It wasn't clear what Sherk's source was on voting by private sector union members. Exit polls for 2016 showed that Trump won a larger proportion of union households, public and private, than any Republican presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1984. But Democrat Hillary Clinton nonetheless won a majority of union households.

The 19-page document describes a detailed strategy of weakening union leaders — but selling it in a way that would not alienate members who supported Trump in 2016.

The existence of the memo was first reported by The New York Times in July, which made reference to a recommendation for male porn actors to wear condoms as a safety precaution.

“Most actors in pornography productions do not use condoms,” the recommendation says. “This exposes them to serious risk of contracting STDs, especially AIDS. This is a workplace hazard that OSHA should regulate.” The Times story also noted that the memo proposed curtailing collective bargaining rights and wages on federal projects.

The majority of the memo’s contents, including some of the most potentially significant recommendations, have not been previously reported. In a written statement, a White House spokesperson confirmed the document was used in policy deliberations but did not comment on whether the White House’s goals have changed.

“It is quite common for White House staff to suggest to agency staff potential actions that would begin a discussion around ideas to advance the President’s agenda,” White House spokesperson Judd Deere said in a statement. “There is no question that President Trump’s agenda has unleashed unprecedented economic and job growth. The White House will continue to work with the Department of Labor and new Secretary Gene Scalia to advance policies that protect the American worker and grow our economy.”

Sherk declined to comment for this article.

Over the past two years, Trump’s rhetoric on unions has echoed Sherk’s recommendations. He has repeatedly bashed labor leaders as greedy opportunists; at rallies across the country and on Twitter, the president has complained about the price of union dues, criticized the leader of the AFL-CIO, and said union leaders “rip-off their membership … But the members love Trump.”

The memo suggested Trump “prominently support legislation that aims to improve private-sector union representation instead of curtailing it. These proposals would be difficult for union executives to oppose and help brand the President a supporter of union members.”

Among the union recommendations, the memo encouraged Trump to support legislation to address state “Right-to-Work” laws by giving unions the option to represent only those workers who pay collective bargaining fees. The change would “allow the president to eliminate a major union complaint without coercing workers to pay dues,” the memo says.

Weekly Shift The latest news in employment, labor and immigration politics and policy. Sign Up Loading By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The memo also calls for whistleblower protections for union officers to “show the president wants workers to have better unions,” and proposes outlawing salary caps under collective bargaining agreements.

The document says the White House counsel should explore an originalist constitutional interpretation that the president may fire any federal employee without cause. “There are legal arguments that Article II executive power gives the president inherent authority to dismiss any federal employee,” the document says. “This implies civil service legislation and union contracts are unconstitutional."

“If so the President could issue and Executive Order outlining a streamlined new process for dismissing federal employees. This would facilitate the swift removal of poor performers.”

In addition, the document suggests changing the way the government calculates prevailing wage rates for federal projects under the Davis-Bacon Act, arguing that the current method inflates costs by 10 percent and shuts out non-union construction firms. It encourages Trump to rescind an Obama-era executive order encouraging the use of project labor agreements — mini collective bargaining agreements that last the duration of a construction project — arguing that they drive up costs as much as 18 percent.

Such a proposal would likely alienate the North America’s Building Trades Unions, a group of blue-collar construction unions that struck an uneasy alliance with Trump at the start of his presidency but have become more skeptical over time.

The document proposes requiring unemployment insurance recipients to spend eight hours taking an online course for how to search for jobs, write resumes and prepare for interviews, with the express purpose of cutting public costs. It cites a study in Utah that costs decreased by 13 percent under such a program: “Half of that drop came from people leaving UI rather than participate in the training,” the document says. “They may have been people working on the black market attempting to collect UI at the same time. The other half of the decreased expenditures came from unemployed workers [finding] jobs an average of one week sooner.”

The document also proposes that the Bureau of Labor Statistics switch to “web-scraping” software developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to calculate the Consumer Price Index, the government’s measure of inflation. The change would increase sample sizes and make the measure more precise, according to the memo.

The memo also calls for Trump to issue an executive order eliminating employee unions at the Defense Department on the basis of national security. It says should consider similar orders for Veterans Affairs and parts of the Homeland Security and State departments, as well as portions of the Office of Personnel Management.

“Government unions impede the efficiency of federal operations and direct the government to put the interests of government employees first,” the memo says. “Curtailing collective bargaining in government serves the public good.”

In 2018, after memo was distributed to Labor Department staff, Trump issued three executive orders making it easier for managers to fire underperforming federal employees, limiting the amount of “official” work time in which unions could weigh grievances, and ordering the renegotiation of collective bargaining agreements. The White House said the changes would save an estimated $100 million a year, but a federal judge struck down the orders three months later.

The Trump administration has already acted on key recommendations in the memo. For example, it has changed overtime pay calculations and put forth rules making it harder for companies to be held liable for labor violations committed by franchisees and contractors.