You’ve probably heard of Project 2025, the former president’s extreme agenda Donald Trumphis second term. But what you may not know, because Trump is going to unprecedented lengths to keep it secret, is that the groundwork for a full MAGA government takeover is already underway.

Funded by right-wing billionaires, Trump is conducting the most secretive presidential transition since the process was formalized by the Presidential Transition Act of 1963. He may be hiding plans even more extreme than Project 2025, all without transparency or accountability. what is not one secret is that a chaotic transition would threaten America’s security and set the stage for a disastrous presidency.

Transitions should turn campaign promises into government action. I learned how important this work is as co-director of Hillary Clintonthe 2016 presidential transition (yes, we followed the law and had a serious transition for the three months leading up to the election). Campaigns typically receive federal funds and office space so they can conduct an orderly process and coordinate with the outgoing administration. Experts vet potential appointees and write papers outlining the choices the new president will make to craft and implement policy. This work doesn’t attract much public attention as candidates sweep the swing states, but it will have a big impact on people’s lives and liberties.

Trump’s previous transitions have been turbulent. In 2016, Trump first said former governor of New Jersey Chris Christiewho was overseeing his transition, that his work was so good that he could “do the entire transition if we left the victory party two hours early” — only to fire him days after the election and start from scratch. It turned planning into total chaos and meant that Trump had the most incomplete team in modern history when he took office. Three quarters of the top 100 jobs had no nominees on the first day, long ago his predecessors.

A sea of ​​empty desks can have disastrous consequences. 9/11 Commission finder that when transition planning was interrupted in 2000 due to contested elections between Al Gore and George W. Bushdelayed the appointment and eventual confirmation of key national security officials, leaving America vulnerable to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Twenty years later, Trump’s refusal to accept that he lost the 2020 election led to the January 6 insurrection and also an unprecedented lack of cooperation with the Biden team in the midst of a deadly pandemic.

This time, Trump he refused even participate in the government’s official transition planning process so they can circumvent fundraising, ethics and disclosure rules. Instead, it leans on MAGA donors Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon, the president America First Policy Institute, to plan its federal takeover. One reason for this unprecedented secrecy is that he does not want the public, the press, Congressor investigators to later access the records, as they did after 2016. For example, when a special counsel Robert Mueller investigating whether Trump colluded with the Kremlin to influence the 2016 election, transition emails and other materials were taught.

We have to assume that Project 2025 wasn’t written as nonsense and a distraction, and take it for what it is – a 900-page right-wing plan to stamp MAGA on every part of the federal government.

Many of the more moderate career civil servants republicans who staffed the first Trump administration will be replaced by trump card loyalists who have spent the past four years studying the levers of power and preparing their takeover. They are also likely to implement a plan called Schedule F that Trump announced before the 2020 election, which would have stripped public officials deemed disloyal to the president of labor protections and opened the door to the politicization of the federal workforce . chairman Joe Biden rescinded the order, but Trump has been obsessed with reinstating it to combat what he calls the “deep state.” Not only is it fundamentally undemocratic, but overhauling the civil service would leave the government understaffed and unprepared to respond to crises. And there’s a lot to plan for: wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, extreme weather due to climate change, economic uncertainty… the list goes on.

The stakes of this election and the future of our nation are too great to be decided in secret. That is why it is imperative that voters elect a vice president Kamala Harris. (Also, financing a federal presidential transition with private donations from billionaires, regardless of whether candidates accept money from the federal government, should be banned.) If Trump wins in November, if his transition team succeeds or fails, it could hurt everyone If he succeeds and implements Project 2025 and destroys the federal government, American institutions and individuals will suffer as a result. And if his shadow transition fails to prepare his administration, our national security could be at risk. Either way, ignoring a transition shrouded in secrecy will cost us dearly in the years to come.

Ann O’Leary previously served as co-director of Hillary Clinton’s presidential transition team and led Governor Gavin Newsom’s transition as his first chief of staff.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer.