No-Longer-So-Secret Cabal

REPORT: Who are the Trump cronies & right-wing 'conservative' cabals laying plans to turn the American democratic republic into a Christian nationalist autocracy? What are those dangerous plans?

Jul 10, 2024

(Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts and former president Donald Trump)

AUTHOR’S PROLOGUE: Ok, this is gonna be long. But, hopefully it will be clear. There are many dangerous right-wing powers that have joined forces to take over America. They have been working effectively for decades. I want to bring them out of the shadows for you, dear reader. There are a lot of them. You will need to eventually know their names and recognize their faces as they step out from under their dark veils of secrecy. They’ve been operating under the cover of a lot of so-called ‘conservative’ think tanks. Now, they have stepped into the light as they thirst for their time in the sun. And the media is now starting to call them out.

Who are the groups really laying plans for a second Trump presidential term? Who are the people actively setting policy for a Trump-ruled America?

When Donald J. Trump ran for president in 2016 & re-election in 2020, he had no real platforms. For Donald Trump, HE is the platform. That is, whatever he thinks or does is what is best for the party he has co-opted, coerced, cowed and now controls.

The Republican National Convention had a platform in 2016, but it was not particularly embraced by their candidate, Donald Trump. Then, in 2020, under the direction of the Trump campaign, the RNC decided to essentially adopt no platform. This year, the 2024 Republican party’s platform is short, 16 pages, and largely written by MAGA Republicans controlled by Trump.

Officially, Trump’s platform, put together by his campaign, is Agenda 47. It is a random, scattershot series of videos Trump recorded off the top of his head whenever something bugged him.

Each of these so-called policy statements on the Agenda 47 website is accompanied by an aforementioned short video of Trump that also appeared on his social media site, Truth Social, as he ‘thunk’ each one up. There are no policy papers behind them. There are no policy experts behind them. They are just Trump being Trump, in the moment, talking directly to the camera (and his cultist audience) in short, simple & simplistic takes.

If you were to peruse the list, you would find that it looks a little cray-cray. That’s because it is. Trump is not exactly a disciplined, focused thinker. So, is Agenda 47 his ‘actual platform?” I think not.

Likewise the official Republican party 2024 platform is not backed up with official party policy papers. Just Trump thoughts in Trump speak.

(Kevin Roberts, President, The Heritage Foundation)

But, meanwhile, behind the scenes, there is a massive undertaking by The Heritage Foundation and dozens of affiliated cooperating right-wing organizations called Project 2025: The Presidential Transition Project. What they are preparing is nothing less than the replacement of the American democratic republic with a Christian nationalist autocracy, controlled by the President of the United States, operating as the Unitary Executive.

They have built an extensive personnel database of loyal conservatives who would replace current veteran civil service experts all across all the agencies of the Executive Branch. Those recruits, meanwhile, have been trained in the jobs that will answer directly to President Trump in his second (and maybe, continuing terms). Right-wing policy positions have been developed and policy papers have been written. This is a done deal.

It is all outlined in a 900-page manifesto called, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. It is scary AF! (I’ll call it the mandate, here-on-in.)

Called "Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise," the book builds on a "Mandate for Leadership" first published in January 1981, which sought to serve as a roadmap for Ronald Reagan's incoming administration. … The Heritage Foundation also created a "Mandate for Leadership" in 2015 ahead of Trump's first term. Two years into his presidency, it touted that Trump had instituted 64% of its policy recommendations, ranging from leaving the Paris Climate Accords, increasing military spending, and increasing off-shore drilling and developing federal lands.” - By Melissa Quinn, Jacob Rosen, CBS News

If you don’t read the whole document, at least peruse the chapters to see the extensive list of agencies and programs that are targeted in the mandate. It is staggering in its comprehensive dismantling of the American government. It’s also a roster of right-wing radicals, the authors of the chapters, who might wind up running the government. Remember their names.

Trump may be shooting from the hip. But these folks are shooting with all barrels loaded. To stretch the metaphor, they are locked and loaded.

If you’ve read this far, and hopefully clicked on some of the links to do due diligence on the dangers of what is being planned, this is all just a preamble to what I really want to report. And that is the people who are behind this shadow movement that have now come out of the shadows and are in good positions to seize American power.

They have been working for decades to attain their goals and implement their agenda. This is real. This is now. They are about to become wildly successful in their Christian nationalist conservative control of the United States of America.

So, we’re gonna look at the right-wing organizations and activists who are very likely to play a significant role in a second Trump presidential term and who will have an outsized influence on Trump’s autocratic orders and the future radicalization of this nation.

First, as foundational, let’s list a few organization that are either staffed with former Trump aides or are among the architects of The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. Their mission statements seem benign and lofty. In point of fact, their real work, which has been going on for decades, is to make America a majority, perennial right-wing country. (Each title links to their website.)

Now, let’s look at some of the power players. Below are the individuals whom you should really get to recognize. They may be controlling your destiny. They will surely have voices in any Trump regime that takes power, by whatever means. They will be the no-longer-so-secret cabal.

(Russ Vought, former Trump administration director of the Office of Management & Budget)

RUSS VOUGHT is the founder and president of the Center for Renewing America (CRA), which was reportedly formed to combat critical race theory. He was the director, deputy director and acting director of the Office of Management & Budget during some of the Trump presidency. He is currently policy director for the 2024 Republican National Committee's platform committee. He identifies as a Christian nationalist. His organization, CRA, is on the advisory committee of Project 2025.

Vought is the author of Chapter Two of the Project 2025 mandate on the Executive Office of the President of the United States. He argues that all power in the executive branch resides only in the president. He denigrates the notion of ‘expert independence’ of career civil servants and agency heads. He calls for the “boldness to bend or break the bureaucracy to the presidential will.”

Vought argues for all executive agencies to be under the thumb of the president and beholden only to the president’s agenda. In fact, Vought calls for NO federal agencies to act independently and ALL agencies to answer to the president’s dictates. As the word implies, that makes the president dictatorial. That’s the goal.

(Kevin Roberts, President, The Heritage Foundation)

KEVIN ROBERTS is the president of The Heritage Foundation. He is perhaps the chief architect of Project 2025.

Roberts has denied the 2020 election of President Joe Biden and has declared that the role of Heritage is to institutionalize Trumpism. Appearing on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast in July 2024, Roberts said we are in a second American revolution, and that it could be violent. He also spreads the false notion that liberals "are supporting legislation that abortion can happen until three days after the person's born." This is a dangerous man, with radical ideas, and a comprehensive plan to enact them. That plan is Project 2025.

VIDEO: Kevin Roberts on MSNBC’s The Weekend talks about Project 2025

(Paul Dans, Director, Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation)

PAUL DANS served in the Trump administration as Chief of Staff at the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Now, Dans “directs Heritage’s 2025 Presidential Transition Project, organizing policy and personnel recommendations and training for appointees in the next presidential administration,” says the Project 2025 website. It further states, “He also served as OPM’s White House liaison and worked integrally with the White House Office of Presidential Personnel to staff the approximately 4000 presidential appointees across the federal government.” This is a useful man.

I don’t want to get into the nitty-gritty of Schedule F. Suffice it to say, that Trump was going to use that Executive Order at the end of his first term to essentially fire any civil servant he didn’t like and replace them with sycophantic loyalists. This is now the plan for a second Trump term.

Dans co-wrote the mandate chapter Central Personnel Agencies: Managing the Bureaucracy. By bureaucracy, the co-authors mean the supposed “Deep State.” This is an essential plan of both Trump and Project 2025 - to eliminate anyone and everyone currently in the federal bureaucracy who won’t pledge allegiance to the cult leader, the unitary executive, the forever president, the immune Trump.

Civil servants, beware. You will no longer be non-partisan workers. You will have to pledge fealty to the new king to keep your job. Otherwise you will be replaced.

(Rick Dearborn, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff)

RICK DEARBORN was the White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the Trump administration. He also served as Executive Director of the 2016 President-elect Donald Trump transition team. Now he is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, working on Project 2025.

Dearborn wrote the first chapter of the mandate on Taking the Reins of Government. In the very first paragraph, echoing the ‘America in decline’ falsehood of Donald Trump, he paints a dire division of America. He makes it immediately about ‘us and them.’

“America is now divided between two opposing forces: woke revolutionaries and those who believe in the ideals of the American revolution. The former believe that America is—and always has been—“systemically racist” and that it is not worth celebrating and must be fundamentally transformed, largely through a centralized administrative state. The latter believe in America’s history and heroes, its principles and promise, and in everyday Americans and the American way of life.” - Rick Dearborn

Right from the get-go in this mandate, Dearborn calls for the dismantling of the independent ‘administrative state’ and the establishment of a supreme president.

“In order to carry out the President’s desires, political appointees must be given the tools, knowledge, and support to overcome the federal government’s obstructionist Human Resources departments. More fundamentally, the new Administration must fill its ranks with political appointees.” - Rick Dearborn

As the saying goes, they are now saying the quiet parts out loud. That is, they intend to give full control of the Executive Branch of the U.S. government to President Donald Trump. He has already corrupted the Supreme Court and cowed the Congress. Now he will control the presidency.

In his concluding paragraph, Dearborn states:

“When it comes to ensuring that freedom can flourish, nothing is more important than deconstructing the centralized administrative state. Political appointees who are answerable to the President and have decision-making authority in the executive branch are key to this essential task. The next Administration must not cede such authority to non-partisan “experts,” who pursue their own ends while engaging in groupthink, insulated from American voters.”

This is autocracy, plain and simple.

(Mark Meadows, former Trump White House Chief of Staff)

MARK MEADOWS was Donald Trump’s final Chief of Staff. Before that, as a Tea Party Republican and co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus, Meadows helped oust House Speaker John Boehner.

Since then, Meadows has been indicted in Arizona for allegedly participating in a fake elector scheme. And he has been indicted in Georgia for allegedly participating in a wide-ranging effort to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. I think he deserves some participation trophies.

But, despite his legal exposures, the twice-indicted Meadows is a fierce advocate for the many-times indicted Trump. Meadows holds the title of Senior Partner at the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI). His bio there says he is a deeply committed Christian.

So, so far, Mark is still in the game.

(Jim DeMint, Chairman, Conservative Partnership Institute)

JIM DeMINT ticks all the conservative, right-wing boxes. He was a leading figure in the Tea Party, a one-time president of The Heritage Foundation and the founder of the Senate Conservatives Fund. Currently he is the chairman of the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI). There, he works in tandem with Mark Meadows.

“The Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) is a United States-based conservative nonprofit organization. The stated purpose of CPI is the professional development of conservative staffers and elected officials. Under the leadership of Mark Meadows, since 2017 the nonprofit has grown sixfoldto become the "nerve center" of the MAGA movement. … The group has also held numerous "election integrity" summits in battleground states, advocating for changes to voting rules that will favor Republican candidates.” - Wikipedia

So, the CPI, with Meadows & DeMint, is yet another organization training conservative workers and officials. And fostering & spreading the lies about so-called ‘election integrity.’

(Roger Severino, The Heritage Foundation)

ROGER SEVERINO is Vice President of Domestic Policy at The Heritage Foundation. He wrote the chapter in the mandate on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). I think the folks at Project 2025 want to re-name it the Department of Life. That is because their philosophy is that “abortion is not health care.”

Severino calls for the elimination of “programs and projects that do not respect human life and conscience rights and that undermine family formation.” I’m not sure what he means by “conscience rights.” I suspect that gives permission for discrimination based on religious beliefs. What I could glean from his dense chapter is opposition to homosexuality, gender identity, abortion, some birth control methods and intense support for fostering intact ‘traditional’ families, whatever they are.

So, in essence, Project 2025 should be a worry for any Americans who are child-bearing, practicing birth control, experiencing gender dysphoria or are in the LGBTQ+ communities. And all their allies.

(Jeffrey Clark, former Assistant Attorney General)

JEFFREY CLARK was the Justice Department’s Assistant Attorney General who President Trump considered to replace acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, when Rosen refused to lend credence to Trump's false claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Clark had been working on ways for Trump to cast doubt on the election returns.

Clark is now Senior Fellow and Director of Litigation at the Center for Renewing America, the conservative think tank founded by his friend Russell Vought. Much of what Trump wanted to do in the Oval Office was stymied by White House and DOJ lawyers. But, lawyers like Clark will be happy to do Trump’s bidding from new lofty positions in a second Trump presidency.

(Chad Wolf, former Acting Secretary of Homeland Security)

CHAD WOLF was an Acting Secretary of Homeland Security in the Trump White House. He had served in several positions in the Department (DHS). Wolf was reportedly a favorite of Trump because he didn’t push back on what Trump wanted. Wikipedia notes that Wolf was an architect of the Trump family separation policy and was prominently involved in the deployment of federal law enforcement forces in Portland and elsewhere. Just the kind of man to lead a massive deportation program or domestic military law enforcement. A man who will do what he is told without question.

Currently Wolf serves as Executive Director & Chief Strategy Officer of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) and the Chair for the Center for Homeland Security & Immigration. In his bio at AFPI he is noted to have worked on “civil unrest” & “immigration crisis.” Like I suggested above, an enforcer.

I’m gonna stop here for now. But, there are dozens more right-wing activists who are part of this engaged and coordinated slow-moving coup. I have posited a list below. As each of them make it into the public understanding of their plots and plans I will do further reporting on their power and influence and either update this report or do another.

This is all too real. These are real people with real power and real plans. So, Trump has his Agenda 47. And the Republican Party has its 2024 platform. But, the real agenda, in spite of Trump’s dishonest denials, is in the Project 2025 Transition Plan. It is a dense document. But it is the specific planned coup to change The United States of America from a constitutional democratic republic into a Christian nationalist autocracy.

More to come. So, please watch this space.

No-Longer-So-Secret Cabal

REPORT: Who are the Trump cronies & right-wing 'conservative' cabals laying plans to turn the American democratic republic into a Christian nationalist autocracy? What are those dangerous plans?

VIDEO: Kevin Roberts on MSNBC’s The Weekend talks about Project 2025

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