Seriously. Jimmy Kimmel, James Comey… who’s next, Jimmy freakin’ Carter? (Granted, the guy did have the gall to put solar panels on the White House.) Hell, throw in Jim Nabors for the weirdest possible flex. How about Henson, or Brown (pick one)? Jim Rice could have some skeletons. And we know Fallon's not going unnoticed.  It’s getting ridiculous. First they yank a late-night guy off the air for saying stuff late-night hosts have been saying for decades. Then, in a clear vengeance move and publicity stunt, they unprecedentedly accuse an ex-FBI director of lying under oath and slap him with charges that would equate to a 5-year prison sentence if they could ever stick. Next thing you know, this list is longer than a Jeffrey Epstein birthday invitation's. 

If somebody handed me this mess as a comedy sketch or jeopardy category  — “I’ll take famous Jim’s sucked into the political spotlight for $200, Alex.” I might chuckle. But it’s not a sketch or a gameshow. It’s propaganda theater. And the producers are aiming the spotlight, the cameras, the PR, and yes — the prosecutors — at whatever, and whoever, suits the Project 2025 script.
 
Here’s the setup to this rant: From the campaign trail to today, Trump says he’s got nothing to do with Project 2025, and his sidekick Stephen Miller is pretending he’s just some policy wonk who left a 900-page “how-to” manual lying around. Come on. These guys are about as unfamiliar with Project 2025 as Belichick was with Tom Brady’s under-inflated balls. It’s right there in front of us. The reason they deny it isn’t ignorance — it’s fear. They know how radical this thing sounds if you say it out loud. But actions speak louder than denials, and if you watch closely, you can see the plays being run one after another. 

So what is Project 2025? It’s not a policy memo. It’s not a think piece. It’s a 900-page bible (see the WSJ link below) led by the Heritage Foundation — the conservative mothership of think tanks. Think of it like an IKEA instruction booklet for reshaping America's Democracy, except when you’re done you don’t have a bookshelf, you’ve dismantled the Department of Education, rolled back LGBTQ rights, put a bullet in "woke", kneecapped abortion access, and handed the Oval Office a stack of new executive powers that allows conservatives to crawl out of the corner with the confidence of a January 6th insurrectionist. 

HERE ARE THE JIMMY CLIFF NOTES:

​1. Reshape the Federal Government

• Purge the bureaucracy: Remove tens of thousands of career civil servants (“Schedule F” plan) and replace them with political loyalists.
• Centralize executive power: Shift authority from independent agencies to the Oval Office.
• Shrink or eliminate entire departments: Especially the Department of Education, which conservatives view as unnecessary.
• Roll back regulatory agencies: Slash budgets and power of agencies like the EPA, FCC, and OSHA

2. Social and Cultural Policy

• Eliminate DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) programs in all federal offices, universities, and contractors.
• Reverse abortion protections: Push for nationwide restrictions, even if Roe is overturned at the state level.
• Curtail LGBTQ rights: Limit protections in schools, workplaces, and healthcare; restrict gender-affirming care.
• Promote “traditional family values”: Increase funding for anti-abortion and faith-based groups.

3. Immigration and Borders

• Mass deportations: Reinstate and expand Trump-era enforcement like Title 42 expulsions.
• Build detention infrastructure: Larger capacity for holding undocumented migrants.
• Expand the border wall and surveillance: Accelerated construction and digital tracking.
• Curtail asylum: Make it harder to apply for and receive asylum protections.

4. Law, Order, and Justice

• Stack the DOJ with loyalists: Reduce independence of the FBI and DOJ; pursue political investigations when directed by the White House.
• Limit voting access: Encourage state-level restrictions on mail-in ballots, early voting, and registration drives.
• Tough-on-crime agenda: Increase penalties and expand police authority.

5. Media and Communications

• Rein in the FCC: Loosen restrictions on media ownership (allowing consolidation).
• Tilt public broadcasting: Push PBS and NPR to eliminate perceived “liberal bias,” or defund them.
• Control digital speech: Remove government efforts to counter disinformation; pressure social media companies.

6. Economic and Energy Policy

• Drill, baby, drill: Expand fossil fuel exploration, pipelines, and coal use.
• Slash environmental rules: Roll back climate change initiatives, defund green energy projects.
• Weaken labor protections: Target unions, overtime rules, and minimum wage expansions.
• Privatize federal programs: Open space, infrastructure, and even parts of Social Security/Medicare to private competition. 

7. Education and Schools

• Dismantle the Department of Education: Push decisions down to states and localities.
• Promote “school choice”: Funnel public funds into private and charter schools, especially religious ones.
• Censor curricula: Restrict teaching on race, gender, and sexuality; promote “patriotic education.”

8. Foreign Policy

• America First doctrine: Reduce foreign aid, pressure NATO allies, and scale back multilateral commitments.
• Tough on China: Trade restrictions, tech decoupling, military expansion in the Pacific.
• Pro-Israel priority: Support conservative policies in the Middle East.

In short: Project 2025 is not just a wish list — it’s a manual for remaking the American federal government and society in a more authoritarian, Christian nationalist, and corporate-friendly mold. 

And let’s not kid ourselves about who’s driving it. At the top sits Stephen Miller. Trump’s longtime aide, speechwriter, and immigration hardliner. His fingerprints are all over the harshest sections, even though he now pretends he’s just a guy polishing silverware. Then there’s the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank founded in 1973 with the mission of turning conservative ideas into plug-and-play policy. They were behind Reagan’s “Mandate for Leadership” in the 1980s, which became the governing bible of his administration. Project 2025 is the sequel — except this time, it’s got over a hundred groups in the huddle: the Family Research Council, Independent Women’s Forum, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Institute for Energy Research, and a revolving door of Trump staffers who left government, wrote this playbook, and got back in line for their jobs - and got them.  

Russell Vought, Trump’s budget guy, wrote big chunks of the bureaucracy section. Brendan Carr, still sitting at the FCC, wrote the telecom and media chapters. And Tom Homan, Trump's "Border Czar"? (Is it me, or does that not sound like a party planner at a mexican restaurant?) He's the former ICE director who was a key contributor to the Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. The policy book published by the Heritage Foundation as part of Project 2025 which included large-scale deportations. John McEntee, the gatekeeper of personnel, is right there again. Even E.J. Antoni, a Heritage economist, is Trump’s man on the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And Kevin Roberts, current president of Heritage? In April 2022, Trump and Roberts took a private 45-minute flight to a Heritage conference. At the event, Trump praised the organization, saying they would "lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do".

The Point? This isn’t some fringe organization like the 'Proud Boys'. These are powerful, extremely well financed people in the building with the President of the United States of America today. 

So, why are their underoos all bundled up? Let’s do a little look back, shall we?

You might say we should have seen this coming. Because for fifty years the squeaky (less than humble) liberal side stacked up wins that changed the country in ways that stuck. Civil rights ended segregation. Women’s rights opened doors in schools and workplaces. Roe v. Wade enshrined reproductive rights. The EPA and clean air and water laws gave us something resembling breathable skies. Same-sex marriage became the law of the land. Barack Obama was elected and gave us Obamacare which expanded health coverage to millions. Add in Title IX, DEI programs, and you’ve got a half-century of structural shifts that weren’t just election-season talking points — they were permanent changes to the field of play. To conservatives, each one was a punch in the gut. And by the 2010s they were sick of the stomachache. Winning seats in elections wouldn't cut it anymore. They wanted to change the rules of the game. Project 2025 is the game plan. 

If this all feels new, guess again.
A century ago, progressives wrote their own playbook. The country was a mess of robber barons, monopolies, child labor, and machine politics. Reformers didn’t just complain — they rewrote the rules.  Teddy Roosevelt broke up the trusts. Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle and out came the FDA. Journalists like Ida Tarbell dragged Standard Oil through the muck — literally why they were called muckrakers, because they raked the filth out into daylight. Then came FDR with the New Deal: Social Security, unemployment insurance, the government as a backstop. Then LBJ with the Great Society: Medicare, Medicaid, federal aid to education. Those reforms stuck. They didn’t just win elections — they changed the entire game. 

That’s the mirror. Progressives used a playbook to expand democracy and spread power wider to the citizens, and it had serious momentum. Project 2025 is conservatives embodying their own Mein Kampf to contract it, concentrate it, and claw back everything that got away from them. The progressives said, "Spread the wealth". While the conservatives are saying, "Stop compromising" and "Build a propaganda machine... We'll put a puppet on top who’s ego-driven enough and empathy-devoid enough, to blather on while we quietly do the real work."

And while we’re here, let’s talk about the media angle. Control the story, control the field. That’s why Jimmy Kimmel’s (and Stephen Colbert's) suspension wasn’t just late-night drama — it was a warning shot. Say the wrong thing, step out of line, and suddenly the FCC, the network, the sponsors all decide you’re radioactive. It’s why you should be paying attention to deals like the Nextstar merger, too. Media consolidation isn’t an accident. It’s part of the same playbook: fewer voices, tighter control, louder propaganda. Reagan’s crew figured it out with talk radio. Today’s version is cable, streaming, digital, and yes, gutting the FCC’s guardrails to tilt the coverage. 

And guess who probaly helped: Remember Occupy Wall Street? Back in 2011, a bunch of kids with tents and Twitter feeds managed to shift the national vocabulary with “the 99% vs. the 1%.” It was impressive as hell, for a second. But they didn’t have a plan, they didn’t have structure, and they fizzled out. However, they proved that raw anger can catch fire. That fire later fueled both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, just channeled in different directions. Occupy was what happens when you have outrage without architecture. Project 2025 is what happens when you take outrage, give it architecture, and fund it to the hilt. 

So, why deny it? Why not just say: "PROJECT 2025 LIGHTS MY FIRE, BABY!" out loud?
Because they know how extreme it sounds. If they admitted that Project 2025 is the plan, they’d lose independents overnight. So they do the two-step: deny the blueprint, execute the outcomes. Trump says he’s never heard of it, while policy after policy matches its pages. Miller claims he’s not involved, even though his fingerprints are smeared across the immigration sections like barbecue sauce on a rib joint menu. They’re not denying because it’s false. They’re denying because it’s true — and too radical to sell honestly. 

That’s the tell. If Project 2025 were mild tinkering, they’d brag about it. The fact that they’re running from it while enacting it is proof enough of how extreme it is. Which leaves us with a choice: pay attention, or get played. Because here’s the bottom line: Project 2025 isn’t coming. It’s here. It’s not a campaign promise. It’s not a policy debate. It’s a playbook. The plays are being run, the refs are looking the other way, and the scoreboard isn’t going to fix itself. Don’t be duped. Don’t laugh it off as just another headline about another Jim in the spotlight.

[end scene]
​
Here are a few video links to stir up some dinner conversation at your next Chamber of Commerce meeting:

CNBC Trump’s Presidential Debate with Kamala Harris: Trump denies having anything to do with Project 2025: https://youtube.com/shorts/2GJwYsNsGdk?feature=shared
 
MSNBC interview with Stephen Miller where he denies Project 2025 being a foundation of Trump policy, despite several alignments with the election campaign playbook: https://youtu.be/65hE3Ll1Fec?feature=shared
 
What is Project 2025? Defined by WSJ: https://youtu.be/y16SZhZJHkI?feature=shared
 
PBS Newshour Explores Project 2025's origins and goals to reshape American culture: https://youtu.be/z7rASQFXZjM?feature=shared
 
Fox Affiliate reporting Trump denies knowing much about Project 2025: https://youtu.be/_jmXS87BmnU?feature=shared
 
MSNBC Shows Project 2025 architects who are now in Trump’s administration: https://youtu.be/LnGsyz4-xf4?feature=shared



 

Think of it as the Bill Belichick playbook for rebuilding the Patriots. Except instead of scheming ways to beat the Jets, this one’s the “no more compromise” manual for stopping fifty years of liberal momentum.
And let’s not forget: Along with being a football genius, Belichick had a history of bending rules — Spygate, Deflategate — winning at all costs because the payoff outweighed the fine. Project 2025 runs on the same logic: the prize of reshaping America for decades is worth a little bad press. The twist? Belichick had Brady — the GOAT QB — to run his system. Project 2025? They didn’t want a GOAT President. They just needed someone who believed he was—someone ego-driven and devoid of empathy enough to soak up the chants, take the hits, and think he’s the star while the machine runs the real plays behind the curtain.

Why Project 2025 Exists — Five Decades of Liberal Wins
Here’s the backdrop. For half a century, liberals racked up institutional wins that reshaped schools, workplaces, laws, and everyday life. These weren’t just political victories; they were structural changes that have endured long beyond election cycles. (If they had a theme song, it would have been Aerosmith's "Eat the Rich.")

• Civil rights (1960s): Laws ending segregation and outlawing discrimination.
• Women’s rights & Title IX (1972): Equal access in education and athletics.
• Roe v. Wade (1973): Reproductive rights enshrined for decades.
• Environmental protections (1970s–80s): EPA, clean air and water acts.
• Marriage equality (2010s): Legal same-sex marriage across the country.
• Affordable Care Act (2010s): Expanded healthcare coverage for millions.

From the conservative perspective, each was another punch in the nuts. By the 2010s, they were tired of playing defense−and the stomachache. And elections aren’t enough. This time, they’re out to change the rules of the game itself. Project 2025 is the result — a grudge match turned detailed strategy manual and execution plan. For any American with an empathetic bone in their body it’s a nightmare coming true.

A Mirror from History: The Progressive Playbook
Funny thing is, conservatives aren’t the first to do this. A century ago, it was progressives writing the playbook.

Progressive Era Blueprint (1890s–1930s)
Back then, America was a mess of robber barons, monopolies, child labor, and political corruption. Progressives didn’t just protest — they built institutions and rewrote rules.

The Players:

• Settlement Houses & Social Reformers: Jane Addams and others, building community services where government failed.
• Muckrakers (What the Hell Does That Mean?): Muck is the dirt, the filth, the crap the powerful want hidden. Raking is dragging it out into daylight. Journalists like Ida Tarbell (Standard Oil), Upton Sinclair (The Jungle), and Lincoln Steffens (city corruption) were the muckrakers of their time, the watchdogs with ink-stained fingers, exposing rot.
• Labor & Populist Movements: Early unions and grassroots parties pushing for worker protections.
• Academics & Policy Shops: Universities became policy labs, drafting model laws — the “Wisconsin Idea” was basically the Heritage Foundation for the left.
• Politicians: Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, then FDR with the New Deal — institutionalizing reforms.

The Playbook (Progressive Era Edition):

• Break up monopolies (antitrust laws): Big trusts like Standard Oil and the railroads got busted up so no single company could own the whole field.
• Regulate food, drugs, and labor conditions: The Jungle made people gag, and out of it came the FDA, workplace standards, and protections against child labor.
• Democratic reforms (direct election of senators, women’s suffrage): The 17th Amendment (1913) put senatorial election decisions in the hands of voters instead of backroom statehouse deals. The 19th Amendment (1920) gave women the right to vote — doubling the electorate and forcing politicians to deal with half the population they’d ignored.
• Social safety nets (Social Security, unemployment insurance): The New Deal turned government into a backstop for workers, seniors, and families for the first time.

Many of those reforms became permanent fixtures: the FDA, SEC, Social Security, labor protections, and yes — women voting and citizens directly choosing senators. They didn’t just win elections; they rewrote how democracy worked.
 
That’s the historical mirror. A century ago, progressives built their playbook to expand democracy and spread power wider and towards the people. Today, Project 2025 is conservatives writing their own — only this one’s about contracting, concentrating, and dismantling everything that got away from them.
 
What’s in the Playbook? (The Cliff Notes)
Project 2025 is a 900-page manual, not a suggestion box. Here’s the cheat sheet:

• Education: Shrink or dismantle the Department of Education; push culture-war fights into classrooms.
• Diversity/Equity: Kill DEI programs, swap in “meritocracy” language. Put a bullet in “woke”.
• Social Issues: Roll back abortion access; undercut LGBTQ protections.
• Immigration: Tighter borders, faster, more dramatic deportations, expanded enforcement.
• Executive Power: Concentrate more authority in the Oval Office.
• Federal Workforce: Purge “disloyal” civil servants; replace with loyalists.

 
If you’re seeing these plays being run, you’re watching Project 2025 in action.

Trump is Neither Mastermind nor Architect. He’s the lightning rod, convinced the storm is following him because he’s special.
Trump isn’t the strategist. He’s the petulant puppet in denial. The brilliance of the machine is finding a guy with no empathy, no patience for detail, and an endless hunger for attention. Wind him up, shove him in front of cameras, and while he’s busy soaking up chants, Heritage and friends are pulling the strings.
And the cruel joke? He thinks it’s all him. He believes he’s the genius. Meanwhile, he’s the perfect distraction.
You might even feel for him. He’s been the egotistic fiddle the conservative movement needed. They gave him the illusion of power, built a billion-dollar orchestra around him, and let him think he was conducting.
Now? He might actually believe it. He’s riffing off-script, convinced the show only exists because of him. That’s risky. The machine didn’t spend years writing a 900-page plan just to let their frontman wing it.
So, what happens? Do they tighten the leash? Because for The Heritage Foundation and the rest of us, a loose cannon puppet who can’t feel the strings is a very dangerous thing to have sitting in as the leader of the free world.

Final Word
Trump went on TV and said, “I have nothing to do with Project 2025. I know nothing about it.” Stephen Miller waved it off too, claiming he was never really involved. Come on. That’s straight up lying. And lying has to mean something. If people in power can just deny with a straight face while running the playbook word for word, then what’s left?
 
Don’t be duped. Actions speak louder than denials. If lying becomes normal, we all give up trying to separate fact from fiction. That can’t be how tomorrow’s American society works.
 
As much as it was torture to watch a Bill Belichick post-game interview, you knew (for the most part) he was being straight with you. Bitchy as it was, it was honest.
 
Fact: Project 2025 is in play. The plays are easy to recognize if you know the script. Spend a few minutes watching the first few minutes of the videos below. See what adds up for you. And ask yourself: Why are they lying?


Video links:
 
CNBC Trump’s Presidential Debate with Kamala Harris: Trump denies having anything to do with Project 2025: https://youtube.com/shorts/2GJwYsNsGdk?feature=shared
 
MSNBC interview with Stephen Miller where he denies Project 2025 being a foundation of Trump policy, despite several alignments with the election campaign playbook: https://youtu.be/65hE3Ll1Fec?feature=shared
 
What is Project 2025? Defined by WSJ: https://youtu.be/y16SZhZJHkI?feature=shared
 
PBS Newshour Explores Project 2025's origins and goals to reshape American culture: https://youtu.be/z7rASQFXZjM?feature=shared
 
Fox Affiliate reporting that Trump denies knowing much about Project 2025: https://youtu.be/_jmXS87BmnU?feature=shared
 
MSNBC: Shows Project 2025 architects who are now in Trump’s administration: https://youtu.be/LnGsyz4-xf4?feature=shared
 

Honorable Mention:
 
Occupy Wall Street (2011) matters in this bigger story, even though it fizzled as a movement. Here’s why it’s significant:
 
1. It shifted the vocabulary
Occupy gave us “the 99% vs. the 1%.” That framing of inequality has stuck around for over a decade, shaping how people talk about wealth gaps, billionaires, and corporate influence. Even politicians today (from AOC to Bernie to Elizabeth Warren) still tap that language.
 
2. It exposed the frustration pipeline
Occupy was leaderless, messy, and didn’t produce a policy agenda — but it revealed the raw anger at institutions after the 2008 crash. That anger didn’t just vanish: some of it fueled progressive movements (e.g., Sanders’ runs), while another slice of it got redirected into populist-right outrage (Tea Party, Trumpism). Same emotional energy, different channels.
 
3. It previewed the social-media era of protest
Occupy was one of the first big U.S. movements to be amplified and organized through Twitter and livestreams. That “digital-first” activism style later powered Black Lives Matter, Women’s Marches, and even January 6 organizing on the right.
 
4. It failed at structure, and that was instructive
Occupy never turned its energy into durable institutions, laws, or elections. Compare that with the Progressive Era or Project 2025: those are playbooks with infrastructure, leaders, and funding. Occupy showed what happens when you have outrage without architecture.
 
So, significance?
Occupy wasn’t Project 2025’s mirror image, but it was a warning shot: if you don’t harness discontent into a coherent agenda, someone else will. You could argue Project 2025 is the conservative side learning that lesson — building a manual so their movement doesn’t dissolve into tents and hashtags.