NAACP president: Trump Cabinet poses 'daunting outlook' for next four years

The NAACP is expressing concern over how Black Americans might be affected by President-elect Trump's Cabinet picks, some of whom have been linked to the writing of the conservative Project 2025 presidential transition plan.

“From accused criminals to confirmed authors of Project 2025, the President-elect's cabinet appointments present a daunting outlook for the next four years,” Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement Monday.

“Let's be clear — Our 2025 should be a year that advances the progress made in the last four years, not seek to revert it.”

Trump’s appointments have been met with shock and concern from numerous Democrats and advocacy organizations. 

One of the most controversial picks was former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for attorney general, despite a Justice Department investigation and House Ethics Committee investigation into him. Gaetz eventually withdrew as nominee. 

But Trump has also selected Russell Vought, co-author of Project 2025, to head the Office of Management and Budget. 

“The Director must view his job as the best, most comprehensive approximation of the President’s mind,” Vought wrote in one chapter of the transition plan. He added that the office "is a President’s air-traffic control system” that should be “involved in all aspects of the White House policy process." He also said the office should be “powerful enough to override implementing agencies’ bureaucracies.”

On Monday, the Congressional Black Caucus PAC vowed to fight against GOP efforts to implement the plan.

Since the plan’s initial release during the campaign season, the NAACP has worked to highlight the outsized impact it would have on Black Americans. 

The group has argued the plan would roll back decades of civil rights, and in the process “undermine our progress, dismantle democracy, and take us back to a time when we did not have a vote or a voice.”

“The NAACP stands firm in our beliefs that education is the backbone of democracy, healthcare is a human right, and economic empowerment begins with equity,” Johnson said Monday. 

“Any sworn leader of our nation must seek to uphold the rule of law, not subvert it. We will continue the fight to make progress on the key policies that will enrich the lives of all Americans, not just a privileged few."