Project 2025 - The Advisory Board List
Full list with hyperlinks and additional information on each organization.
DECODING FOX NEWS
JUL 08, 2024
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This list is a direct copy and paste from the Advisory Board section from “Mandate for Leadership The Conservative Promise Project 2025.”. On the document the organizations in the advisory board are listed by alphabetical order with no additional information.
I’ve added hyperlinks to each organization’s website as well as some background information including any notable board members, founding members or staff - especially anyone who worked in the Trump administration.
I’ve also grouped the organizations by type.
Although this entire document is only available for paid subscribers I removed the paywall for the first section. I want as many people as possible to know about the most extremist groups aligned with Project 2025.
Thank you for your support.
The Project 2025 Advisory Board
The Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation’s mission is to formulate and promote public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense. (from website)
The organization is considered one of the most influential conservative think tanks in the world.
Founded in 1973 originally to promote a pro-business agenda.
Originally created as a conservative response to the Brookings Institution.
“Mandate for Leadership” - Reagan Administration
Much like Project 2025 “Mandate for Leadership,” was meant as a blueprint for the newly elected Reagan Administration to help guide them on policy issues.
About 60% of the recommendations suggested in “Mandate for Leadership” were adopted by the Reagan Administration in its first year. Reagan loved it so much he had copies printed for all of his cabinet members.
The Heritage Foundation also had tremendous influence over helping the Reagan administration fill positions in his new administration. This is another similarity with “Project 2025” as one of its goals is to fill government positions with prescreened ideologically radical conservatives.
“Index of Leading Cultural Indicators” written by William Bennett in 1994
This publication was the Heritage Foundation’s first major entry into the culture wars.
The Index tackled subjects such as crime, divorce, children born out of marriage, teenage suicides, and drug use along with other social indicators.
“Index of Economic Freedom” - published in 1995
Wall Street Journal began partnership with Heritage as co-manager and co-editor of Index of Economic Freedom as an annual publication in 1997.
Scandal in 2013 - Jackson Richwine - co-author of Heritage Foundation report on the costs of amnesty for migrants
Richwine was scrutinized for his Harvard University PhD thesis, authored four years prior, where he argued that Latino and Black people had lower I.Q.’s and were intellectually inferior to white people.
He’d also made comments at the American Enterprise Institute in 2008 that were similar to the conclusions he’d made in his doctoral thesis.
Richwine resigned due to the controversy.
Trump’s candidacy - 2015
Originally the Heritage Foundation did not support Trump for president.
The organization only supported Trump after he won the nomination.
Trump’s presidency - 2017
Just like as they had with Reagan and other Republican presidents the Heritage Foundation had great influence over helping the Trump administration fill various positions in his administration.
Some of the several hundred people who received jobs in the Trump administration who were included in a database the Heritage Foundation cultivated were:
Betsy DeVos, Mick Mulvaney, Rick Perry, Scott Pruitt, Jeff Sessions
Post - Trump presidency
Several Trump Administration officials and staff member take positions at the Heritage Foundation.
Ken Cuccinelli, Mark Morgan, Chad Wolf (Cuccinelli and Wolf left in 2021)
Mike Pence also went to work for Heritage
Ukraine War
May 2022 the organization reversed its support for Ukraine
March 2023 - Heritage established a cooperative relationship with Danube Institute in Hungary.
The Big Lie
The president of the Heritage Foundation has publicly said he doesn’t think Biden won the 2020 election.
The organization has promoted false claims of widespread voter fraud.
Project 2025
A collection of proposals to radically change the executive branch of the U.S. government.
The organization is recruiting thousands of staffers for every branch of government.
Some of the policy proposals in Project 2025 include the following:
Boosting fossil fuels while slashing environmental regulations
Dismantling the Inflation Reduction Act
Shutting down the Department of Energy loan programs office
Taking partisan control of the DOJ, FBI and Dept. of Commerce, the FCC, and the FTC.
Dismantling the Dept. of Homeland Security and the Department of Education
The National Institute of Health (NIH) would be shaped by conservative principles.
Cut Medicaid and Medicare
Outlaw abortion
Eliminate coverage of emergency contraception under the ACA
Enforce the Comstock Act - this would criminalize the sending or receiving of abortion medication through the U.S. Mail.
Outlaw pornography
Infuse Christianity into the U.S. government
Remove legal protections against discrimination claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Terminate DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs as well as affirmative action.
Prosecute “anti-white” racism.
Enact draconian anti-immigration laws including mass deportations and detentions of undocumented immigrants.
Engage the Insurrection Act of 1807 which would allow the military to participate in domestic policing and assist in the capture of undocumented immigrants.
Increase the use of capital punishment
(This is just a partial list)
Organization led by former Trump Admin. officials who promote Christian Nationalism
Center for Renewing America
Our mission is to renew a consensus of America as a nation under God with unique interests worthy of defending that flow from its people, institutions, and history, where individuals’ enjoyment of freedom is predicated on just laws and healthy communities. (from website)
I honestly couldn’t tell what this organization did except hire former Trump staffers and cabinet members. It was formed in 2021.
Founded by Russ Vought former Trump Admin. Director of the Office of Management and Budget
Staff members former Trump Admin. - Ken Cuccinelli, Adam Candeub, Rachel Cauley, Jeff Clark, Ashlea Frazier, Paige Hauser, Dan Kowalski, Micah Meadowcroft, Mark Paoletta, Kingsley Wilson
Steve Friend, staff member, FBI Whistleblower who claimed FBI manipulated evidence from Jan. 6th investigation.
Organizations that are Listed as Hate Groups by the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center)
Alliance Defending Freedom
ADF advances the God-given right to live and speak the truth.
We contend for the truth in law, policy, and the public square, and equip the alliance to do the same. (from website)
A legal advocacy organization that works to expand Christian religious liberties and practices within public schools and in government.
ADF opposes abortion and LGBTQ rights.
ADF has supported the recriminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults. This group has also promoted the myth that LGBTQ adults are more likely to engage in pedophilia.
$100 million revenue in 2022
Amy Coney Barrett, Mike Pence, Sen. Josh Hawley, Jeff Sessions, Bill Barr - associated with this organization.
HATE GROUP - SPLC
Center for Immigration Studies
This organization doesn’t have a mission statement on its website other than “Low-immigration, Pro-immigrant"
At first glance this group looks like it is advocating for immigrants.
CIS is a radical anti-immigration hate group.
The founder of CIS, John Tanton, has a background in the white nationalist movement.
Affiliated with Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)
Tanton also founded and operated the Social Contract Press, which has published numerous overtly racist tracts, including the rancid novel Camp of the Saints.
The Cato Institute has debunked most of the research on CIS as being misleading, flawed and full of bias.
A lot of disinformation about immigrants and crime is generated by this organization.
Multiple Fox News personalities have referenced CIS studies or invited on CIS staff members as experts in immigration.
Repeatedly circulated writings by white nationalist and antisemitic writers.
HATE GROUP - SPLC
Family Research Council
Founded in 1983, Family Research Council is a nonprofit research and educational organization dedicated to articulating and advancing a family-centered philosophy of public life. In addition to providing policy research and analysis for the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the federal government, FRC seeks to inform the news media, the academic community, business leaders, and the general public about family issues that affect the nation from a biblical worldview. (from website)
This organization has been involved in numerous anti-LGBTQ campaigns.
Christian organization
Anti-Choice, Pro-marriage, Anti-LGBTQ
HATE GROUP - SPLC
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Groups that Promote Extremist Policies
Alabama Policy Institute
API is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational and research organization committed to free markets, limited government, and strong families. API reaches its goal of sound public policy through research, advocacy, and public education efforts. (from website)
Founding member - Tom Parker, Alabama Supreme Court Justice.
Tried to halt same sex marriages in Alabama. Parker suggested that Alabama should defy the Supreme Court ruling on same sex marriage.
American Center for Law and Justice
Founded in 1990 with the mandate to protect religious and constitutional freedoms, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) engages legal, legislative, and cultural issues by implementing an effective strategy of advocacy, education, and litigation that includes representing clients before the Supreme Court of the United States and international tribunals around the globe. (from website)
Anti-choice, pro-Israel, pro-Christian,
Founded by Pat Robertson as a Conservative response to the ACLU
Main lawyer - Jay Sekulow has worked for Donald J. Trump
One of several groups that promotes extreme anti-LGBTQ laws in Africa
Set up a Slavic Center for Law and Justice (SCLJ) in Moscow in 1998.
Not listed as a hate group on the SPLC but it does come up in articles on the site.
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)
The American Legislative Exchange Council is America’s largest nonpartisan, voluntary membership organization of state legislators dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism. Comprised of nearly one-quarter of the country’s state legislators and stakeholders from across the policy spectrum, ALEC members represent more than 60 million Americans and provide jobs to more than 30 million people in the United States. (from website)
ALEC has produced model bills on a broad range of issues, such as reducing regulation and individual and corporate taxation, combating illegal immigration, loosening environmental regulations, tightening voter identification rules, weakening labor unions, and opposing gun control
Some of these bills dominate legislative agendas in states such as Arizona, Wisconsin, Colorado, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Maine. Approximately 200 model bills become law each year. ALEC also serves as a networking tool among certain state legislators, allowing them to research conservative policies implemented in other states.
Promoted “Stand Your Ground” laws
Major force behind private prisons
Opposes the ACA (Obamacare)
Anti-LGBTQ
Promotes the privatization of public schools
This group is so controversial there is even a website dedicated informing the general public about it’s shady practices - The Center for Media and Democracy - ALEC EXPOSED
American Principles Project
American Principles Project is the premier national organization engaging directly in campaigns and advocacy on behalf of the family.
Against Common Core standards in education
Wants to eliminate ALL gender affirming care
Advocated against same sex marriage
Wants to return to the gold standard
Hosted a Republican presidential primary debate with Steve King as one of the moderators, King is known for his extremist and white nationalist views.
Founded by Robert P. George, Jeff Bell and Francis P. Cannon. Chaired by Sean Fieler and is led by Terry Schilling the son of former U.S. Representative Bobby Schilling.
Riley Gaines, a former college athlete and activists against trans women in women’s sports is heavily featured on their website.
This American Principles Project is not labeled a hate group by the SPLC but the watchdog group does describe it as promoting ideas from the far right.
Center for Family and Human Rights
C-Fam was founded in the summer of 1997 in order to monitor and affect the social policy debate at the United Nations and other international institutions.
C-Fam is a non-partisan, non-profit research institute dedicated to reestablishing a proper understanding of international law, protecting national sovereignty and the dignity of the human person. (from website)
Formerly known as Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute
Aggressively anti-LGBTQ
Claremont Institute
The mission of the Claremont Institute is to restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life. (from website)
Founding member - John C. Eastman, he’s the lawyer who came up with the theory that Vice President Mike Pence could somehow object to electoral votes and stall the free transfer of power from Trump to Biden.
STRONG defenders of Donald J. Trump.
National Humanities Medal from President Trump in 2019.
The Claremont Institute provides fellowships some of their fellows include:
Laura Ingraham
Mark Levin
Mary Kissel and
Charles C. Johnson
Jack Posobiec.
Both Johnson and Possobiec have promoted white nationalist rhetoric. Posobiec is best known for promoting the Pizzagate conspiracy.
Supporters of Stop the Steal - the idea that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
According to a 4 November 2021 Vice article, the actions of pro-Trump Claremont Institute leaders—senior fellows John Eastman, Brian Kennedy, Angelo Codevilla, and Michael Anton, as well as Ryan P. Williams (the institute's president), and Thomas D. Klingenstein (chairman of the board)—culminated in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
The New Republic described Claremont as “an anti-democracy think tank.”
Foundation for Government Accountability
The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) was founded in 2011 by President and CEO Tarren Bragdon. After focusing solely on reforms in Florida for the first year, Bragdon realized that the problems facing Floridians were the same problems facing Americans across the country. Bragdon changed FGA’s strategy to promoting solutions that work in as many states as possible—a change that proved successful. FGA quickly grew into a powerhouse for policy wins in the areas of welfare, unemployment, workforce, election integrity, and health care. Today, FGA employs more than 45 marketing, research, and outreach experts with more than 50 on-the-ground liaisons in 30 states, and partners with more than 450 policymakers across the country. (from website)
Wants to reduce the welfare state
Reduce restrictions on teenage workers. This organization has made attempts to repeal parts of the Fair Labor Standards Act which was passed in 1938
FGA backed legislation reducing child labor protections was proposed or passed in 2023 in a number of states, including Iowa, Arkansas, Georgia, Minnesota, Ohio, and Missouri.
Block the expansion of Medicaid at the state and federal level