The Shadow Cabinet: Project 2025's Continued Conquest of American Power

[Celerity]

https://globalextremism.org/post/the-shadow-cabinet/



Donald Trump spent months during the 2024 campaign calling Project 2025 “absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.” He claimed complete ignorance of the Heritage Foundation’s 900-page manifesto. Nothing to do with its authors, he insisted. Never heard of their recommendations, despite the fact that 140 people who once worked with him are associated with the far-right playbook for a Christian nationalist and authoritarian America. His second administration reveals the hollowness of those denials. In April 2025, the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) documented at least 40 direct connections between Project 2025‘s network and the Trump Administration, which includes more than 100 supporting organizations. This isn’t coincidental ideological overlap — it’s the installation of a philosophy that explicitly calls for politicizing independent institutions by replacing the federal bureaucracy with Trump loyalists and removing independence for many agencies. The personnel choices, on all levels, tell a dark story. They reveal an agenda of institutional dominionation that spans the entire federal government.

GPAHE has already profiled the marquee appointments. Christian nationalist Russell Vought, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), represents a key mastermind behind Project 2025. Known for his explicit advocacy for a government based on Project 2025’s far-right policies, Vought has his fingers in nearly every federal pie, particularly the appropriations process, refusing to say that he would follow laws and agreements passed by Congress. Michael Anton secured his position at the State Department to advance authoritarian theories about democratic governance. Project 2025 co-author Tom Homan commands mass deportation with a schoolyard bully’s zeal, his frequent threats against opposition carrying much more weight now that he has been named Border Czar. But these headline-making names are only part of Project 2025’s personnel penetration of federal institutions. Each placement, small or large, follows a strategic plan designed to transform government from within:

Peter Navarro returned to the White House as Senior Counselor to President Trump on Trade and Manufacturing, carrying credentials no other appointee currently possesses — he co-authored Project 2025’s policy recommendations before serving four months in federal prison for contempt of Congress. His incarceration followed his support of the Capitol insurrection and refusal to comply with House January 6th Committee subpoenas. Yet, this legal defiance only enhanced his standing within Trump’s inner circle. Navarro’s Project 2025 contributions focused specifically on trade policy and economic nationalism, building theoretical frameworks conjured up while Trump was out of power. His Heritage Foundation work detailed aggressive recommendations targeting China and the European Union that have now become enforceable federal policy. Navarro’s trajectory — from academic economist to trade warrior to convicted contempt defendant to Project 2025 co-architect—illustrates the movement’s broader strategy: develop detailed blueprints in opposition, then install the figureheads to implement them regardless of their legal entanglements.

Adam Candeub embodies this approach perfectly. He authored the entire chapter on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for Project 2025 and subsequently secured an appointment as the General Counsel of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under fellow Project 2025 author Brendan Carr. Candeub’s Heritage Foundation work detailed strategies for telecommunications deregulation and Section 230 reform — positions he now holds legal authority to influence. The chapter outlined methods for challenging “Big Tech” and reinterpreting communications law. Today, as the FCC’s top lawyer, Candeub possesses regulatory power to execute his own written recommendations. Alongside Carr at the FCC, this creates a Project 2025 command center within federal telecommunications regulation.

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