Undercover video details Project 2025’s secretive 'second phase' — and exposes Trump’s connection
On Thursday, August 15, The Hill reported that a task force of Democratic organizers, strategists and leaders — including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) and members of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) — is planning to ramp up attacks on Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's controversial 922-page blueprint for a second Trump Administration. Democrats have been slamming Project 2025 with a vengeance, but according to The Hill's Mike Lillis, Democrats plan to become even more aggressive into their attacks.
Former President Donald Trump and his presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), have been going out of their way to distance themselves from Project 2025 — which Trump obviously views as a liability for his 2024 presidential campaign. But an undercover video from the Centre for Climate Reporting in the U.K. illustrates Trump's connection to Project 2025 and its proposals.
In the video, far-right MAGA Republican Russell Vought — former director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under Trump and one of Project 2025's main architects — openly discusses Project 2025 with people he thought were relatives of an affluent conservative donor. But they were actually activists for the Centre for Climate Reporting, a British journalism nonprofit.
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In the video, Vought says, "I think you have to rehabilitate Christian nationalism" and calls for "the largest deportation in history" as well as a "block" on funding for Planned Parenthood. Vought says, in the video, he isn't "worried about" Trump "distancing himself" from Project 2025.
"He's been at our organization, and he's raised money for our organization," Vought says. "He's blessed it…. I told him what I was going to do…. So, he's very supportive of what we do."
The video also includes comments from Project 2025's Micah Meadowcroft, a Vought ally.
According to Meadowcroft, Project 2025's first phase was the 922-page outline. The "second phase," he says, is a "comprehensive, concrete transition plan for each federal agency" — and these "much more detailed plans" are "confidential."
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"Because obviously," Meadowcroft says in the video, "you want as little of it to be FOIA-able — if you're familiar with the FOIA process — as possible."
By FOIA, Meadowcroft was referring to the Freedom of Information Act.
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Watch the full video below or at this link.
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