The conservative policy director and attorney behind the Project 2025 manifesto took to the stage at a Republican National Convention sponsor's event
to mock liberals' fear over the conservative movement's plan to transform the federal government under a second Trump administration
— all while laying out a vision to take down the so-called "deep state."

"I think that that's what's really gotten under the left's collar,
is that this is really a way for us to make sure when we ultimately get in in the driver's seat,
that we're ready to move out," said Paul #Dans, the #Project2025 director who served as chief of staff and White House liaison at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management under Trump. 

Dans
— and former Trump administration employees who are championing Project 2025 ideas
— spoke Monday at an hours-long event hosted by the #Heritage #Foundation,
the activist think tank that has fueled the U.S. right-wing movement for decades and is now behind the 2025 Presidential Transition Project.

Dans repeatedly described Project 2025 as an antidote to the #deep #state that he described as behind everything from the COVID-19 pandemic to the attempted assassination of Trump over the weekend.

"Remember everyone who died from COVID?" Dans said.
"Remember that disastrous pullout in Afghanistan?
Even remember what happened on Saturday?

All these are products of this deep state, and we need to re-infuse political control over this bureaucracy.

And that's the importance of Project 2025."

Dans says the Biden campaign is pushing a "fake attachment" between Trump and Project 2025, which he said launched over two years ago.

"We are not running for president," Dans said. "President Trump is running for president. We're a group of private citizens advocating for better government."

He claimed the media has "debunked" any connection with Trump.

️But CNN found that at least 140 former Trump administration employees have served in Project 2025 roles such as authors or contributors.
️That includes six of his former Cabinet secretaries.

In total — CNN found "nearly 240 people had ties to both Project 2025 and to Trump."

Dans chastised the Biden campaign's Twitter account for sharing a list of some of those individuals.

"It's a loathsome abuse of power for the most powerful person in the world to direct fire on his fellow Americans," Dans said.

Trump, for his part, has called the project "absolutely ridiculous and abysmal," claiming he has no idea who's behind it and denies he has anything to do with it.

️But in an April 2022 speech before the Heritage Foundation, Trump applauded them for “lay[ing] the groundwork” for his next administration.

️“They’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do,” Trump said of the Heritage Foundation and their efforts to
– as they describe on the Project 2025 website
– “pave the way” for Trump’s next administration.

https://www.salon.com/2024/07/17/this-is-the-secret-away-from-the-stage-allies-plot-project-2025-agenda-at-his-convention/

Project 2025 is a radical blueprint for a potential second Trump administration,
spearheaded by the right-wing Heritage Foundation.

The plan calls for withdrawing approval for the abortion pill,
banning pornography,
slashing corporate taxes,
abolishing the Department of Education,
replacing thousands of experienced federal workers with political appointees,
imposing a "biblically based… definition of marriage and families,"
and placing the Justice Department and other independent agencies under the direct control of the president. 

These and other provisions of Project 2025 are quite unpopular.

As Project 2025 has gained notoriety
— thanks to actor Taraji P. Henson and others
— Trump has sought to distance himself from the effort.

On July 5, Trump posted on Truth Social that he knows "nothing about Project 2025,"
has "no idea who is behind it,"
and has "nothing to do with them." 

This is false. 

The co-editors of Project 2025,
Paul #Dans and Steven #Groves,
both held high-ranking positions in the Trump administration.

Under Trump, Dans served as Chief of Staff at the Office of Personnel Management,
the agency responsible for staffing the federal government,
and was a senior advisor at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Groves served Trump in the White House as Deputy Press Secretary and Assistant Special Counsel. 

Project 2025's two associate directors, Spencer #Chretien and Troup #Hemenway, are also tightly connected with Trump.

Chretien was Special Assistant to President Donald J. Trump and Associate Director of Presidential Personnel,
"helping to identify, recruit, and place hundreds of political appointees at all levels of government."

Previously, Trump appointed Chretien to a position at HUD.

Hemenway also served as an Associate Director of Presidential Personnel and previously worked on Trump's 2016 campaign and Trump's 2016 transition team.  

Project 2025's 922-page policy agenda has 30 chapters and 34 authors.

Twenty-five of Project 2025's authors served as members of the Trump administration.

Another Project 2025 author, Stephen #Moore, was nominated by Trump to the Federal Reserve
but forced to withdraw "over his past inflammatory writings about women."

Further, William #Walton, the co-author of the chapter on the Department of the Treasury, was a key member of Trump's transition team. 

All told, of the 38 people responsible for writing and editing Project 2025,
31 were appointed or nominated to positions in the Trump administration and transition.

In other words, while Trump claims he has "nothing to do" with the people who created Project 2025, over 81% had formal roles in his first administration

https://popular.info/p/what-trump-doesnt-want-you-to-know

Leonard Leo’s ambitions extend beyond the courts.

Organizations within his network have reportedly funded at least 40 groups advising Project 2025, per NBC News. 

Leo is also linked to
Project 2025 co-author #Roger #Severino
—VP of Domestic Policy at Heritage
—who served as the Director of the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Trump.

Severino began his career at the “Becket Fund for Religious Liberty” where Leo sits on the board of directors.

Severino is one half of a “Catholic Right” power couple.
The other half is Leonard Leo protégé Carrie Severino, who previously clerked for Becket and #Clarence #Thomas.  

It was Roger Severino who wrote the section of Project 2025 outlining a ️plan to withdraw the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill ️(mifepristone),
which is also under attack in a case pending before the Supreme Court.

If the religious right fails to convince the Supreme Court, Project 2025 is their “Plan B” (pun intended). 

Leo and his network are also linked to #Kevin #Roberts,
a rabidly partisan fundamentalist Catholic activist,
who has served as president of Heritage since 2021. 

In 2020, Roberts had been featured on the Resources page of “WhereYouAre,” which calls itself a “collaboration of people in touch with … centers of Opus Dei in Texas.”

#Opus #Dei is a “small but powerful”  group “within the Catholic Church” whose members “abide by strict conservative teachings''
and “believe they are called to serve God” not only in their personal lives, but also in their professions, per the Australian Broadcasing Center.

Many of Opus Deis’ members keep their membership a secret. 

Leo reportedly belongs to Opus Dei. 

Leo also sits on the Napa Legal Institute’s board of directors,
a faith based organization whose chairman of the board is #Timothy #Busch,
one of Leo’s closest allies.

Bush co-founded Napa Legal’s sister organization, the Napa Institute, whose annual conference in July 2022 included Kevin Roberts as a speaker. Leo is a Napa Institute donor. 

In December that year, Busch announced that the Napa Institute would open an office near the U.S. Capitol within the headquarters of the Eternal World Television Network  (EWTN),
a global Catholic-themed television and radio network. 

The month before, Kevin Roberts had been interviewed during an EWTN broadcast where he called himself an abortion “purist”
and said that he wanted “not a single abortion happening in this country.”

Roberts reconnected with Leo’s network in 2023 when he spoke during️ “A Duty to God and Country,” ️
an event organized by the Catholic Information Center (CIC) and Napa Institute.

As noted, Leo sits on CIC’s board of directors. 

Meanwhile, Project 2025 (Heritage) Director #Paul #Dans belongs to the New York chapter of the Federalist Society, which is co-chaired by Leo at the national level,
while #Steve #Bannon, Project 2025’s unofficial media partner, has served with Leo on the board of directors of Reclaim New York (founded by #Rebekah #Mercer). 

Bannon, you may recall, has closely aligned himself with proponents of the so-called “rad trad” (radical traditional) Catholicism movement
and specifically said that he wants to destroy the administrative state,
an express goal of Project 2025.

As observed by Media Matters, Bannon has repeatedly used his War Room perch to normalize Project 2025’s radical agenda. 

https://crownewsletter.substack.com/p/christian-right-observer-weekly-volume-fd1