'Model UN taken over by Scientologists': Unearthed Project 2025 training videos send warning

12 August 2024

A year ago, ProPublica published a stunning report revealing that US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, for the last twenty years accepted luxury trips billionaire and GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, "without disclosing them." The news outlet's investigation led to the Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats' probe finding that "Crow provided at least three previously undisclosed private jet trips to" the far-right justice"in recent years."

Over the weekend, ProPublica released another bombshell report. This time, about the far-right 900-page policy plan The Heritage Foundation vows to implement if former President Donald Trump wins the White House in November.

The news outlet released a slew Project 2025 training videos showing "that 29 of the 36 speakers have worked for Trump in some capacity—on his 2016–17 transition team, in the administration or on his 2024 reelection campaign," according to Esquire Magazine columnist Charles P. Pierce.

Per Pierce, "The videos are preposterous in their tinhorn gravitas," and "look like a Model UN that’s been taken over by Scientologists."

ProPublica reported:

The Project 2025 videos coach future appointees on everything from the nuts and bolts of governing to how to outwit bureaucrats. There are strategies for avoiding embarrassing Freedom of Information Act disclosures and ensuring that conservative policies aren’t struck down by 'left-wing judges.' Some of the content is routine advice that any incoming political appointee might be told. Other segments of the training offer guidance on radically changing how the federal government works and what it does. In one video, Bethany Kozma, a conservative activist and former deputy chief of staff at the U.S. Agency for International Development in the Trump administration, downplays the seriousness of climate change and says the movement to combat it is really part of a ploy to 'control people.'

Pierce notes that in one video, Kozma can be heard saying, "Now, when I think of climate change, I immediately think of population control."

Additionally, "there’s a whole panel discussion on how to dodge Freedom of Information Act requests," the columnist adds.

Pierce also notes that "the videos appear to have been recorded before the resignation two weeks ago of Paul Dans, the leader of the 2025 project, and they are referenced on the project’s website."

Furthermore, "The Heritage Foundation said in a statement at the time of Dans’ resignation that it would end Project 2025’s policy-related work, but that its “collective efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels—federal, state, and local—will continue."

Pierce's full report is available at this link.

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