesto”. For instance, anyone providing or distributing abortion pills by mail would be prosecuted, while adoption would receive federal and state support. Transgender policies would be slashed, and detention centres would be expanded to round up illegal immigrants at the US-Mexico border.

The Biden administration’s “climate fanaticism” would also be wound back, and billions of dollars in green subsidies would be repealed under the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.

The most striking part of the blueprint, however, is the consolidation of presidential power and the relentless politicisation of the government.

Agencies would be abolished on ideological grounds, from the Education Department (which the document claims has injected “anti-American, ‘ahistorical’ propaganda into America’s classrooms”) to the Department of Homeland Security (which it says has “helped migrants criminally enter our country with impunity”.)

Terms such as “sexual orientation”, “reproductive health”, and “any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights” would be scrapped from federal laws and regulations.

Conservative foot soldiers would be recruited to Washington to replace what Republicans deride as the “deep state” bureaucracy: public servants supposedly aligned with Democrats.

To get rid of them, a 2020 Trump executive order will be reinstated to reclassify thousands of government workers as “Schedule F” employees who can be terminated at will.

“The long march of cultural Marxism through our institutions has come to pass,” writes Project 2025 director Paul Dans at the start of the 30-chapter document.

“The federal government is a behemoth, weaponised against American citizens and conservative values, with freedom and liberty under siege as never before.

“The task at hand to reverse this tide and restore our Republic to its original moorings is too great for any one conservative policy shop to spearhead. It requires the collective action of our movement.”

The goal, in part, is to avoid the pitfalls of Trump’s first term. Following his surprise 2016 victory against Hillary Clinton, Trump aides took a while to come to grips with the enormity of the task they faced. The transition was chaotic, according to insiders at the time, and even as the dust settled, some of his policies were met with resistance and cabinet nominations often stalled.

To quickly get the right people this time around, an online “presidential administration academy” has been set up to train future political appointees, along with a massive database that Dans describes as a “conservative LinkedIn”.

Cornell University political scientist Rachel Beatty Riedl says Project 2025 is emblematic of a broader global trend in which threats to democracy are emerging not just from coups, military aggression or civil war, but also from autocratic leaders using democratic institutions to consolidate executive power.

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This type of backsliding, known as “executive aggrandisement”, has taken place in countries such as Hungary, Nicaragua and Turkey but is new to America, says Beatty Riedl, who runs the university’s Centre for International Studies and is the co-author of the book Democratic Backsliding, Resilience and Resistance.

“It’s a very concerning sign,” she says. “If Project 2025 is implemented, what it means is a dramatic decrease in American citizens’ ability to engage in public life based on the kind of principles of liberty, freedom and representation that are accorded in a democracy.”

Trump’s campaign has resisted the idea that they would adopt the agenda in its entirety. A Heritage Foundation spokeswoman told this masthead that “Project 2025 does not speak for president Trump or his campaign, and it is up to the president to set his own agenda”.

But some of the policy document’s authors, such as Vought, are likely to be part of his administration if he returns, and many of the ideas floated – albeit not all – align with policies Trump has outlined in his own campaign platform, known as “Agenda47”. (If re-elected, Trump will be the 47th president of the US.)

He, for instance, has made no secret of his desire to scour the country for illegal immigrants as part of “the biggest mass deportation in history”.

Following his conviction in New York last month, he also ramped up his rhetoric about the “weaponised” Justice Department, which he has vowed to overhaul and potentially use to pursue his opponents.

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And on Thursday, he returned to Capitol Hill for the first time since his supporters stormed the building on January 6, 2021. After meeting Republicans in the House and Senate, he touted his hope of winning back control of Congress and the White House in November.

“We have one thing in mind, and that’s making our country great,” Trump said, insisting the party was united.

With five months until the election – and Biden campaigning on issues such as democracy and reproductive rights – Democrats have seized on Project 2025 as a “dystopian plot”.

Some members of Congress have even formed a “Stop Project 2025 Taskforce”, inviting members of the community to get involved and help counteract the plan over the next few months.

“We need a co-ordinated strategy to save America and stop this coup before it’s too late,” said California congressman Jared Huffman, a founding member of the task force.

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But Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts hit back, saying: “It’s amusing how those on the left seem surprised that conservative policy organisations advocate for conservative policies.

“Under the Biden administration, the federal government has been weaponised against American citizens, our border invaded, and our institutions captured by woke ideology,” he said in a statement.

“The task force launched by House Democrats only underscores the left’s fear of losing its grip on their authoritarian bureaucracy.”

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