Project 2025 Exposed
What leaked videos tell us about MAGA’s plan for a second Trump Administration
“Can you believe they put that thing in writing?”
“He’s been at our organization. He’s raised money for our organization. He’s blessed it…”
-Project 2025 architect Russ Vought on Trump’s relationship to Project 2025.
In 2016, Trump had no plan for actually winning. Trump immediately fired the nominal transition team he had in place and threw all of their binders in the trash. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner didn’t even realize that virtually all of the staff from the Obama Administration would leave and that the Trump Administration would need to build a new team. Obviously, the entire Trump Administration was a chaotic disaster, but it’s worth realizing how little of that damage was by design or intent.
This is where Project 2025 comes in. Trump and the MAGA coalition have learned a thing or two from the last time, and it’s long been clear that if these folks get another opportunity to seize power, they won’t waste it. Project 2025 is the MAGA blueprint for reshaping the American federal government and ensuring that America becomes an authoritarian state under its control.
There’s also a plan to implement. Last week, ProPublica’s Andy Kroll reported on 14 hours worth of training video content from Project 2025’s Presidential Administration Academy. Per Kroll, the academy exists to “train an army of political appointees who could battle against the so-called deep state government bureaucracy on behalf of a future Trump administration remains on track.” The videos “coach future appointees on everything from the nuts and bolts of governing to how to outwit bureaucrats. There are strategies for avoiding embarrassing Freedom of Information Act disclosures and ensuring that conservative policies aren’t struck down by “left-wing judges.””
Another way to think of Project 2025 is that it’s the policy wish list for people who support pardoning violent insurrectionists, call for a second civil war, or, as J.D. Vance called for, “circle the wagons and load the muskets.” And it includes a training academy to help folks with these violent takeover fantasies get federal government agency jobs!
The more Americans learn about Project 2025, the more freaked out they become. Harris and Democrats are, of course, pouncing on this weakness and bringing up Project 2025 at every opportunity, with Harris always asking the crowds at her rallies, “Can you believe they put that thing in writing?” Politically, it’s become a real albatross around Trump’s neck, so much so that he’s attempted to distance himself from it multiple times.
But Project 2025 keeps making news that makes that distance impossible. This week, a British NGO, Centre for Climate Reporting, released tapes featuring Russ Vought, a former Trump Administration appointee and the person behind Project 2025. In a conversation caught by a hidden camera, Vought claims that despite Trump’s recent statements, he still supports their efforts. Vought also said that Trump had “been at our organization. He’s raised money for our organization. He’s blessed it.”
The tapes also make clear that Project 2025 is even scarier than we knew. CNN reports that Vought claims Project 2025 “was secretly drafting hundreds of executive orders, regulations, and memos that would lay the groundwork for rapid action on Trump’s plans if he wins, describing his work as creating “shadow” agencies.” According to Vought, those secret plans include the “largest deportation in history” as well as a proposal to use the U.S. military against U.S. citizens to suppress any mass protests to oppose it.
As I wrote last month, Project 2025 was crafted by acolytes of neoreactionism, a political ideology that calls for the fall of democracies and a return to monarchy and aristocracy. The people who conceptualized, funded, wrote and endorsed Project 20205 -- the people participating in the Project 2025 Administration Academy -- all aim to destroy democracy and seek to do so by any means necessary. Their goal is to create a so-called natural order which they conveniently see themselves at the top of.
But outside of them and their weird little fantasies about overthrowing the government and oppressing the rest of us, no one wants what these guys are selling. Most Americans don’t want to live in a fascist hellscape, and they don’t want to be ruled by anyone. American democracy has its flaws but it looks pretty great when compared to the dystopian nightmare that MAGA is trying to bring about.
Our call to action is to make sure as many American voters as possible learn about Project 2025, the people behind it, and the ramifications for all of us. Here are a few resources to help you start to have those conversations with people in your life:
Analysis of 2025 from the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice
Wall Street Journal explainer. (A good one for your right-wing relatives.)
ICYMI
Press Owes Public Explanation for Dramatic Shift in Leak Coverage Approach (The Present Age)
Parker Molloy on how and why the press treats hacked materials from the Trump campaign differently than it did the Clinton and DNC leaks: “This dramatic shift in approach raises a serious question: Has the media learned from its past mistakes, or is this an overcorrection in a way that, once again, just so happens to benefit Donald Trump? Meanwhile, the frustrating reality is that the public is largely in the dark about the decision-making processes behind these changes. While restraint in publishing potentially hacked materials can be commendable, the lack of transparency about this evolving practice is more than a little troubling.”
We Mapped JD Vance’s Inner Circle (Politico)
Terrifying. Worth bookmarking. Note that Vance only has one woman in his inner circle. Shocking that even women in MAGA might not want to work with him.
Meta Kills Off Misinformation Tracking Tool CrowdTangle Despite Pleas From Researchers, Journalists (AP)
This has been a long time coming but a huge loss for researchers who study Facebook and Instagram content, especially. The writing was on the wall as soon as Meta acquired it, I suppose.
Instagram Failed to Act on 93% of Abusive Comments Aimed at Female Politicians, Study Says (NBC News)
A new and not at all surprising report from our friends at the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
Tracking Elon Musk’s Political Activities (Tech Policy Press)
This tracker will be updated continuously through the election. Every way Elon Musk is trying to subvert American Democracy and help Trump win. Yet another helpful resource from our friends at TPP!
A follow-up from last week’s piece. I obviously don’t know anything about the French legal system so I can’t tell you if the strategy will be effective. Here’s hoping!
Want even more links? Subscribers receive a special ICYMI edition of CARD on Fridays.
Coda
Next week, I’ll be in Chicago for the Dem convention, and there won’t be a newsletter. I’m there for other work, not covering it, but I’m sure I’ll offer on-the-ground takes and commentary on the socials. You can find me on Blue Sky, Twitter, and Threads.
And if you’re in Chicago as well, let me know!
Publication will resume in September. Then it’s go go go until Election Day.
FYI, I shared this on my Facebook page and it was immediately taken down by their nazipolice. They claim spam. They did the same thing with one I posted from Laurence Tribe.
Both the Daily Show and Last Week Tonight did really good primers on Project 2025.