In the same way that Media Matters got the galleys of Dawn’s Early Light,* ProPublica has obtained 14 hours of Project 2025 training videos for Trumpist apparatchiks in a supposed next Conservative administration. They are as bad as you fear: tendentious, boring, and above all, evil. The YouTube videos on the ProPublica channel all come with automatically-generated transcripts, so none of us has to listen to them all the way through in order to pick them apart. I propose to Diary them five days a week for as long as they last, or as long as the next batch of leaks after that lasts.
*which I have been diarying this last week
ProPublica: Inside Project 2025’s Secret Training Videos
This video is made of pieces of several of the training videos, plus a bit of a Donald Trump speech, plus comments by ProPublica.
First Speaker—Be Very Afraid
0:00
If the next Republican president does not execute a dramatic course correction there may never be another chance, so if you're not on board with helping
Implement a dramatic course correction because you're afraid it'll damage your future employment prospects it'll harm you socially—Look I get it that's a real danger it's a real thing but please do us all a favor and sit this one out.
0:23
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ProPublica and Documented obtained more than 14 hours of video from Project 2025’s Presidential Administration Academy.
The private videos are part of an effort to recruit and train future conservative political appointees.
Second speaker—Global Warming
According to our intelligence Community the number one threat facing our country today is, drumroll, climate change, not Russia not China not AI—climate change.
This shows how the federal government is all in on this issue and climate change activists wield a lot of power. This is an issue to pay attention to as it has infiltrated every part of the federal government. Now when I think of climate change I immediately think of population control, don't you? I think about the people who don't want you to have children because of the impact on the environment.
[Music]
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Donald Trump and his campaign aides have tried to distance themselves from Project 2025.
But before its publicity, Trump praised the Heritage Foundation, which leads Project 2025, for its work.
Donald Trump
Our country is going to hell.
The critical job of Institutions such as Heritage is to lay the groundwork and Heritage does such an incredible job at that. Encourage new thinking, embrace new directions and keep Heritage at the Vanguard of the conservative movement.
[Music]
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The speakers in the Project 2025 videos are careful not to explicitly side with Trump, instead referring to a future “conservative President” or “conservative administration.”
But most speakers who appear in the videos have worked for Trump in some capacity, either in his 2016-2017 transition team, in his administration, or on his 2024 reelection campaign.
Here’s what else they said.
Fourth speaker—Fake News
The American people who vote for a conservative presidential Administration—they're not reading the New York Times; they're not reading the Washington Post; actually to the contrary.
If those outlets publish something they're going to assume it's false so the only way to reach them with any voice of credibility is through working with conservative media outlets.
Fifth Speaker—Cut, Cut, Cut
2:14
Do not let career bureaucrats hinder you from advancing the president's agenda. Keep in mind you're coming into a place, Washington DC, that does not share your conservative values. They're even hostile to it because you're here to do something that's not in their interest. They're not going to be your friend and they're not going to help you succeed.
2:33
What are you doing? You're here to cut government you're here to cut spending you're here to cut regulations you're here to stop the waste Fraud and Abuse that's going on but a lot of careers have been made from that. Fiefdoms have been built around it.
Do you have any information about Project 2025 that we should know?
Reporter Andy Kroll can be reached at andy.kroll@propublica.org and by Signal or Whatsapp at 202-215-6203.
The Heritage Foundation and most of the people who appear in the videos did not respond to ProPublica’s repeated requests for comment.
Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said, “As our campaign leadership and President Trump have repeatedly stated,
Agenda 47 is the only official policy agenda from our campaign.”
