Living in Hawaiʻi can sometimes feel like being far from the political storms in Washington, D.C., but federal decisions has a direct and deep impact on life here. And now, the implementation of Project 2025 is a stark reminder that what happens in Washington profoundly shapes Hawaiʻi’s future.

Land and Environment

Hawaiʻi’s lands and waters are already heavily militarized, with over 20% of the land under U.S. military control.¹ Project 2025 calls for expanding the military footprint and removing environmental regulations. That would mean more leases, continued destruction at Pōhakuloa Training Area and Kawaihae Military Logistics Hub, fewer environmental protections, and no respect for sacred lands, and even more reduced consultation with Native Hawaiian communities.

Federal rollbacks on climate action (like the Paris Agreement withdrawal) matter here more than most places. Rising seas, coral reef collapse, and freshwater aquifer stress are already existential issues in Hawaiʻi.²

Economy and Cost of Living

Hawaiʻi depends on federal dollars for infrastructure, healthcare, education, and disaster response. Cuts to FEMA and privatizing disaster aid—as proposed in Project 2025—means less and weaker support after the next hurricane, wildfire, or lava flow.³

If Social Security and Medicare are downsized, as Trumplicans have pushed, kūpuna in Hawaiʻi would be disproportionately hit.

Culture and Rights

Project 2025 explicitly promotes Christian nationalist values, including rolling back LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive freedom, and DEI programs.⁴

Hawaiʻi is one of the most diverse, multicultural, and religiously plural places in the U.S. A national policy that delegitimizes diversity threatens not just civil rights but the very identity of Hawaiʻi’s communities.

Sovereignty and Self-Determination

Federal restructuring under Project 2025 is about centralizing power in the presidency. That leaves even less space for Hawaiʻi to pursue self-determination, whether in education, land management, or Native Hawaiian sovereignty initiatives.

Decisions about Maunakea, federal lands, or Hawaiian Home Lands are all tied to Washington. If D.C. strips back public comment processes, those voices in Hawaiʻi could be silenced.

Military Tensions and Safety

Hawaiʻi, as the strategic military hub of the Pacific, will be on the front lines of any escalated U.S.–China conflict. A Washington agenda that prioritizes militarization means more bases, more live-fire training, more nuclear risk—and fewer environmental or cultural protections.

Bottom Line

Even though Washington, D.C. feels distant, the policies forged there reach Hawaiʻi quickly—through military leases, federal land use, disaster aid, healthcare, education, climate policy, and civil rights. 

Project 2025 isn’t just a mainland issue; it’s about who controls Hawaiʻi’s future, whose voices matter, and how decisions made 5,000 miles away continue to dominate the daily lives of people here.

1. Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua, The Seeds We Planted: Portraits of a Native Hawaiian Charter School (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013).
2. U.S. Geological Survey, “Climate Change and Sea Level Rise in Hawaiʻi,” 2022.
3. The Guardian, “Trump’s FEMA Privatization Push,” February 2025.
4. Heritage Foundation, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise (Washington, D.C.: Heritage Foundation, 2023).