The subject of this column gives new meaning to “hypocrisy,” and for an irreverent cynic like me who is always looking for fodder lending itself to sarcastic examination, it is just too “delicious” not to take a satirical scalpel to it.
We are going to speculate that you have heard of Project 2025 (“A Mandate for Leadership”), an 887-page screed produced by the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, which contains policies it would like to see enacted by conservative administrations (read Donald Trump).
It was a major controversial issue in last year’s election with Democrats criticizing it while Trump maintained he never heard of it, despite the fact that some 140 people who had worked for him helped write it.
Indeed, the Senate recently confirmed the nomination of Russell Vought as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought was a co-author and reported “architect” of Project 2025. Several others involved with the project also have been appointed to positions in the administration.
We were befuddled why Trump distanced himself from the recommendations because they echo many of the policies he is adopting with gusto every day (every hour).
After some journalistic digging, we now understand why.
The Foundation produced 23 videos totaling 14 hours of training videos to be used by Project 2025 advocates in spreading the message. They were made public by ProPublica and Documented.
What caught our cynical eye was one dealing with those who should not be hired by the federal government. After processing the respective message, we drooled at the keyboard.
Here, verbatim, is the criteria for federal employment as explained by the narrator, Dennis Dean Kirk, identified in the 29:56-minute tape as Heritage Foundation associate director.
“If you have been convicted of a crime, you will not be serving in the federal government. Crimes such as fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion show a lack of moral character.
“To obtain employment, it is not favorable if you have accumulated debt and filed for bankruptcy.”
Kirk stressed that these policies would apply to “anybody” to assure those seeking employment are “reliable, trustworthy and suitable” for the job they are seeking.
These “policies” you can understand, left us completely confused. We would have expected the Foundation to favor candidates with nefarious backgrounds since the resume of the top gun — the boss — reeks with the kind of record the Foundation says it frowns upon.
Perhaps the first sentence should have read, “If you have been convicted of a crime, you will be serving…” Maybe the Foundation missed a typo.
In any event, the training video led us to review just a little of Trump’s history:
• He was convicted of 34 felonies.
• He was indicted on several other charges which, for a variety of reasons, did not make it to trial.
• He was found guilty of defamation and sexual abuse in two civil trials.
• He was fined $465 million for real estate fraud.
• He settled a lawsuit for $25 million after students at Trump University charged the institution with fraud.
• He “accumulated debt,” lots of it, at the Trump Organization, filing for bankruptcy six times before becoming president.
• When president Trump increased the federal deficit by about $8 trillion. That’s debt, a whole lot of it.
On its website, Project 2025 claims, “…the Trump administration relied heavily on the Heritage’s ‘Mandate’ for leadership, embracing nearly two-thirds of Heritage’s proposals within just one year in office.”
From that, it’s entirely fair to deduce the remaining one-third not implemented involved the issue of moral character and the Foundation’s criteria to be hired by the federal government.
While Trump expresses ignorance of Project 2025, JD Vance, his vice president, has written a foreword in a new book, “Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America” by Foundation President Kevin Roberts.
While Vance spokespeople told the AP that Vance also “has nothing to do with Project 2025,” Vance lauded the book, stating it will “pave the way for a new age of conservatism in which the right goes on the ‘offensive.”
According to The New Republic which obtained a copy of the book, Vance says in his foreword:
“The old conservative movement argued if you just got government out of the way, natural forces would resolve problems—we are no longer in this situation and must take a different approach. As Kevin Roberts writes, ‘It’s fine to take a laissez-faire approach when you are in the safety of the sunshine. But when the twilight descends and you hear the wolves, you’ve got to circle the wagons and load the muskets.’
“We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.”
Vance is silent on employment criteria.
(From CNN: At least 11 people who played a role in Trump’s presidential campaigns or his administration have been charged with crimes.)
In disavowing any knowledge of Project 2025, in April 2024, Trump posted the following:
“I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal...”
The only logical conclusion? Trump finds it “absolutely ridiculous and abysmal” to require a high moral character and be free of having accumulated debt to be hired by the federal government (or be elected president.)
We are going to speculate that you have heard of Project 2025 (“A Mandate for Leadership”), an 887-page screed produced by the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, which contains policies it would like to see enacted by conservative administrations (read Donald Trump).
It was a major controversial issue in last year’s election with Democrats criticizing it while Trump maintained he never heard of it, despite the fact that some 140 people who had worked for him helped write it.
Indeed, the Senate recently confirmed the nomination of Russell Vought as director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought was a co-author and reported “architect” of Project 2025. Several others involved with the project also have been appointed to positions in the administration.
We were befuddled why Trump distanced himself from the recommendations because they echo many of the policies he is adopting with gusto every day (every hour).
After some journalistic digging, we now understand why.
The Foundation produced 23 videos totaling 14 hours of training videos to be used by Project 2025 advocates in spreading the message. They were made public by ProPublica and Documented.
What caught our cynical eye was one dealing with those who should not be hired by the federal government. After processing the respective message, we drooled at the keyboard.
Here, verbatim, is the criteria for federal employment as explained by the narrator, Dennis Dean Kirk, identified in the 29:56-minute tape as Heritage Foundation associate director.
“If you have been convicted of a crime, you will not be serving in the federal government. Crimes such as fraud, embezzlement and tax evasion show a lack of moral character.
“To obtain employment, it is not favorable if you have accumulated debt and filed for bankruptcy.”
Kirk stressed that these policies would apply to “anybody” to assure those seeking employment are “reliable, trustworthy and suitable” for the job they are seeking.
These “policies” you can understand, left us completely confused. We would have expected the Foundation to favor candidates with nefarious backgrounds since the resume of the top gun — the boss — reeks with the kind of record the Foundation says it frowns upon.
Perhaps the first sentence should have read, “If you have been convicted of a crime, you will be serving…” Maybe the Foundation missed a typo.
In any event, the training video led us to review just a little of Trump’s history:
• He was convicted of 34 felonies.
• He was indicted on several other charges which, for a variety of reasons, did not make it to trial.
• He was found guilty of defamation and sexual abuse in two civil trials.
• He was fined $465 million for real estate fraud.
• He settled a lawsuit for $25 million after students at Trump University charged the institution with fraud.
• He “accumulated debt,” lots of it, at the Trump Organization, filing for bankruptcy six times before becoming president.
• When president Trump increased the federal deficit by about $8 trillion. That’s debt, a whole lot of it.
On its website, Project 2025 claims, “…the Trump administration relied heavily on the Heritage’s ‘Mandate’ for leadership, embracing nearly two-thirds of Heritage’s proposals within just one year in office.”
From that, it’s entirely fair to deduce the remaining one-third not implemented involved the issue of moral character and the Foundation’s criteria to be hired by the federal government.
While Trump expresses ignorance of Project 2025, JD Vance, his vice president, has written a foreword in a new book, “Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America” by Foundation President Kevin Roberts.
While Vance spokespeople told the AP that Vance also “has nothing to do with Project 2025,” Vance lauded the book, stating it will “pave the way for a new age of conservatism in which the right goes on the ‘offensive.”
According to The New Republic which obtained a copy of the book, Vance says in his foreword:
“The old conservative movement argued if you just got government out of the way, natural forces would resolve problems—we are no longer in this situation and must take a different approach. As Kevin Roberts writes, ‘It’s fine to take a laissez-faire approach when you are in the safety of the sunshine. But when the twilight descends and you hear the wolves, you’ve got to circle the wagons and load the muskets.’
“We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.”
Vance is silent on employment criteria.
(From CNN: At least 11 people who played a role in Trump’s presidential campaigns or his administration have been charged with crimes.)
In disavowing any knowledge of Project 2025, in April 2024, Trump posted the following:
“I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal...”
The only logical conclusion? Trump finds it “absolutely ridiculous and abysmal” to require a high moral character and be free of having accumulated debt to be hired by the federal government (or be elected president.)
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