Trump Denies Association with Project 2025
The GOP frontrunner has a habit of claiming "I don't know her" to policies, officials, and victims who are bad for his personal optics
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Trump Denies Association with Project 2025
After the video of The Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts threatening violence against the majority of Americans went viral, Donald Trump tried to save face.
He responded by pretending to not know the conservative hate group’s Project 2025 agenda with the goal of distancing himself from it. And today, in another shift toward the center, the RNC obeyed the Boss by adopting a party platform that opposes a federal abortion ban. Do not be fooled.
The problem with Trump’s “don’t know her” schtick is that Project 2025 is the party platform. His former senior administration officials are either directly a part of the agenda or are on the advisory board, along with the majority of Trump’s donors. In fact, Project 2025 director, Paul Dans, served as chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Also, John McEntee, Trump’s former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, is a senior adviser of the agenda.
Others participated in drafting and editing chapters of the agenda:
Rick Dearborn, who briefly served as Trump’s deputy chief of staff, wrote the White House chapter.
Russ Vought, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote the chapter on OMB and other executive offices. He is currently a leader on the Republican National Committee.
Gene Hamilton, who served in Trump’s DOJ, wrote the DOJ chapter and now serves as the VP and general counsel of Project 2025 sponsor America First Legal.
Ken Cuccinelli, who served in several positions in Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, coincidentally wrote the DHS chapter.
Peter Navarro, Trump’s former director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, wrote the Trade policy chapter.
The list goes on to include Trump administration officials in the EPA, the Department of Commerce, the DoD, and other agencies who wrote chapters for these respective departments and agencies.
Trump’s campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt and Trump’s former speechwriter Stephen Miller have both been featured in at least one Project 2025 promotional video created to recruit and train conservatives for administration positions. And Trump’s campaign emails have mentioned Project 2025.
Trump can’t separate himself from Project 2025. So, his campaign will shift a little less crazy in an attempt to appear more palatable to voters and donors who aren’t on board with MAGA.
They are hoping Americans will fall for it. Like everything else Trump sells, it’s nothing other than a con.
-Stephanie
Watch This Space
GOP House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) capitalized on the media frenzy about President Joe Biden’s age to fuel the party’s sham investigation into the President. On Sunday, Comer sent a letter to White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor requesting he sit for a transcribed interview about his connection with the Biden family. The chaos
The U.S. Air Force veteran turned men’s eye candy magazine model turned far-right personality who now represents Florida’s 13th Congressional District as Miss MAGA, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, will not stop harrassing U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. After not getting the reception she wanted to force the House Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest the AG unless he turns over the Biden-Hur interview tapes, Rep. Luna introduced a bill on Friday that would impose $10K per day fines on the head of the Justice Department until he complies. This follows the lawsuit filed by the House Judiciary Committee to force the DOJ to turn over the tapes. The desperation is just so sad.
Russia brutally barraged 5 Ukrainian cities, including the capital, Kyiv, with 40 missiles just 1 day before world leaders convene in Washington, D.C. for the NATO Summit. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak confirmed that 36 people were killed and 140 people were injured. Ohmatdyt Children's Hospital, Ukraine's largest pediatrics facility, became the latest major hospital directly targeted and heavily damaged by Russia’s terrorism against Ukrainian civilians. The UN Security Council will meet on Tuesday about Russia’s latest attack on Ukraine, which might be awkward given Russia is the current chair of the council.
Antitrust
The Justice Deparment told reporters late Sunday that aerospace company Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to 1 criminal fraud charge for two 2018 and 2019 commercial airline crashes (in Indonesia and in Ethiopia involving its 737 Max jets) that killed 346 passengers and crew members. The plea deal only covers wrongdoing by the company leading up to those events and does not provide immunity for recent ones nor does it cover current or former company executives. It includes a $243.6M fine, the installation of an independent monitor to oversee the company’s safety and quality for 3 years, and further investment of at least $455M in its compliance and safety programs. The Justice Department plans to submit the agreement by July 19 where a judge will determine whether to accept or reject the deal.
Election 2024 Watch
After a mild panic in round 1 of France’s election, the left leaning parties formed a coalition called the New Popular Front with a united strategy for round 2. The gambit worked and, on Sunday, voters turned out against the far-right National Rally party lead by Russian asset Marine Le Pen, ensuring it was blocked from taking majority power. The New Popular Front won 182 seats while President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble Alliance party won 163 seats—meeting the 289-seat threshold to edge out the far-right, which won the third biggest block of seats with 143.
An important takeaway from this snap election is that France is rebuking Macron’s party, which lost its majority on Sunday. The surprise was that the left block won the most seats. The issue is, since neither the incumbent majority party nor the winning left alliance reached the 289-seat threshold for an absolute majority and the 3 blocs are relatively equal in size, the French parliament is gridlocked. For now.
With 412 seats secured, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer became British Prime Minister and joined Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office, Larry the cat, at 10 Downing Street. The landslide win by the left was expected, but it was the sentiment by voters across the United Kingdom that unexpectedly put an enormous check on incumbent power across the board.
The Tories experienced one of its worst elections, losing 251 seats, including 11 party leaders. Most notably, David Cameron and Theresa May’s seats were flipped by the Liberal Democrats, which picked up 64 seats for a total of 72, and former Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss’s seats were flipped by Labour. The Conservatives also opened the door for the far-right Reform Party to enter parliament, which won 5 total seats, including one for party leader Nigel Farage (8th time’s a charm!).
The Scottish National Party (SNP) also suffered an electoral beating, losing 39 seats. It now has a small minority of 9 representatives in the House of Commons. Meanwhile, the Sinn Fein Party (the Northern Ireland nationalist party) gained 7 seats, Plaid Cymru (the Welsh center-left to left party) gained 2 seats for a total of 4, and the Green Party gained 3 seats for a total of 4. Also, independents have the most members of parliament since the 1950’s and women gained more representation in the House of Commons, which now has more than 220 women MP’s.
Ballot Measures
On Friday, an Arkansas ballot measure to enshrine abortion in the state Constitution surpassed the signature requirement. The next step to being put on the November ballot is certification by Secretary of State John Thurston. The asterisk here is that a legal challenge is likely to be brought to keep the measure off the ballot.
On July 1, an Ohio redistricting reform ballot measure surpassed the signature requirement to make the November ballot. If voters approve the measure, Ohio’s Constitution would be amended to give the redistricting authority to a 15-member panel called the Ohio Citizens Redistricting Commission. The panel would be comprised of 5 Republicans, 5 Democrats, and 5 Independents who do not have close ties to politics and who are selected by 4 retired judges. The measure garnered more than 731K signatures from at least 44 counties—nearly double the 413,487 needed. Secretary of State Frank LaRose has yet to certify the measure.
Under the Radar News
The Vatican excommunicated its former U.S. ambassador, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, after determining he is guilty of schism. As Vigano spiraled into a conspiracy theorist and far-right figure, he became increasingly cantankerous and even openly questioned and denied the Pope’s legitimacy, as well as the authority of the Second Vatican Council. In defiance of his excommunication, Vigano called the council “the ideological, theological, moral, and liturgical cancer of which the (Francis’) ‘synod church’ is the necessary metastasis.” When the Catholic Church boots you for going full MAGA, that says more about you than the institution.
Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Joshua Kindred suddenly tendered his resignation on Wednesday, July 3 without explanation. Trump nominated Kindred in 2019 after serving in his administration’s Interior Department for one year. While both Alaska’s GOP ultimately senators approved the nomination, it apepars they did so reluctantly. Kindred was not their first or second choice, as he had been rated 16th out of 20 candidates by the Alaska Bar Association. Trump broke over 200 years of Alaska’s judicial nomination processes to get what he wanted.