Today’s notice: The brains behind Project 2025 are back to being loud and proud. The brains behind the Harris campaign catch some heat. Meet the brains behind NOTUS: Week by week, we will introduce you to our new class of Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.
Project 2025 Gets the Last Laugh
Heritage Foundation employees are laughing their way into the next Trump administration.
Trending
The controversial blueprint made Heritage staffers personae non gratae with Donald Trump’s campaign. But now that Trump has won, staffers are giddily sharing tweets in group chats about how, actually, Project 2025 is the Trump agenda.
“Project 2025 is like, you know, boilerplate conservative stuff and a lot of that stuff, Trump’s gonna do,” said a former Heritage employee. “And that’s why the joke is sort of funny.”
While conservative bros are joking about liberal woes, they’re also worried about what’ll happen with Heritage during Trump’s second term. Multiple former employees expressed apprehension that Project 2025 would dirty their résumés for an administrative appointment.
Luckily for them, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
“It’s pretty hard to run an entire conservative administration without having somebody who currently or formerly worked at Heritage,” a strategist close to the campaign told NOTUS. “You know Trump. Nobody’s ever in the doghouse completely.”
If that’s true, it might be a four-year comedy tour for Heritage.
—Ben T. N. Mause | Read the story here.
The Airing of Grievances
Those in Kamala Harris’ circle had a lot to say about the vice president’s loss, and, in short, installing the veep at the top of the ticket was a lot less smooth than previous coverage uncovered, NOTUS’ Jasmine Wright reports.
Was it a race lost in transition? Obviously, there were bigger headwinds facing Dems. But insiders say it certainly didn’t help that there were fundraising problems (Harris was aghast to find the campaign had missed its September fundraising goal), management problems (Biden’s team, led by Jen O’Malley Dillon, was either too insular and controlling or too inexperienced insiders said) and operational problems (“More than 1.5 million yard signs weren’t printed until late October”).
One example of what this all meant: “At one point, the campaign even temporarily cut its mail program. Meanwhile, Black men in Georgia were receiving more than 10 pieces of mail from Trump’s team.”
“I’m amazed that we even got close,” one official close to the campaign told Jasmine.
Front Page
- Where Trump’s Georgia Case Goes From Here: Defense lawyers for Trump’s indicted associates expect Fani Willis to press on. “I don’t think she’ll ever concede,” one said.
- RFK Jr. Could ‘Grind’ Vaccine Development ‘to a Halt’: Public health experts warn that the days of Operation Warp Speed could be long gone under Kennedy’s oversight.
- GOP Lawmakers Hope Trump Can Keep Them From Tearing Each Other Apart: “He’ll probably be more vocal about trying to stop some of the division,” Rep. Don Bacon said.
Who Conservatives Want on SCOTUS
The Center for Judicial Renewal, part of the American Family Association, has a Supreme Court wish list should Trump get the chance to further his legacy on the court, NOTUS’ Oriana González reports.
Trump appointees to lower courts Kyle Duncan, Lawrence VanDyke and James Ho are on the Center’s list (as well as Trump’s 2020 list of potential Supreme Court appointments). Former North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Mark Martin and Alliance Defending Freedom CEO Kristen Waggoner round out the five names the Center sees as top candidates to replace Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas should they choose to step down.
Trump’s First Test
Reporters know all too well that sometimes the toughest deadline to meet is the one you give yourself. Enter Trump and his campaign promise to end the war in Ukraine before he takes office.
Trump has kept the specifics of any plan — or concepts of a plan — close to the chest. He’s taken a call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and, per one House Republican, Vladimir Putin. But even Ukraine aid critic Rep. Tim Burchett has some doubts Trump will wrap this up in 11 weeks. “He’s got his work cut out for him,” he told NOTUS’ John T. Seward. “I don’t know, legally, if he can do it or not.”
The Junior Senator From Ohio…
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is tasked with filling JD Vance’s seat through a November 2026 special election.
Hopefuls waiting in the wings include Vivek Ramaswamy (though he’s keeping his options open), Secretary of State Frank LaRose, former state GOP Chairwoman Jane Timken and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.
Reps. Warren Davidson and Mike Carey are also in the mix, but Ohio-based GOP strategist Libby Krieger said they’re being seen as possibilities more on the periphery.
Top of mind for DeWine is avoiding the messy internal feuds. That might be an issue for state Sen. Matt Dolan, who lost to Moreno in the primary. Dolan had DeWine’s backing, but not Trump’s.
“DeWine and Trump are very different kinds of Republicans,” Krieger said.
—Katherine Swartz
Week Ahead
- Congress returns to Capitol Hill, where NOTUS reporters will be waiting. Senate Republicans will host a leadership forum at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
- The Senate GOP will vote on its next leadership team via secret ballot. The race to watch is John Cornyn vs. John Thune vs. Rick Scott for majority leader. But also keep an eye on Joni Ernst vs. Tom Cotton for conference chair.
- Argentine President Javier Milei will meet with Trump and Elon Musk at Mar-a-Lago sometime this week.
- The incoming House freshman class will visit Capitol Hill for New Member Orientation from Nov. 12 to Nov. 22.
Meet Us
Welcome to a new segment where we introduce you to a member of the NOTUS team. First up is AJI fellow Violet Jira who is covering the New York delegation.
- Hometown: Cleveland, Mississippi
- Past: Mississippi Today, The Daily Mississippian, The Commercial Dispatch
- Why journalism: I love the process of journalism — asking important questions of the officials who the public has given power to. And I really love that the product of that work helps people to be more informed about the world around them.
- AJI highlight so far: Our course with Wes Lowery left me thinking pretty deeply about the way our history can inform the present, and about how to do reporting that’s fair.
- Thing you can’t live without: Spotify — music, pods, my friends’ listening activity: It’s all there.
- Best advice you’ve ever been given: From my parents: Fanya bidii (or in English: work hard).
Not Us
We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by… not us.
- Democrats join 2024’s graveyard of incumbents by John Burn-Murdoch at the Financial Times
- Jared Kushner rules out joining next Trump administration by Felicia Schwartz also at the Financial Times
- From Jacksonville City Hall to White House: Susie Wiles bookends chief of staff roles by David Bauerlein at the Jacksonville Florida Times-Union
- No leaders remain to check Trump’s climate wreckage by Karl Mathiesen at Politico
Be Social
Can you believe we tricked the Libs into believing Project 2025 wasn't real???
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) November 6, 2024
Lmaoooo
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