This is an adapted excerpt from the Sept. 21 episode of "Velshi."
It’s difficult to keep track of all the scandals and legal fights that mired Donald Trump’s presidency. But one of his long legal battles that has been all but forgotten is his attempt to overhaul the Census Bureau and his desire to add a citizenship question to the census.
Less than a year into Trump’s presidency, he announced that the census would include a question asking whether you are a U.S. citizen. Immediately, lawsuits followed. The Supreme Court weighed in, eventually rejecting the effort to add the question.
Adding a question about legal status or citizenship to the census might not seem like a big deal, but it would have significant consequences.
Already, alarm bells should be going off.
The census, according to our laws, is supposed to count every person in this country, not every homeowner, voter or citizen. As directed by the Constitution, the data from the census helps to determine how congressional seats are allocated, how congressional district maps are drawn and how federal resources are distributed.
Although Trump’s attempt to include the citizenship question on the 2020 census ultimately failed, the effort to overhaul the Census Bureau is far from over.
Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for the next conservative administration, has laid out detailed plans to exert strong political influence over the Census Bureau.
The section on the Census Bureau begins by stating, “Strong political leadership is needed to increase efficiency and align the Census Bureau’s mission with conservative principles.”
Already, alarm bells should be going off. The Census Bureau is a statistical agency and Project 2025’s chief recommendation, spelled out in plain English, is to appoint a politically motivated head to carry out conservative goals.
Among Project 2025’s other recommendations for the Census Bureau is that “Any successful conservative Administration must include a citizenship question in the census.” Again, the census is not supposed to count citizens. It is supposed to count everyone who lives here, so we as a nation can get an accurate picture of who we are.
According to testing, including this question in the census will deter people from answering. Immigrants might be scared of getting deported, which is a valid fear. Many immigrant families and advocates worry a citizenship question would be used for immigration enforcement, as Trump has promised the largest deportation operation in our history if he’s elected.
So, if people aren’t answering that question, or not filling out the census at all, we will have an inaccurate count and representation of our population.
Project 2025 also recommends the next administration, “Review forthcoming changes to race and ethnicity questions:”
A new conservative administration should take control of this process and thoroughly review any changes ... There are concerns among conservatives that the data under Biden administration proposals could be skewed to bolster progressive political agendas.
The Biden administration proposed changes to the 2030 census to include more race and ethnicity options, so people feel accurately represented. For instance, the census used to include Middle Eastern, North African and some other identities under the “white” categorization, which they found led some populations to leave that question blank altogether.
Project 2025 goes on to recommend:
A new administration should work to actively engage with conservative groups and voices to promote response to the decennial census. Promoting response to the decennial census will ensure that the most accurate counts are conducted, leading to a more accurate apportionment of congressional representation and allocation of federal funds.
Here the document suggests using federal funds to engage with conservative populations specifically to ensure every conservative voice is represented on the census. Meanwhile, Project 2025 completely disregards historically undercounted groups like Native Americans, immigrants and low-income communities.
Without a focus on the communities that are routinely undercounted, the voting power of those districts, as well as federal funding allocated based on total population, would be impacted even further. Communities could receive less funding for schools, for hospitals, and for public infrastructure like roads and bridges.
The census is not supposed to be a political tool. It’s supposed to be unbiased, apolitical, objective data. It’s supposed to be a trustworthy dataset by which we get an accurate read of what our country looks like. But Trump and Project 2025 have a clear agenda to skew that data.
The census is not supposed to be a political tool.
Beyond the injustice of depriving people of fair representation, and of fair funding for schools and roads, Project 2025’s plan for the census bureau is an attack on data and statistics. It's another overt attempt by Trump and Republicans to manipulate systems that are supposed to be unbiased and trustworthy.
This post is part of “Inside Project 2025,” an ongoing series on MSNBC’s “Velshi.” Each week, host Ali Velshi explores some of the most outrageous proposals from the Heritage Foundation’s playbook for a second Trump presidency and explains how they could impact you. Read how Project 2025 would affect the gun crisis, presidential power and your family.