The Republican Party’s official platform for the 2024 election is even clearer, promising to roll back the Biden administration’s earlier efforts to secure AI and “protect the right to mine Bitcoin.”
All of these changes will conveniently benefit some of Trump’s most vocal and key supporters in Silicon Valley. Trump’s running mate, Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, has long had ties to the tech industry, particularly through his former employer, billionaire Peter Thiel, founder of Palantir and a longtime Trump supporter. (Thiel’s venture capital firm, Founders Fund, invested $200 million in cryptocurrencies earlier this year.)
Thiel is one of several Silicon Valley heavyweights who have recently voiced their support for Trump. Over the past month, Elon Musk and David Sachs have both been vocal in their support for the former president. Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who have invested in several cryptocurrency and AI startups with their firm a16z, have also said they will donate to the Trump campaign.
“They see this as an opportunity to thwart future regulation,” Howarth said. “They’re buying the ability to circumvent oversight.”
Bloomberg reported that Project 2025 was written in part by people who have worked for or lobbied for companies including Meta, Amazon and a privately held bitcoin company. Both Trump and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have courted donors in the cryptocurrency space, and in May the Trump campaign announced it would accept donations in cryptocurrency.
But Project 2025 isn’t necessarily favorable to all tech companies. In the document, its authors accuse big tech companies of “trying to drive diverse political views from our digital streets.” The plan supports legislation that would eliminate the immunity given to social media platforms by Section 230, which protects companies from legal liability for user-generated content on their sites, and promotes anti-discrimination policies that “prohibit discrimination against core political views.”
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also aims to impose transparency rules on social platforms, saying it “can require social platforms to have more specific terms of use and can hold them accountable by prohibiting conduct that violates those clear and specific terms.”
And despite President Trump himself promising to reinstate TikTok, Project 2025 proposes the administration “ban all Chinese-made social media apps, including TikTok and WeChat, which pose significant national security risks and expose American consumers to data and identity theft.”
West said the plan is riddled with inconsistencies in how it approaches regulation. He also noted that the plan is particularly soft on industries heavily funded by tech billionaires and venture capitalists, specifically AI and cryptocurrency. “Project 2025 is not just a policy statement, it’s a fundraising vehicle,” he said. “So I think the funding lens is important in resolving some of the seeming inconsistencies in how we approach regulation.”
It remains to be seen how much of an impact Project 2025 will have on a future Republican administration. On Tuesday, Paul Danz, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, resigned from his position. Trump himself has tried to distance himself from the plan, but The Wall Street Journal reports that the project may fade into the background, but it’s not going away. Instead, the Heritage Foundation is shifting its focus to building a slate of conservative talent to be hired by a Republican administration and carry out the party’s vision.
