DEAR EDITOR:

Project 2025 is the Trump administration’s game plan for remaking the U.S. government in ways that best serve a select few and would make the United States look more like 1925 than 2025. But it is no secret. The Heritage Foundation published it, and links between its authors and the Trump administration are public knowledge.

In recent days, I’ve come to suspect there are other — secret — playbooks.

Consider the reaction of the administration to the killing of Charlie Kirk. Initially it was one of pain, anger and sympathy for his widow and children. Then it shifted to a campaign of retribution targeting anyone labeled as responsible, or even shown to be insufficiently sympathetic.

Kirk ran Turning Point, a well-oiled right-wing machine, and within 24 hours it was obvious Kirk’s wife was prepared to go after not just the killer, but anyone or any organization that could be labeled a hater or enabler.

Meanwhile, the administration and Republican office- holders began redefining Kirk as a quasi-government official — from putting his body on Air Force Two to urging commission of a statue of him to be placed in the Capitol, to a Pennsylvania legislator’s suggestion of a Charlie Kirk state holiday, even to claims that he deserved to lie in state in the Rotunda. Vice President J.D. Vance and Trump’s America First czar Stephen Miller sat in for Kirk on his podcast.

People inside government and out who posted even innocuous anti-Kirk thoughts are being marginalized, even fired. The State Department is scanning the internet for evidence that will be used to cancel the visas of those who denigrated Kirk.

This is not normal. Charlie Kirk was not a government official, and even if he had been, much of what is being done in his name is unconstitutional (until, I guess, the Roberts Court says it isn’t).

Is it possible that people within the government and within the larger MAGA movement are following a shadow outline on how to exploit any of a number of events — assassinations, attempted assassinations, domestic unrest, foreign threats (real or concocted). This playbook would allow an unscrupulous administration to consolidate power that would not be possible through normal political channels.

There’s a political axiom that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. It appears today’s rule is a crisis is an opportunity to do terrible things. Once political operatives turn Charlie Kirk into a useful martyr, there is no limit to how they might use him.

DENNIS B. MANGAN

Howland