Project 2025 is the libertarian conservative Heritage Foundation’s systematic governance plan for the next Republican president. The 920-page plan aims to implement the "unitary executive theory," which would give all of the power of the US government to the executive branch. This week, Derek and Julian investigate the chapter on US media agencies and the GOP's plan to create a true state-sponsored media beholden exclusively to the president.
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OK, Julian, we are back for week two of our exploration of Project 2025.
Was last week enough?
Are you ready for this?
I'm going to be OK.
I've taken my blood pressure medication and I'm going to be breathing slow and deep.
Oh, you're taking that big pharma?
Come on, man.
You just need to pray that blood pressure down.
So, Project 2025, of course, part of it is this 920-page presidential transition project document that was put up by the Heritage Foundation.
We covered it in full on episode 187 on the main feed.
We also got into it a little bit at the top of last week's episode.
So, in this episode and future episodes, we'll reference back, but we're not going to keep going deeply into what the whole project is.
Last week, we looked at This mammoth 54-page chapter on the Department of Health and Human Services, written by Roger Severino.
This week, we are looking at a much slimmer 17-page chapter.
It's entitled Media Agencies, and it includes contributions from two authors covering two different agencies.
One is the U.S.
Agency for Global Media.
It was written by Maura Namdar.
And then we'll get to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which is a mere three pages written by Mike Gonzalez.
Now, Maura Nemdar is pretty straightforward.
Unlike Roger Severino, she's very buttoned up, sort of classical conservative.
She's currently an attorney at the American Foreign Policy Council, which sounds like a government agency, but of course not, because names like this are designed to fool you into thinking they are.
It is actually a conservative think tank that guides congressional Republicans on foreign policy topics like arms control, energy security, and other market economies.
In the realm of government think tanks, it's longstanding and pretty basic.
They try to move the needle as much as they can.
I wouldn't label them under the totally nefarious side of some of these other organizations, but they're still pushing for their agenda.
And it is more, as I said, it's more of a buttoned-up, old-school Republican, and this reflects in Namdar's bio.
She served under Trump as the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs and VP of the U.S.
Agency for Global Media, which is what she writes about in this document.
She previously worked as Senior Advisor at the Department of State, and she focused on issues pertaining to Iran.
She is the daughter of Persian immigrants.
She speaks fluent Farsi, so she does at least have a second-hand account of the lived experience of Persians, or people living in Iran.
She writes the subchapter of the media agency's chapter on the U.S.
Agency for Global Media, which is, as I said, where she previously served.
Now, whereas Moran Amdar is very buttoned up, Mike Gonzales is the opposite.
He is a Heritage Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy.
He bills himself as a longtime journalist, but some of his recent pieces include names like Even the Census Bureau is trying to promote radical gender ideology.
He also wrote one called, Mess We Have on College Campuses Stems from Marxism.
I love how the right constantly decries mainstream journalists, but then they write propaganda like this and then call themselves journalists all the time.
Yeah, we should point out too that these folks have essentially just imported the bizarre and distorted talking points of James Lindsay and Chris Ruffo as if they are canonical scholarly analysis of the left, like we have the actual truth about the left's sinister plan and it all goes back to Karl Marx.
Oh yeah, yeah.
He is fully on board.
He is one of those wannabe Fox Media talking heads.
His last book is a lot of fun.
It's called BLM, The Making of a New Marxist Revolution.
It was published in 2021.
According to Heritage, the book, quote, examines who these leaders and activists are, delving into their backgrounds and exposing their agendas.
It demonstrates how their top leaders are avowed Marxists who want to dismantle our constitution, our social institutions, and our very way of life.
Before Heritage, Mike wrote speeches for George Bush the Younger, and he calls himself an expert on socialism and identity politics.
Yeah, because he's listened to some James Lindsay and Chris Ruffo lectures on YouTube, and so now he has the 4-on-1 on those topics.
So, let's dive in.
We're going to start with Maura Namdar's mission statement.
The mission of the United States Agency for Global Media is to inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.
However, this mission statement does not reflect the current work of the agency.
The mission is noble, but the execution is lacking.
To fulfill its mission, USAGM should also aim to present the truth about America and American policy, not parrot America's adversaries' propaganda and talking points.
