Project 2025 director Paul Dans lays out how conservatives plan to staff the federal bureaucracy with Trump loyalists
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From the February 29, 2024, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room
STEVE BANNON (HOST): What Heritage has done is great. They made this totally free and totally accessible. It's incumbent upon – and we know the posse loves being involved – immerse yourself in detail. Now you're not going to read this all in one sitting. It's taken best – by the time – but there's so many different verticals, you're going to find out whatever your love or interest is, they've covered it. So how do people go and find out more about what you guys are doing? And the more people read this, the more it's downloaded, the more we talk about it. Of course, the more the left's heads are going to blow up, right? Because they understand it's now – it's a people driven movement. This is true populism where people get involved and can understand what the government -- policy shouldn't just be above the people. People have to understand the policy and actually be the driver of it. So how did they get involved here?
PAUL DANS (GUEST): Absolutely. You know, we were coming together in the great tradition of America, self organizing and doing this. We're not, to be sure, you know, connected to President Trump's campaign, but many of our ideas, you'll see 1 to 1 mirroring. And, you know, we sat down and wrote this book before President Trump, you know, had even announced. But, you know, our aspiration was coming together, working together, saying the conservative movement can no longer do this infighting thing. We have to win and we have to realize we're united on 80, 90% of the stuff.
So let's go, you know, we put this up, everything's at project2025.org. But the - and you can read the book, but it's more than that. Once you read the book, you really have to get involved. And that's what we're ultimately doing. We have a database that anyone, you know, can sign up to actually get into this government.
You know, when I say that anyone, most of us aren't in a position to serve, but most of us know somebody who could do this work and you could just really sponsor or encourage that person. Maybe they're your best employee at your company, maybe they're your daughter, maybe your neighbor. But the idea is you no longer need connections in Washington to serve. You need conviction. And we have to – this isn't gonna change until the right people get in and start pulling the levers of power and being smart about it. And that's what we're training people to do.
BANNON: You also have another, it's a training module too that people can go to. Talk to us about that.
DANS: Yes, our entire project is on four pillars with the notion that we were going to assemble a team to hit the ground running day one. And so the first was the policy book, you read the book, see if you're, you're aligned with it. You get clued in to what these agencies do. Two, you sign up for the database, you build a conservative LinkedIn, you build your profile, you tell us what it is you're interested, your background.
We want to see that you gave to the movement. You know, you don't have to be the corner office partner or the really successful person, the indefatigable person who keeps popping up to the surface. That's what we want, the roustabouts, in some cases.
And then three, we want you to learn before you go on the job, how this thing works and what's expected of you when you serve. So there's an online academy. You can take classes. We've crowd sourced that through experts, 400 people coming together and essentially giving anecdotes, the primer that you would pick up on the job, too late to pick up on the job, you have to know when you walk in day one because you know, the building is, you know, is 95% – the reality here in Washington, we have a permanent government. The people vote 95% Democrat, their political contributions of federal employees tend 90, 95% towards one party and you need to know who you're serving with and you have to work effectively with them, but you have to have the right mindset.
And then four, we're building a playbook, a real 180 day checklist of how the role and really be smart about taking down regulations and guidance and really getting into the deconstruction and that is really more our operating manual.