Project 2025 to Drop $1M to Pressure GOP Senators to Back Pete Hegseth
Quote: "The Heritage Foundation president said the group will be spending the money to convince GOP senators, some of whom are reportedly not sold on Hegseth, that he is the man for the Pentagon job.
"Project 2025 proposes putting an end to the so-called Deep State by realigning the entirety of the federal bureaucracy under Trump’s direct control and replacing thousands of government employees with political appointees."
Me: "Alleged dog murderer" is the least of his crimes, in my opinion, given his all-out support for Israeli genocide, and planning to "Wage Aggressive War," as Project 2025 is a plan for.
Pete Hegseth: The Biden admin isn’t doing this fast enough
With Roberts in agreement with Hegseth that "Russia Must Be Destroyed," with Quincy Institute/Koch Institute stablemate Roberts calling for Europe to do that, as he and "Bridge" Colby call for here with incitement of war against China first. (Guess what? Any US war against China, necessarily includes war against their ally Russia, just as it has since the 1950s.)
Quote: "It’s through this lens that we need to view the Ukraine war. First, let’s be clear: Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is an evil act. It is wrong to conduct a war of aggression to conquer another country. It is wrong to conduct atrocities. These are some of the reasons why it’s been the right thing for America and European nations to support Ukraine. It is also in our collective interest for the Russian military to be weakened and kept from NATO’s borders.
. . .
The U.S., therefore, needs to focus its limited resources on the threat most dangerous to America: China.
"Fortunately, though, this doesn’t require abandoning Ukraine. The solution is clear: for European countries, especially Germany, to step up and take the lead in their own conventional defense and in supporting Ukraine. Many treat this as far-fetched, but it isn’t. The European economies dwarf Russia in scale. If they put their minds to it, they can shoulder a greater burden of defending themselves and supporting Ukraine. And they have every reason to— as Ukraine is in their neighborhood. The U.S. should still help, but in a supporting role consistent with a genuine prioritization of Asia."
Here's Heritage's "Peace Plan," with Hegseth implementing it:
"The Department of Defense needs a Secretary of Defense willing to confront both the entrenched bureaucracy and the defense industry and force them to deliver the ships, planes, and munitions our troops need to confront America’s adversaries.
"America’s number one adversary is the People’s Republic of China. Hegseth has spoken at length on the need to rebuild and reorient the U.S. military for great power competition with China, which is engaged in a massive conventional and nuclear military buildup."
What a relief: the Koch-funded Quincy Institute/The American Conservative rag deliberately led me to believe that "fighting the Blob," that is, the "entrenched bureaucracy and the defense industry," was to "end our endless wars," putting a scare into me. What a relief it is to know it's to "force them to deliver the ships, planes, and munitions our troops need to confront America’s adversaries," so we can be even more militarily threatening under Trump, unlike with the weak Democrats and the "hollowed out military" they've forced on us!
That is a message obviously coordinated with Trump, as this makes clear, and was always self-evident if one chose not to fall victim to Trump's duplicity:
"For a period this summer, Roberts and the think tank he leads, the Heritage Foundation, had found themselves unexpectedly thrown out of the orbit of President-elect Donald Trump, whose last administration had been staffed heavily by Heritage. The source of the trouble was Project 2025, a policy agenda that a consortium of conservative organizations, led by Heritage under Roberts’s direction, had crafted early in the 2024 campaign cycle.
. . .
"Roberts’ new book, “Dawn’s Early Light,” has a foreword written by the author’s friend, Vice President-elect JD Vance. Its release was delayed from September to November after the Heritage Foundation — and Roberts himself — turned into an apparent liability for Republicans over the summer.
. . .
Heritage had advertised Project 2025 as a blueprint for an incoming Republican president. In a blitz of campaign messaging this summer, Democrats argued that it was exactly that, foraging through its heap of white papers for the most right-wing policy provisions — excluding abortion from health care, disbanding federal agencies, killing climate change programs — and presenting them as a second Trump presidency’s plans for America.
. . .
"If none of this was particularly surprising, Trump’s reaction to it was. In July, as the Democrats’ attacks began gaining traction, he took to Truth Social to insist that “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it.” (He had, in fact, sat next to Roberts on a 45-minute private flight to a 2022 Heritage conference, where Trump had given a speech praising the organization’s work “to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do.”)
. . .
"By the door were stacks of “Dawn’s Early Light,” wrapped in a new, match-free dust jacket bearing a toned-down subtitle: “Taking Back Washington to Save America.” The contents of the book, however, were unchanged, including its denunciations of the “uniparty” destroying the American way of life and its list of institutions that “need to be burned” to restore America: the F.B.I., “every Ivy League college” and The New York Times."
Our Mein Kampf has arrived, though Roberts wrote it for Trump/Vance.
Trump Transition Live Updates: Trump Defends Hegseth as ‘Fantastic’ for Defense Secretary
Pete Hegseth met with Republican senators who will vote on his confirmation this week. Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
Where Things Stand
President-elect Donald J. Trump stood up for his pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, who has confronted damning news articles accusing him of troubling behavior, including rape, sexual assault, financial mismanagement and drunkenness. Mr. Trump’s social media post praising Mr. Hegseth amounted to a public dare to Republican senators to vote against his wishes. Read more ›
Pete Hegseth on Thursday at the Capitol, where he met with senators in an effort to build support for his confirmation as defense secretary.Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
President-elect Donald J. Trump gave a public show of support to his embattled choice for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, on Friday morning, saying in a social media post that he will be “fantastic” in the job and that he has a “military state of mind.”
Mr. Hegseth has spent the last two days fighting to stay as Mr. Trump’s choice to lead the Pentagon amid mounting news reports alleging troubling behaviors over time including rape, sexual assault, financial mismanagement and drunken behavior, which he denies.
Mr. Trump’s post on Truth Social amounted to a public dare to Republican senators, a number of whom have expressed private concerns about Mr. Hegseth, to vote against his wishes. The president-elect until now has put relatively little of his own capital on the line for Mr. Hegseth and has even floated alternative candidates, such as Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, for the job.
But on Friday, Mr. Trump doubled down publicly on his initial choice.
“Pete Hegseth is doing very well. His support is strong and deep, much more so than the Fake News would have you believe,” Mr. Trump wrote. “He was a great student — Princeton/Harvard educated — with a Military state of mind. He will be a fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense Defense, one who leads with charisma and skill. Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!”
A string of damning news articles have reported problematic behavior. One woman filed a police report in 2017 accusing him of rape, which he denied and said was a consensual encounter. He entered into a settlement agreement with her that included a payment of money years later. The New York Times reported that Mr. Hegseth’s mother sent him an email in 2018 during a contentious divorce saying he had “abused” many women in different ways over the years. NBC News reported about concerns about Mr. Hegseth’s drinking, and The New Yorker reported that he had been accused of mismanagement of groups he had previously led.
Mr. Hegseth described it as a smear campaign, as both he and his mother gave interviews that were clearly intended to impact Mr. Trump’s thinking. Mr. Hegseth has met with a number of senators to press his own case. And people close to Mr. Trump, such as the influencer Charlie Kirk, publicly threatened primary challenges to senators who did not back Mr. Hegseth. Several allies of Mr. Trump privately — and Mr. Hegseth publicly in his interview with Megyn Kelly — sought to compare the circumstances of the allegations against Mr. Hegseth to allegations brought against Justice Brett Kavanaugh as he was going through the confirmation process for the U.S. Supreme Court when Mr. Trump chose him in 2018.
The incoming president has privately complained to people that Mr. Hegseth hadn’t been more forthcoming with him and discussed with Mr. DeSantis the idea of taking the role when they saw each other at a memorial service in Florida earlier this week.
But by Thursday night, it was clear that Mr. Hegseth’s prospects with the senators had improved.
After floating other names for defense secretary, including Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, President-elect Trump finally has publicly recommitted to Pete Hegseth, whose nomination has struggled. Trump posted on Truth Social this morning that Hegseth “will be a fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense Defense, one who leads with charisma and skill.”
Trump’s post came after Hegseth and his mother gave interviews clearly aimed at Trump. Hegseth minimized a number of unwanted headlines, including about an alleged rape that he says was a consensual encounter, and claims he has struggled with drinking. His mother, who penned an email years ago saying he had abused many women, said in an appearance on “Fox & Friends” that it had been written during his contentious divorce and that “Pete is a new person” today.
The Truth Social post served as both a show of support for Hegseth and a bit of fresh needling of DeSantis, whose allies believed would be offered the post. Trump trounced DeSantis in the Republican presidential primaries and many in Trump’s orbit deeply dislike him.
David Sacks speaking at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this summer.Kenny Holston/The New York Times
President-elect Donald J. Trump has named one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent conservative investors, donors and media personalities to help oversee American tech policy.
David Sacks, a venture capitalist and an early executive at PayPal who launched a hit podcast, will be the “White House A.I. and Crypto Czar,” the president-elect announced in a social media post on Thursday. Mr. Sacks is a close friend of Elon Musk, and Mr. Sacks has been among the people over the last year or so encouraging Mr. Musk to delve deeper into Republican politics.
Pete Hegseth was defiant Thursday afternoon on Capitol Hill as he met with senators to make his case.Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times
Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s embattled choice for secretary of defense, defiantly vowed on Thursday to earn the votes necessary for confirmation, seeking to allay Republican concerns over his fitness for the job and persuade Mr. Trump to stick with him.
