Episode 4: Project 2025
It's impossible not to notice: since coming to power, Trump has been signing executive orders in a frenzy, making sweeping declarations, making threats and calling bluffs. In short, it never stops. As you can see, these are not just the ravings of a troubled man. It's all been prepared and thought out like a blitzkrieg. The idea is to saturate the media and social networks with videos, reactions and staged events, to panic all observers and give them no time to breathe. Even the best-organized structures find it hard to react, so bombarded are we from all sides, so I can't rule out the possibility that some parts of this post may soon become obsolete. It's the “Flood the zone” strategy that Steve Bannon had already whispered to Trump in 2016, but systematized this time, industrialized.
In the midst of all this turmoil and from day one, Trump signed executive orders, two-thirds of which are copy/paste from the Heritage Foundation we've already talked about this in the post on Atlas, how we meet again, huh?).
Questioned before the election, Trump denied any knowledge of the 2025 project: " Never heard of it " He adopted the same technique as when confronted with the accusations of porn actress Stormy Daniels, with whom he had had a sexual relationship and who had then been threatened, then paid, out of presidential campaign funds, to remain silent. In both cases, he brazenly lied. By the way, to say that we've never heard of Project 2025 when we've got dozens of former collaborators (from the 2016-2020 period) working on it and when we invite Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation and the real mastermind behind the project, on his private plane as early as 2022, is a bit too much... But, as usual, with OrangeMan, the bigger the better.
Project 2025?
First, let's take a step back. Since 1981, the Heritage Foundation has published a document called Mandate for Leadership. It is updated annually, with a particular focus on presidential election years. Given the foundation's declared conservatism, these recommendations are a blend of retrograde politics and religion. Not surprisingly, two-thirds of its proposals were adopted by the Reagan presidency, and Trump 2016 adopted quite a few as well. But this time, the project is far more ambitious (hence the name change).
As mentioned above, many contributors from Trump's first term were brought on board by the foundation, and other organizations (nearly 140), many of which were created or led by former members of the 2016 Trump administration, were invited to contribute to the development of the project. Project 2025 was made public in 2023. It's fair to deduce that all these fine folks got to work in the wake of the lost 2020 presidential election. The document itself contains 900 pages of proposals.
But these proposals, laid down on paper, are only part of the project. At the same time, Project 2025 is also recruiting the people who will replace the thousands of civil servants it plans to oust. And we're not talking about the traditional American turnover that occurs every time the president changes political color. No, this goes much further down the administrative hierarchy. They're going to replace as many federal civil servants as possible with people whose first quality will be loyalty. Not competence, not impartiality, not loyalty to the nation, but loyalty to Trump. Remind you of anyone in Eastern Europe?
This is coupled with white supremacist overtones because, for them, “competent” = white male. Hence all these delusions and this dogmatic and unfounded questioning of “ DEI ” jobs. This so-called fight against what is akin to the positive discrimination we see in Europe, allows LGBTQ, blacks, Latinos and women to be ousted in favor of “competent” white males. Creeping racism and mysogyny in action. In the last few days, as I write this, it seems that judges, including a fair share of Republicans, have issued rulings to block these firings, notably at USAID.
Judges, the last line of defence?
One of them ruled that Musk's actions were illegal, and demanded that all the data that had been copied onto a private server belonging to the Musk team be destroyed. According to Heilon, this has now been done... On this topic, AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) puts forward her explanation for Musk's power grab. Basically, she makes the connection with the expiry of certain provisions of the TCJA , tax cuts that largely benefit the wealthiest, decided in 2017 under the Trump I administration. She defends the idea that they not only want to renew them, but also extend and strengthen them, which will inevitably cause a hole in the federal budget. A hole that could be filled by the massive abandonment of domestic social programs (Medicare etc.) and international humanitarian or medical aid, disease surveillance etc. (USAID). I don't know if the figures are accurate, as they are beyond the imagination of the average person, but I'll put the video here for those who want to learn a little more.USAID). I don't know if the figures are accurate, as they are beyond the imagination of the average person, but I'll put the video here for those who want to learn a little more.
Who's the fart?
For those who haven't figured it out yet, we're dealing with a total, racist, fascist takeover, by the rich and for the rich, His voters? Trump doesn't give a damn about them, they've only served to get him back in power. Until when? Well, it's not entirely clear... Since his re-election, the man has repeatedly touched on the subject, suggesting that the texts can be interpreted. Indeed, the president cannot seek a third term if he has already served two. But, he sighs greedily, two terms or two consecutive terms? consecutiveWell, yes, it's not the same: in one case, he can't apply for a second term unless there's a coup de force. But in the other, he could. He defers, he says, to the opinion of the Supreme Court, the very court whose judges he appointed in his previous term, reinforcing the Court's conservative leanings (6 to 3 for the Republicans, roughly speaking).
And if you're still in denial, I think JD Vance's statements in Munich about Europe, Germany, the AFD etc. are pretty clear: it's not just the USA but the “Western world” as a whole that these people want to see tip over towards regimes that are at the very least authoritarian, if not openly fascist, mixing nationalism, religion and business, and exploiting the reversal of values, the misuse of vocabulary, stupidity, fear and people's ignorance of their rights and the way their institutions work.
Try to imagine the current US situation in France and/or Europe. Maybe that's what I'll do in the next episode. In the meantime, get informed, get ready, because European countries are clearly next on the list.
Wesh Bro!
Find here a small comparative table in pdf.
This table offers a structured comparison between Trump's policies and the recommendations of Project 2025, highlighting both the large convergences and small differences in their approaches to different policy areas. Table generated by Perplexity AI
