#Chris LaCivita

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Whitehouse at MMFA:

MAGA figures are suddenly afraid that Trump will lose and are looking for someone to blame. On July 30, Project 2025 Director Paul Dans suddenly stepped down, even after promoting his work on War Room earlier in the day. The Trump campaign, in a memo signed by senior advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, celebrated, even claiming they would welcome Project 2025’s demise.

But outside of the right-wing bubble, the PR move seems to have failed in its attempt to distance Trump from Project 2025. As New York Times reporter Jonathan Swan noted, the Trump campaign reportedly has no transition plan — even compared to 2016 — and will need to rely on Project 2025 for staffing should he prevail in the election this fall. (This is also a reason why Project 2025 partner positions matter as much as what is in the official Project 2025 book: These are the people who would be in a position of power for staffing the federal government, especially if Trump follows through on threats to lay off thousands of federal civil servants.) Other journalists and analysts reported similarly.

Project 2025 is the policy platform and staffing database organized by the Heritage Foundation for the next Republican presidential administration. The extreme policies have proved to be very unpopular with the American people, and this unpopularity seemingly led the Trump campaign to force Dans to resign. The situation was already a tinderbox since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democrats' likely presidential nominee, replacing President Joe Biden, since Trump’s campaign was reportedly designed to face Biden instead of Harris; switching MAGA’s messaging on a dime was going to be no easy task.  Before Harris took the reins, Trump had complained about Project 2025, even as Project 2025 contributors were invited to speak at the Republican National Convention, a key Project 2025 figure was appointed to the RNC’s platform committee, and Trump himself named the elected official perhaps most closely tied to Project 2025 as his new vice presidential nominee. Inside the MAGA bubble, recriminations and blame are growing as Trump’s electoral position apparently grows weaker.

MAGA influencers are in infighting mode already.

[ridenwithbiden]

"The year was 2004. U.S. Senator John Kerry was the Democratic presidential nominee running to unseat President George W. Bush. The Iraq War was a major campaign issue and Sen. Kerry campaigned against it by accurately attacking his Republican opponent.

"Saying there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq doesn't make it so. Saying we can fight a war on the cheap doesn't make it so. And proclaiming mission accomplished certainly doesn't make it so," Kerry declared upon accepting the Democratic nomination.

Backed by GOP donors, veterans – some with grievances against Kerry – formed a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), falsely attacking Kerry's Vietnam War record. It was a massively-funded multi-million dollar machine that helped President Bush win re-election by destroying Senator Kerry's military record, and the term "swiftboating" – an organized political and personal smear campaign leveling false accusations – came into being as a result.

It's first ad was released on August 4 or 5, 2004 – almost 20 years to the day when the Trump campaign began its attack on Governor Walz.

On August 31, 2020 Politico ran an exclusive report: "Swift Boat mastermind to launch massive super PAC to boost Trump."

"The new organization, Preserve America, is poised to begin a $30 million advertising blitz," Politico detailed, adding that it "will be overseen by Chris LaCivita, a veteran Republican strategist who orchestrated the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth takedown of John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race."

Today, Chris LaCivita is the top advisor to Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.

On Thursday, amid the swiftboating of newly-minted Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, The New Yorker's award-winning Jane Mayer wrote: "Remember when John Kerry was Swiftboated by Chris LaCivita who is doing it to Tim Walz now? Guess who funded it? Harlan Crow, the billionaire who has been lavishing freebies on Clarence Thomas."

Back in 2004, that massively-funded multi-million dollar machine, or "millions of dollars in shadowy contributions," as New York Magazine explains it, spent $22,565,360, according to Open Secrets. (That's about $34 million in current U.S. dollars.)

One of Swift Boat's top donors was conservative GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, the Texas billionaire whose financial relationship with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been the subject of numerous bombshell investigative reports. Recently, Senate Democratic Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden detailed some pf Crow's alleged gifts to Justice Thomas. Legal experts have called for Justice Thomas's resignation, and some legal experts have called for the U.S.. Dept. of Justice to open an investigation into Thomas.

(Crow's funding of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was made via his privately-held company, Crow Holdings. According to Open Secrets, Crow has made 1193 donations to candidates, PACs, and political parties since 1989.)

Last year, the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) reported, "One of Crow’s first forays into large donations was by providing some of the initial financing of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, an organization that spent millions running attack ads in 2004 against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and was later fined nearly $300,000 by the Federal Election Commission for failing to register as a political committee."

"Even as the Supreme Court was deliberating Citizens United," CREW continued, "Crow reportedly provided the major funding for Liberty Central, another dark money group, this one with links to Justice Thomas."

Citizens United was the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court case that – in a 5-4 decision – declared, effectively, money is speech, opening the floodgates to dark money groups that have poured untold billions of dollars into U.S. politics.

"Liberty Central was a 501(c)(4) organization founded by [Justice Thomas's spouse] Ginni Thomas in late 2009 that counted Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo as a board member," CREW's report states. "Ms. Thomas served as president through November 2010 and was paid a salary of more than $120,000. According to Politico, of the $550,000 in anonymous start-up funds the group received in 2009, $500,000 came from Crow, who also held an event for the group at his Dallas home a few months after it launched."

"In helping bankroll the Republican network of dark money groups following Citizens United, Crow has taken full advantage of the diminishing transparency laws around our politics—which Justice Thomas has been instrumental in dismantling," CREW concluded.

In 2007, Newsweek published a deeply sourced, 7000-word report on what went on behind the scenes in the Kerry campaign and how it failed to adequately respond to the swiftboating. Essentially, the report suggests, the campaign reacted too slowly, tried too hard to play nice, and did not immediately attack with full force."

[bloghrexach]

🤔 … October 23 — who is Chris LaCivita?

“Christopher Joseph LaCivita (born 1966) is an American political consultant and former partner in FP1 Strategies, a national public affairs and campaign firm.

He is known primarily for coordinating smear campaigns against military veterans running for higher office as members of the Democratic Party, including the controversial "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" negative campaign against 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry and attacks on 2024 Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Governor Tim Walz.

He currently serves as senior adviser to Donald Trump's 2024 presidential campaign.” … 🤔

@hrexach

[geezerwench]

trump's campaign is openly and publicly denigrating and dishonoring the military.

[qupritsuvwix]

There is no such thing as an “ex-Marine”.

[wilwheaton]

Donald Trump and Chris LaCivita are about to hit Kamala Harris with an avalanche of racist and sexist attacks and a ton of slut-shaming. Democrats across the board need to be saying now what we all know which is that this will bring out the very worst of Trump. Racism and sexism are his brand. Charlottesville is his brand. You can’t just be on the receiving end of this stuff. Trump is about to show the kind of gutter white nationalist and racist pol he is. Force the press and all observers to see this totally predictable move through that prism.

Trump the racist bully and gangster is what kills him in the suburbs. It’s what embarrasses people.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Gary Taxali

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 30, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Aug 31, 2024

Trump and the MAGA movement garnered power through performances that projected  dominance and cowed media and opponents into silence. Rather than disqualifying him from the highest office in the United States, Trump’s mocking of a disabled reporter, bragging about assaulting women, and calling immigrants rapists and criminals seemed to demonstrate his dominance and strengthen him with his base. In July the Republican National Convention celebrated that performance with a deliberate appropriation of the themes of professional wrestling, including a display by an actual professional wrestler. 

Their plan for winning the 2024 election seems to have been to put forward more of the same. 

But the national mood appears to be changing. President Joe Biden’s decision to decline the Democratic nomination for president opened the way for the Democrats to launch a new, younger, more vibrant vision for the country. 

Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, have promised to continue, and even to expand slightly, the programs that under the Biden-Harris administration have started the process of rebuilding the country’s infrastructure, bringing back manufacturing, and investing in industries to combat climate change. As the country did before 1981, they are promising to continue to focus on supporting a strong middle class rather than those at the top of the economy. 

Harris and Walz are building on this economic base to recenter the United States government on the idea of community. They have deliberately rejected the identity politics that Trump used so effectively to assert his dominance and have instead emphasized that they see the country not as a community defined by winners and losers, but as one in which everyone has value and should have the same opportunities for success. 

Last night, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Harris, whose mother immigrated to the U.S. from India and whose father immigrated from Jamaica, to respond to Trump’s suggestion that she “happened to turn Black” for political advantage, “questioning a core part of your identity.” Harris responded: “Same old, tired playbook. Next question, please,” and she laughed. “That’s it?” Bash asked. “That’s it,” Harris answered. 

Harris’s refusal to accept the MAGA terms of engagement, along with the exuberant support for Harris and Walz, has Trump, Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, and MAGA Republicans reeling. That, in turn, has made them seem vulnerable, and that vulnerability is now opening up room for pundits from a range of outlets to challenge them. They seem to be losing the ability to control the public conversation by asserting dominance. 

This change has been evident this week in the response to Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery with the family of a soldier who died in the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago for campaign videos and photos attacking Harris, despite the fact that federal law prohibits campaign activities in the cemetery, in what is widely considered hallowed ground. The moment almost passed unnoticed, as it likely would have in the past, but Esquire’s Charles Pierce asked in his blog: “How The Hell Was Trump Allowed To Use Arlington National Cemetery As A Campaign Prop?”

Led by NPR, different outlets begin to dig into the story, and Trump, Vance, Trump’s spokesperson, and Trump’s campaign manager Chris LaCivita all tried to brush off their lawlessness with their usual rhetoric. Trump tried to change the subject to say he was being unfairly attacked for supporting a military family. Vance tried to suggest that Harris should have attended the private ceremony and that for criticizing it she should “go to hell,” although she hadn’t commented on it. The spokesperson suggested that the female cemetery official who tried to stop them was experiencing a “mental health episode,” and LaCivita, a leading figure in the Swift Boat veterans’ attacks on John Kerry in 2004, reposted an offending video to “trigger” Army officials, he said. 

It hasn’t flown. Today, MSNBC’s Dasha Burns asked Trump directly: “Should your campaign have put out those videos and photos?” Trump answered: “Well, we have a lot of people. You know, we have people, TikTok people, you know we’re leading the Internet. That was the other thing. We’re so far above her on the Internet….” Burns interrupted and followed up: “But on that hallowed ground, should they have put out the images…?” Trump said: “Well I don’t know what the rules and regulations are, I don’t know who did it, and, I, it could have been them. It could have been the parents. It could have been somebody….”

Burns interrupted again: “It was your campaign’s TikTok that put out the video.” Trump answered: "I really don't know anything about it. All I do is I stood there and I said, 'If you'd like to have a picture, we can have a picture.' If somebody did it; this was a setup by the people in the administration that, 'Oh, Trump is coming to Arlington, that looks so bad for us.’"

In the days since Biden stepped out of contention, Trump has been flailing—often complaining that it is “unfair” that Biden isn’t his opponent any longer—but his behavior has rocketed downhill since the new grand jury delivered a new indictment revising the four charges against him for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and install himself in power. Karen Tumulty wrote in the Washington Post today that Trump is “spiraling,” noting that in the space of 24 hours he posted about Harris engaging in a sex act, promoted QAnon slogans, and called for prison for his political opponents. 

Tumulty notes that Trump’s team has been trying to get him to focus on the issues voters care about, but that after he “listlessly delivers some lines from the teleprompter,” he “gets bored and begins recycling the rants from his rallies.” Harris has stayed silent about his behavior, Tumulty says a campaign staffer told her, because “Why would we step in this man’s way?” The Harris campaign wants microphones left on throughout the planned September 10 debate, expecting that Trump will not be able to contain the rants that used to serve his interests but now turn voters off. 

To Vance is left the job of trying to clean up after Trump, but he’s not a skilled politician. Asked by John Berman about Trump’s social media attacks, Vance suggested that Trump was bringing “fun” and “jokes” to politics to “lift people up.” But observers on social media noted that claiming that attacks are “jokes” is a key part of asserting dominance. 

Vance himself went after Harris by saying that he had an early version of Harris’s CNN interview and then posting an old meme of a young Miss Teen USA who appeared to panic when answering a question and produced a nonsensical answer. When Berman told him that the young woman contemplated self-harm after becoming a national joke and asked if he would like to apologize for bringing up that old video, Vance declined to apologize, suggested we should “laugh at ourselves,” and repeated that we should “try to have some fun in politics.”

Vance got into deeper trouble, though, when asked to explain Trump’s statement when he told Dasha Burns that he opposes Florida’s six-week abortion ban. This November, Floridians will have to vote yes or no on a constitutional amendment that would put abortion rights similar to those of Roe v. Wade into the state constitution. 

Trump’s opposition to that amendment reflects the political reality that abortion bans are unpopular even in Republican-dominated states, but the MAGA base is fervently antiabortion. “That ‘thump thump’ you just heard is the entire pro-life movement going under the bus,” one wrote. 

A campaign spokesperson promptly tried to walk the statement back by saying that Trump “has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida,” which Vance reiterated on CNN. When Berman pressed him on it, though, Vance appeared to lose the ability to hear the question, suggesting the feed was bad. 

This afternoon, Trump announced he will side with the antiabortion activists and vote against the amendment to the Florida constitution that would restore the rights that were in Roe v. Wade. Harris and Walz, meanwhile, have announced a national bus tour to highlight reproductive freedom. It will start in Palm Beach, Florida, where the Trump Organization’s Mar-a-Lago property is located. 

Today, lawyers for Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the election workers Trump ally Rudy Giuliani defamed by accusing them of fraud in the 2020 election, asked a federal court to enforce the judgment that awarded them $146 million. They have asked for a court order requiring Giuliani to turn over his properties in New York and Florida, his luxury car, and his personal valuables including three New York Yankees World Series rings. Giuliani’s spokesperson accused the women of bullying Giuliani. 

The Lincoln Project, which believes that needling Trump is the best way to rattle him, today released a video that portrays Trump as a predatory animal who is old, past his prime, and abandoned by his pack. Rather than engaging in his final hunt, he has found himself the prey. The voice-over intones: “The circle of life eventually closes on all things.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[generallemarc]

We have his name from the FBI

Thomas Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. 20 years old. Registered as a Republican voter, but gave $15 to a progressive PAC on the day Biden was sworn into office. While I'm reporting factoids, Trump will be spending the night in his private New Jersey golf club, which was almost certainly a decision made with heavy input from the Secret Service, as a private club is gonna be way harder to get into and way easier to secure than just a regular house, or a building in any city. Biden was in Delaware when it happened, and has returned to the White House, which was also almost certainly at the behest of the Secret Service. The President has announced a pause to all campaign ads and messages to supporters, and it's worth noting that he legally cannot even do so much as suggest that the various PACs and campaign groups supporting him do the same, as that would be a violation of campaign laws, since they cannot be formally connected to his campaign in any way, even one like this.

The NYC police are surging security even though Trump won't be in the city as a precaution, both in general across the city and at Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street(the Trump Building). Secretary Mayorkas has said that the DHS and Secret Service will be working to bolster security for both the Trump and Biden campaigns. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has stated that he and his staff are in contact with security coordinators for the Republican National Convention, which is still set to begin on Monday in Milwaukee.

Of particular note among the flood of condolences is that of the most recent(prior to today) victim of an attempted political assassination, former Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Representative Nancy Pelosi's message also made reference to her family's unfortunate encounter with this savagery, as her husband's assault in 2022 was politically motivated according to the assailant.

One of Trump's campaign advisors, a man named Chris LaCivita, decided that the most appropriate thing to do was to tweet

well of course they tried too keep him off the ballot , they tried to put him in jail and now you see this

which absolutely doesn't imply that this is the fault of Biden and his campaign, nor does it have any potential to stoke conspiracy that they ordered it directly. It has since been deleted, which will hopefully be what I say tomorrow about Mr. LaCivita's position in the Trump campaign.

I have not found any updates on the two audience members who were taken to the hospital; the last report on them from APNews described them having been taken to a local hospital in "critical condition" at 11:19pm central time. There is as yet no information on any motive for the shooter.

EDIT: To clarify, it was the last report that was at 11:19pm. The audience members were taken to the hospital immediately, with the first reports on that from AP being at around 7-7:30pm central time.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Stephen Robinson at Public Notice:

Donald Trump is down so bad that his campaign is bringing back Republican dirty tricks from 20 years ago. Kamala Harris is packing arenas and rising in the polls while Trump whines about crowd sizes during incoherent press conferences and in insane Truth Social posts. Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, is a breakout star — a sharp contrast to Trump’s pick, JD Vance, who can’t shake the notion that he’s a creepy weirdo. Put it together and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Trump team is targeting Walz with a sleazy smear campaign that recalls the infamous “swiftboating” attacks against John Kerry. The approach isn’t a coincidence, either: Chris LaCivita, Trump’s senior campaign adviser, coordinated the “swiftboating” smears back in 2004.

Last week, Vance claimed that Walz abandoned his National Guard unit just before it was deployed to Iraq in 2005. “When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him,” Vance said during a speech. He’s also accused Walz of exaggerating his record of service. Although the New York Times describes these charges as merely “provocative,” they’re actually repulsive lies. Walz retired from the National Guard after 24 of years of service. He put in his request months prior to the unit’s deployment, but Vance suggests Walz was asked to go to Iraq and he quit in response. Meanwhile, other equally shameless Republicans, including former Army officer Tom Cotton, pushed the false narrative that Walz callously ditched his unit to pursue a political career. “JDVance is right,” Cotton posted on X. “Tim Walz’s unit got orders to Iraq. He could’ve gone with them, but didn’t. He let his troops go to war without him instead.”

Here are the facts: Walz joined the Nebraska National Guard in 1981, two days after his 17th birthday. He was eligible for retirement after 20 years of service in 2001 but re-enlisted after 9/11, according to an interview he did for a Library of Congress oral history project. Walz officially launched his congressional campaign in February 2005, more than a month before the National Guard announced the possible partial mobilization of 2,000 troops. His last day with the Guard was May 16, 2005, and his unit received its official deployment orders on July 14.

Yes, Walz has stated in an interview that he “decided to retire to focus full time on running,” but he was 41 years old with a 4-year-old daughter. During an appearance on The Bulwark podcast, former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Iraq War vet, pointed out that Walz already did what 99 percent of Americans don’t — willingly volunteer for service — and there’s nothing dishonorable about retiring. If Walz’s retirement would’ve compromised the unit, the military could have issued a stop-loss blocking his request. That didn’t happen. In addition to the swiftboat-style smears, Republicans have accused Walz of “stolen valor” for past remarks that suggested he served in active combat.

[...]

The origins of “swiftboating”

Unlike President George W. Bush, Kerry served in Vietnam and spent several months commanding a patrol craft called a “swift boat.” He was injured three times in the line of duty, including getting hit by a piece of shrapnel that remained in his thigh when he was on the campaign trail in 2004. Despite Kerry’s decorated service, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT) was a right-wing political organization that formed in direct opposition to his presidential candidacy. The group financed the book “Unfit for Command” and released a series of ads that attacked Kerry’s service and questioned his military honors, including his three Purple Hearts. Delegates at the 2004 Republican National Convention sunk so low as to mockingly wear adhesive bandages with small purple hearts on their chins, cheeks, and backs of their hands — suggesting that the injuries Kerry received during the war were a joke.

Backed with money from Clarence Thomas’s billionaire buddy Harlan Crow, LaCivita rounded up right-wing veterans willing to trash Kerry’s service, often in direct contradiction to statements made prior to his presidential run. George Elliott, Kerry's former commanding officer, had previously praised Kerry’s combat performance and stated in June 2003 that his Silver Star medal was “well-deserved.” But after Kerry formally announced his candidacy, Elliott — now a member of SBVT — released an affidavit in June 2004 claiming that Kerry “lied about what occurred in Vietnam,” which he later retracted, as well as another affidavit in September 2004 claiming “had I known the facts, I would not have recommended Kerry for the Silver Star.”

[...]

Why it won’t work this time

With Iraq being a major political liability for Bush, Kerry centered his campaign around his military service. He began his DNC acceptance speech with the line, “I’m John Kerry, and I’m reporting for duty.” A decorated veteran as the Democratic nominee was intended to challenge the perception that the party was “soft” on defense, particularly during a time of war. The “swiftboating” smear leveled the foundation of Kerry’s pitch to voters. He’d supported the disastrous Iraq War, so the rationale for his candidacy was that he’d make a superior commander in chief to Bush. But with his service record in question, he was less able to draw the intended contrast. Kerry enjoyed a narrow lead in the polls for most of the summer, but it evaporated shortly after the swift boat smears began and he went on to narrowly lose to Bush in November. (It’s still the last time a Democratic presidential candidate lost the popular vote.)

Walz, however, is not at the top of the ticket, and his appeal extends far beyond his military service. Arizona voters may still describe Sen. Mark Kelly as a “former astronaut,” but Walz is seen as a former high school football coach and longtime congressman. Harris/Walz supporters hold up signs at rallies that state simply “COACH,” and Harris promotes that image by regularly using the term to refer to her running mate. Walz even concludes his stump speech with what feels like a motivational locker room pep talk. These attacks on Walz’s military record aren’t new, either. When Walz ran for governor in 2018, two retired command sergeant majors in the Minnesota National Guard, Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr, submitted a paid letter to the editor at the West Central Tribune that accused Walz of “conveniently retiring a year before his battalion was deployed to Iraq.” But these allegations don’t hold water for anyone who has bothered to look into the timeline of his service. The Kerry campaign avoided a direct response to the attacks for far too long, which is rightly considered a mistake. Democrats learned a hard lesson from “swiftboating” — don’t assume that voters will see through the GOP’s transparent lies. So this time around, the Harris campaign and its surrogates moved swiftly to counter the charges.

The Trumpists are launching desperate smears against Kamala Harris VP pick Tim Walz’s military service record to pull a Swift Boat 2.0.

[sjerzgirl]

They don't give a damn about law and order and have NO respect for fallen troops buried at Arlington. Now they're taunting the Secretary of the Army after their behaviors in violation of the law were rebuked. Like spoiled brats, the lot of them! If actions aren't taken against them, they will never stop their disrespect.

[mariacallous]

Donald Trump’s newly installed leadership team at the Republican National Committee on Monday began the process of pushing out dozens of officials, according to two people close to the Trump campaign and the RNC.

All told, the expectation is that more than 60 RNC staffers who work across the political, communications and data departments will be let go. Those being asked to resign include five members of the senior staff, though the names were not made public. Additionally, some vendor contracts are expected to be cut.

In a letter to some political and data staff, Sean Cairncross, the RNC’s new chief operating officer, said that the new committee leadership was “in the process of evaluating the organization and staff to ensure the building is aligned” with its vision. “During this process, certain staff are being asked to resign and reapply for a position on the team.”

The overhaul is aimed at cutting, what one of the people described as, “bureaucracy” at the RNC. But the move also underscores the swiftness with which Trump’s operation is moving to take over the Republican Party’s operations after the former president all but clinched the party’s presidential nomination last week.

Trump’s campaign took over operational control of the RNC on Monday. On Friday, former North Carolina GOP Chair Michael Whatley was elected the RNC’s new chair, and Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump was elected as co-chair. Both had Trump’s endorsement. Additionally, Trump senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita was named as the RNC’s new chief of staff.

Whatley is replacing Ronna McDaniel, who stepped down last week after serving more than seven years in the post. Trump and McDaniel had been longtime allies, but the former president had soured on the chairperson as of late because he felt that she was not doing enough on “voter integrity”-related issues, and because she hosted Republican primary debates that she refused to participate in.

Trump advisers have described the RNC’s structure as overly bloated and bureaucratic, which they believe has contributed to the party’s cash woes. The RNC had about $8 million at the end of December, only about one-third as much as the Democratic National Committee.

Under the new structure, the Trump campaign is looking to merge its operations with the RNC. Key departments, such as communications, data and fundraising, will effectively be one and the same.

[baroque-hashem]

Full article text so no paywall:

By Isaac Arnsdorf

and

Josh Dawsey

July 30, 2024 at 3:06 p.m. EDT

The right-wing policy operation that became a rallying cry for Democrats and a nuisance for Republican nominee Donald Trump is trying to escape the public spotlight and repair relations with Trump’s campaign.

Project 2025, a collaboration led by the Heritage Foundation among more than 110 conservative groups to develop a movement consensus blueprint for the next Republican administration, is winding down its policy operations, and its director, former Trump administration personnel official Paul Dans, is departing. The Heritage Foundation also recently distributed new talking points encouraging participants to emphasize that the project does not speak for Trump.

The former president has repeatedly distanced himself from Project 2025 after relentless attacks from Democrats using some of the 900-page playbook’s more aggressive proposals to impute Trump’s agenda since many of the proposals were written by alumni of Trump’s White House. While some participants in the project started avoiding interviews and public appearances, Trump advisers grew furious that Heritage leaders continued promoting the project and feeding critical news coverage.

Trump senior adviser Susie Wiles repeatedly called Heritage leaders instructing them to stop promoting Project 2025. She and Trump strategist Chris LaCivita repeatedly authored public statements disavowing the project, and then Trump started saying so in his own social media posts. More recently, LaCivita has started saying that people involved in the project would be barred from a second Trump administration.

“President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the President in any way,” Wiles and LaCivita said in a joint statement Tuesday. “Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you.”

Some Project 2025 participants have responded by doubting a ban could be enforced when contributors include close Trump advisers such as former White House speechwriter Stephen Miller, former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Homan, and former White House economic adviser Peter Navarro. Miller has denied his involvement in Project 2025, but his America First Legal group is a participating organization and his deputy, Gene Hamilton, wrote the playbook’s chapter on the Department of Justice.

Many of the plan’s proposals overlap with official pronouncements from Trump’s campaign.

Both Trump and Project 2025 have proposed eliminating the Department of Education and reversing President Biden’s student loan relief program. Both have said they want to reintroduce a policy change to weaken tenure protections for career civil servants and tighten White House supervision of the Department of Justice and other agencies. Both have proposed large-scale immigration raids and repealing temporary protections for migrants from unsafe countries. Both proposed ending affirmative action and rolling back Biden administration environmental regulations.

At least some Heritage employees are considering leaving the organization because they do not want to alienate a future Trump administration and hurt their future job prospects, according to a current employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail internal dynamics. While Heritage President Kevin Roberts has told people privately that the storm will blow over, employees have texted and messaged one another with dismay about the Trump campaign’s continued attacks on the organization.

“We are extremely grateful for [Dans’]and everyone’s work on Project 2025 and dedication to saving America," Roberts said in a statement. "Our collective efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels — federal, state, and local — will continue.”

Roberts will take over direct supervision of the project. Earlier in the presidential primary, Roberts was perceived as closer to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. His relationship with Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) fueled new attempts by Democrats to tie Trump to the project since he chose Vance as his running mate.

Some donors have also expressed concerns about how angry the campaign seems about the project, the current employee said. Others agree that the controversy will pass.

Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said Democrats will not stop talking about Project 2025.

“Hiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn’t make it less real – in fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding," she said in a statement. “Project 2025 is on the ballot because Donald Trump is on the ballot. This is his agenda, written by his allies, for Donald Trump to inflict on our country."

Project 2025 published its playbook in 2023, and it always planned to wind down the policy program and hand off recommendations to the official presidential transition when it starts this summer. Another arm of the project, a personnel database of more than 20,000 applicants for potential political appointments should Trump be reelected, will remain in operation, people familiar with the matter said.

In a departing message to staff on Monday, Dans lamented attacks on the project’s work as a “disinformation campaign" that aims to “falsely associate Former President Trump with the Project.” Dans ended by quoting Trump’s words after he survived an assassination attempt on July 13, which quickly became a MAGA movement mantra: “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Dans did not respond to requests for comment.

Democrats routinely use Project 2025 and Trump’s plans for a second term interchangeably. Left-wing discussion of the project surged in June as the Biden campaign and surrogates started focusing on proposals in Project 2025 to portray Trump as extreme. While some project contributors took pride in being vilified by Democrats and in news coverage, they grew concerned when they started feeling the pressure coming from Trump.

Other areas of divergence have caused headaches for the Trump campaign. In particular, Project 2025 proposes restricting access to abortion medication and blocking shipments through the mail. Trump has said he opposes a federal abortion ban.

In another recent message to participants, communications adviser Mary Vought advised them to respond to questions about the project saying it is not partisan and not affiliated with any candidate. “If asked during a media interview, you can use these points to pivot,” she wrote.

The talking points included: “While President Trump and Project 2025 see eye to eye on many issues, President Trump alone sets his agenda. Project 2025 does not speak for President Trump or his campaign in any capacity.”

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I've said it before and I'll say it again: publishing their manifesto was the worst mistake the MAGAts could have made. Now we know exactly what bullshit they wanna pull off. And their plans are falling apart. I continue to be filled with hope for November. Get out and vote, people. Democracy can live another day, if we all participate in it.