SHARE
SHARE
At the BET Awards on June 30, Taraji P. Henson did the nation a great service and urged viewers to research the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, which is the far right’s plan for an “ideal” America if a conservative wins the 2024 presidential election. The Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) has been sounding the alarm about Project 2025’s threat to human rights and democracy for months now. But with Henson’s warning, and calls by other prominent figures to “google Project 2025,” the plan has officially entered the conversation, with google searches for Project 2025 outpacing Taylor Swift.
All the attention has set off a surge of interest in Project 2025 on unmoderated platforms where white supremacists congregate.
There’s a lot for white supremacists to like in Project 2025. It calls the “left” “subversive” and “deviant” and will eliminate LGBTQ+ and transgender rights, institute punishing immigration policies including draconian roundups and tent cities, militarize the border and end refugee programs, abolish DEI efforts and fire those who supported them, and purge the government of “deep state” and “woke” civil servants, replacing them with “a database of personnel vetted for conservative values and loyalty.” It’s supported by more than 100 conservative organizations, many of which are explicitly anti-LGBTQ+ or anti-immigrant and/or rooted in Christian Nationalism.
So it’s not surprising that white supremacists, who are generally opposed to things like civil rights, like the Proud Boys, are supporting Project 2025, becoming more vocal, especially now that it’s hit the mainstream.
Far-right actors have been using Telegram, a fringe social media platform known for its unmoderated forums, to support Project 2025. But interest has now skyrocketed. There was a 1,425 percent increase in mentions of Project 2025 on channels GPAHE monitors between June 30, the day of the BET Awards, and July 5, when Donald Trump publicly distanced himself from the plan. Several Proud Boys chapters took to Telegram to voice their opinions. Proud Boys of Columbus called Project 2025 “child’s play,” suggesting Project 2025 isn’t all that extreme, a sentiment shared by Proud Boys Ohio and the Ohio Active Club.
Even before the BET Awards, on May 16, the Proud Boys of Columbus described Project 2025 as a “framework…for a complete restructuring of the federal government,” worryingly emphasizing that it “likely won’t be bloodless because the Commies won’t stand for it.” The head of the lead organization on Project 2025, Heritage Foundation’s Kevin Roberts, made somewhat similar comments last week about a “second American revolution” which will be bloodless “if the left allows it to be.”
The Proud Boys of Columbus’ post links to a video tweet by Ivan Raiklin, a conspiracy theorist and Trump’s so-called “secretary of retribution,” who claims to have a “a deep state target list” and threatens that “he is coming after [the list]” with “live-streamed swatting raids” and that they will experience up to the “maximum for treason.” He further claims that January 6 defendants and their families will help add names to the list. Those carrying out the raids will be service members who were discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine deputized by local sheriffs.
The Proud Boys of Columbus describes Project 2025 as a key facilitator in the “complete restructuring of the federal government,” which “likely won’t be bloodless” (Source: Telegram)
Proud Boys Philippines forwarded a message from another channel criticizing former President Trump for distancing himself from Project 2025. The post is optimistic about Project 2025’s policies, suggesting that it could help with implementing “mass deportations” in the United States. The post finished with a call-to-action for their followers to supposedly help implement Project 2025, urging them to “keep pushing until the dam breaks” by “run[ning] for local office.”
Thuletide, a neo-Nazi Telegram account with over 20,000 subscribers, shared a post calling on their followers to “join a think tank…[and] Project 2025.” The post emphasized that other neo-Nazis looking to influence mainstream politics must do so covertly by not publicly associating with neo-Nazi or “Groyper” groups, the movement led by white supremacist Nick Fuentes, fearing public reprisal and expulsion from the mainstream. Urging caution, the post commented that “[Neo-Nazi] ideas are going mainstream, but *we* are not.” In June, Fuentes similarly encouraged his followers to “get involved in one of these things like American Moment or Project 2025” during one of his programs.
An excerpt from Thuletide’s post on Telegram calling on their neo-Nazi subscribers to “get involved with mainstream politics,” listing Project 2025 as one way to “make a world of difference” (Source: Telegram)
Former leader of the American white nationalist Identitarian group Identity Evropa, Patrick Casey, shared a post linking to his Rumble live stream, where he says Project 2025 has “the best list and the best people,” referring to its database of conservative personnel it wishes to install in federal institutions. He added Project 2025 is “pretty good” for “the issues that we care about the most,” such as “mass immigration,” “anti-white racism,” and “DEI.” Referring to Project 2025’s policies targeting migrants, Casey said “we have to stop the Great Replacement,” which is a conspiracy theory purporting that there’s a coordinated effort to “replace” white people with non-white immigrants. Believers in the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory have been responsible for numerous mass shootings, including several in the United States.
