The journalists of Documented together with ProPublica have obtained training videos produced by the Heritage Foundation. There are reportedly 23 videos, totalling over 14 hours of instruction intended for future political appointees (guaranteed Trump loyalists) of the next conservative administration. The replacements for the tens of thousands of career civil servants who would be reclassified and then fired. As of the time of writing this (Monday 12 August) I assume only a portion of the videos have been made public. I am including the ones I found in this post. These are short clips from the longer training videos.
The videos were provided by an unnamed person who had access to them.
This video expounds upon the need to eradicate any mention of climate change from "absolutely everywhere". It features a former Trump administration staffer.
Patriotic cheerleading that includes footage of Trump speaking, and a clip of President Biden stumbling on some steps.
This video advises that only the most dedicated people should attempt to be part of the new conservative administration. The speaker is a former legal advisor to the Trump administration.
This one is about the need to repeal all executive orders made by President Biden which address diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as completely removing such language from all websites.
This video advises potential appointees about the hostility they're likely to encounter from career civil servants who oppose traditional values. It features a former deputy administrator for the Trump administration.
This one offers advice on how to avoid leaving written documentation which could become problematic later.
This video urges appointees to only work with conservative media outlets. It features a priest of the Melkite Catholic Church, who also runs a public relations firm.
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For all that he publicly disavows Project 2025, Trump and former members of his administration feature prominently in these videos. During last night's interview with Elon Musk, Trump stated that one of his first acts as president would be to "close up the Department of Education". Eliminating the Department of Education is part of the Project 2025 agenda. Trump may try to distance himself from it, but he doesn't appear to mind adopting the Heritage Foundation's stated goals. Given his mental deterioration he might be convinced that they are his own ideas.
The Heritage Foundation is of course a Christian Nationalist organization. Additionally, elements of conspiracy theories appear, as in the discussion about climate change, alleging that it's an attempt at population control by convincing people to not have children "because it's bad for the environment". Christian Nationalism is very pro-natalist; this would dovetail neatly with their desire to end abortion and contraception.
I hope that eventually we'll see some of the discussions concerning abortion, contraception, divorce, LGBTQ rights, and public education.
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Thank you for reading. This is an open thread, all topics are welcome.
