Saturday, July 6, 2024

 What Wikipedia says about the Heritage foundation. 

The Heritage Foundation has been publishing new editions of its Mandate for Leadership series in schedules that run parallel with each presidential election since 1981.[41] Heritage refers to its Mandate as a "policy bible".[41]

President Trump met with Leonard Leo and others in 2017.

Heritage president Kevin Roberts sees the organization's current role as "institutionalizing Trumpism."[42] He established Project 2025 in 2022 to provide the 2024 Republican presidential nominee with a personnel database and ideological framework,[43] after civil servants refused to support Trump during his attempt to institute a Muslim travel ban, his effort to install a new attorney general to assist him in his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, and his calling for the use of lethal force, saying "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" during the George Floyd protests.[44][better source needed] Associate project director Spencer Chretien argued that it was "past time to lay the groundwork for a White House more friendly to the right."[8]

In April 2023, the Heritage Foundation published the 920-page Mandate written by hundreds of conservatives,[45] most prominently former Trump administration officials.[2] Nearly half of the project's collaborating organizations have received dark money contributions from a network of fundraising groups linked to Leonard Leo, a major conservative donor and key figure in guiding the selection of Trump's federal judge nominees.[37]

Axios reported that while Heritage had briefed other 2024 Republican presidential primaries candidates on the project, it is "undeniably a Trump-driven operation", pointing to the involvement of Trump's "most fervent internal loyalty enforcer" Johnny McEntee as a senior advisor to the project. The 2024 Trump campaign said no outside group speaks for the former president, referring to its "Agenda 47"[46] as the only official plan for a second Trump presidency.[47] Two top Trump campaign officials later issued a statement seeking to distance the campaign from what unspecified outside groups were planning, although many of those plans reflected Trump's own words. The New York Times reported the statement "noticeably stopped short of disavowing the groups and seemed merely intended to discourage them from speaking to the press".[48] Nevertheless, the campaign said it was "appreciative" of suggestions from like-minded organizations.[49] Project 2025 is not the only conservative program with a database of prospective recruits for a potential Republican administration, though the leaders of these initiatives all have connections to Donald Trump.[50][51] In general, these initiatives seek to help Trump avoid the mistakes of his first term, when he arrived at the White House unprepared.[52]

The two officials released a similar memo days later, after Axios reported Trump intended to staff a new administration with "full, proud MAGA warriors, anti-GOP establishment zealots, and eager and willing to test the boundaries of executive power to get Trump's way", which would include targeting and jailing critics in government and media.[53] Axios also reported on people being considered for senior positions in a second presidency, which included Kash PatelSteve Bannon, and Mike Davis, a former aide to senator Chuck Grassley who has promised a "three-week reign of terror" should Trump name him acting attorney general.[54] Patel had said on Bannon's podcast two days earlier, "We will go out and find the conspirators—not just in government, but in the media... We're going to come after you. Whether it's criminally or civilly, we'll figure that out."[55][56] In June 2024, Bannon named specific current or former FBI and DOJ officials who would be hunted down for alleged crimes and treason, even if they fled the country.[57][58]

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