Project 2025 Would Like Its Cabinet Now

Hello it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender ☕️

It’s odd that the hush money case made it as far as it did.

Alvin Bragg always seemed mercurial in his willingness to pursue it; the facts of the case all dealt with conduct around the 2016 election and the ensuing first months of Trump’s presidency. The charges weren’t the most serious, nor were they the most ambitious: the Smith and Georgia January 6 cases went to the heart of Trump’s 2020 coup attempt; Smith’s classified records case focused on a clear-cut instance of criminality.

But out of them all, the hush money case was arguably the most Trumpian. It was all there: tabloids, celebrity drama, porn stars, sex, money, bribery, dirty lawyers, rage, betrayal, the works. The hush money scheme itself was uniquely Trumpian also in that it was largely pointless and mostly a product of the once and future President’s extensive anxieties. He ended up paying largely out of fear of embarrassment over his brief encounter with Stormy Daniels, a concern heightened by the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape.

But even Trump couldn’t see the critical reality that he had created. His audience never cared; if anything, people appreciate that he doesn’t play by the rules. Trump hadn’t fully understood what he could get away with, all out in public. That’s changed.

— Josh Kovensky

Here’s what else TPM has on tap this weekender

• Hunter Walker checks in on the Heritage Foundation and the Trump team’s laughable efforts to distance Trump from Project 2025.
• Khaya Himmelman has the details on a second layer of North Carolina Republicans’ 11th hour effort to strip power from newly-elected statewide Democrats before the end of the year.
• Emine Yücel unpacks the weeklong hateful ploy for attention from Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).

Project 2025 Would Like Its Cabinet Now

During the presidential campaign, as Vice President Kamala Harris turned Project 2025 into a political attack, Donald Trump disavowed the conservative blueprint for the White House. However, since he was elected, Trump has staffed his incoming administration with a slew of Project 2025 authors and contributors. And now, the group behind the controversial policy push is launching a million dollar effort to ensure the “prompt confirmation” of Trump’s Cabinet.

On Thursday, the Heritage Foundation, which organized and published Project 2025, announced it would be launching a public relations effort that would “target the home states of key senators who could make or break the confirmation process for President Trump’s highly capable nominees.” That announcement included quotes from three Heritage leaders; the organization’s president, Kevin Roberts, its executive vice president, Ryan Walker, and distinguished fellow Steve Bradbury. 

All three of the Heritage leaders who helped roll out the push to confirm Trump’s Cabinet played a role in Project 2025, which included a 922-page policy plan and a personnel database for a potential conservative administration. Roberts led the effort and penned the foreword to the manifesto. Walker gave interviews defending the project as it became a campaign trail liability, including one where he was identified as one of “its conservative architects.” Bradbury was one of the plan’s contributors and received “special mention” in the chapter outlining a vision for the Department of Transportation. The Heritage Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story. 

And the Cabinet these Project 2025 backers are pushing for has at least one member so far who was also linked to the effort. John Ratcliffe, who Trump tapped to become CIA director, which is a Cabinet-level post, was a contributor. Additionally, Trump named Tom Homan, another Project 2025 contributor, as his “Border Czar.” The term “czar” is often applied to high-level executive branch members who take on a major policy role while avoiding the confirmation process required for Cabinet members. Homan, who was Trump’s director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, during his first term, has been an outspoken advocate for Trump’s mass deportation push. Project 2025 contained a series of proposals aimed at helping step up deportations. 

Trump’s efforts to distance himself from Project 2025 were always questionable. The effort was stacked with his allies and former officials from his first administration. His appointments have made the connection even more clear. And Heritage’s statement about their effort to hasten confirmation of the Trump Cabinet put a bow around the whole thing. 

In the announcement, Roberts, who was known as the chief architect of Project 2025, said the Heritage Cabinet push was designed to help Trump “cement his legacy as the president who confronted Washington’s unaccountable bureaucracy and restored power to the people.” There were over a dozen references to “unaccountable” bureaucrats, programs, and spending in Project 2025, including one in Roberts’ foreword. And, as he is agitating for the Trump Cabinet, Roberts essentially acknowledged they represent the fulfillment of that part of the project’s vision. 

“His Cabinet choices reflect a commitment to this mission,” Roberts said.

— Hunter Walker

North Carolina Republicans’ Power Grab Involves Fake Voter Fraud Claims Too

In yet another attempt to hang onto power, North Carolina Republican lawmakers are spreading baseless election fraud claims, in the same week that they attempted to pass legislation to strip power from newly-elected Democrats in the waning days of their supermajority. 

Republican North Carolina Senate Leader Phil Berger told reporters on Wednesday that ballots have been wrongly counted in favor of Democrats. “We’re seeing played out at this point another episode of ‘Count Until Somebody You Want to Win Wins,’” said Berger, according to reporting from the Associated Press. 

More specifically, Berger was referencing the recount process for a seat on the state Supreme Court, which Democratic Justice Allison Riggs appears to have won over Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin, according to WRAL News. 

In response, Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, wrote to Berger on Thursday with an “urgent plea” to “retract” his statement. 

“This is an accusation of wrongdoing that has absolutely no basis in fact,” she wrote. “I fear for the people running elections in this state, including in your own community, that some misguided people will conclude from your statements that actions must be taken, perhaps through the use of threats or use of violence.”

This week, the North Carolina Republican-controlled legislature voted on SB382,  a power grab disguised as a hurricane relief bill, to take away power from newly elected Democrats while Republicans hold a veto-proof supermajority for a few more weeks. 

“Sen. Berger’s accusation that votes are being counted until ‘someone [we] want to win wins’  is irresponsible and dangerous. Every legally cast vote deserves to be counted, and election workers from both parties have said they actually need more time to conduct an accurate canvass, not less,” Democratic State Rep. Pricey Harrison said in an email to TPM. 

“That certainly would have been the case in the NC Supreme Court race this year, and Jefferson Griffin’s losing the lead after all legal votes were counted seems to be the motive behind S382’s proposed  changes,” she added. 

— Khaya Himmelman

Nancy Mace’s Obsession With Bathrooms Is One Large, Hateful Ploy For Attention 

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) on Monday introduced a resolution to ban transgender women from women’s restrooms at the Capitol building — just two weeks after the first openly transgender person was elected to the U.S. Congress.

When asked directly if her resolution was in response to Rep.-elect Sarah McBride (D-DE) joining the upcoming Congress, Mace did not hesitate to say, “absolutely, a hundred percent,” adding that she thinks her resolution does not go far enough.

Mace’s performative outrage has been on steroids all week. Over 72 hours, Mace posted about trans women and bathrooms more than 325 times on the social media platform X. 

It’s all quite ironic. In 2021, Mace said, “I strongly support LGBTQ rights and equality. No one should be discriminated against,” in a Washington Examinder interview.

As Mace’s brigade for attention by shamelessly othering the will-be first ever trans member of Congress continued, on Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) came out in support of her, announcing in a press release that trans women will not be allowed to use the women’s restrooms and locker rooms in the House side of the Capitol complex.

“It is important to note that each Member office has its own private restroom, and unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol,” Johnson said, disregarding the fact that there is no single occupancy restroom in the actual U.S. Capitol building where lawmakers and staff often spend hours voting or in meetings.

Meanwhile McBride is taking the high road when it comes to the GOP attacks.

“I’m not here to fight about bathrooms. I’m here to fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families,” McBride said in a social media post, describing the Republicans’ rule as an “effort to distract from the real issues facing this country.”

— Emine Yücel