What A Day - Project 2025: Trump's 100-Day Blitz

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

While President Donald Trump struggles to convince the American public his tariffs are worth sacrificing for by prattling on about how kids these days have too many dolls and pencils, his administration has managed to build a solid track record of executing on some wide-reaching plans. Just not plans that Trump came up with. Of course, we’re talking about Project 2025, the nearly 1,000-page policy blueprint from the far-right think tank The Heritage Foundation. David Graham, staff writer at The Atlantic, has been tracking how the administration has been using Project 2025 to reshape America for his new book ‘The Project.’ He joins us to talk about it.And in headlines: Trump told NBC ‘I don’t know’ when asked whether he’s required to uphold the constitution, the president signed an executive order to strip funding from NPR and PBS, and jury selection is scheduled to begin today in the federal sex trafficking and racketeering case against rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.Show Notes:Check out David's book – https://tinyurl.com/bdct5d3nSubscribe to the What A Day Newsletter – https://tinyurl.com/3kk4nyz8What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Monday, May 5th. I'm Erin Ryan in for Jane Costin and this is What A Day, the show that knows why Alcatraz closed in the first place because it was too expensive. On the show, President Donald Trump hits the shrug emoji when asked about whether he needs to uphold that old thing called the Constitution. And the White House comes for Elmo and tries to cut funding for NPR and PBS. But let's start with President Trump making the upcoming papal conclave about himself. The official White House account tweeted out an AI-generated photo on Friday of Trump sitting

on a golden throne and dressed like the Pope. Move that did not go over well with the world's one and a half billion Catholics who are mourning the recent death of Pope Francis. Trump's original I should be Pope joke came right before he appeared to support the papal candidacy of Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan. Cardinal Dolan disavowed the image on Sunday. I hope he didn't have anything to do with that. Are you offended by that?

Well, you know, it wasn't good. The Italians say it's a bad thing. That's Italian for making a fool of yourself. If Dolan doesn't end up being Pope, one could argue that this makes the third global election Trump swayed in an anti-Trump direction simply by being himself, after Canada early last week and Australia over the weekend. Also on Sunday, NBC aired the president's interview with Meet the Press' Kristen Walker, and he went full-grinch on a public already nervous about his tariff scheme. I'm just saying they don't need to have $30. They can have three. They don't need

to have 250 pencils. They can have five. Those kids demanding their 250 pencils. Turns out the American people just need a touch more than trust me, bro, on a sweeping plan to make everything more expensive, brought to you by the man who had promised during the campaign to make everything less expensive. We'll get into some of the soundbites and substance of that interview later. Shockingly, a man who spent literal years of his life being driven around on a golf cart rather than walking thinks that following the Constitution would be so much work. But amid all the chaos, the Trump administration actually does have a track record of executing on some wide-reaching plans, just not plans that

Trump came up with. We're talking about Project 2025, the nearly 1,000-page far-right policy blueprint from the equally far-right think tank, the Heritage Foundation, the one Trump denied knowing absolutely anything about when he was running for president and during his debate with then-Vice President Kamala Harris. 2025, that's out there. I haven't read it.

I don't want to read it purposely. I'm not going to read it. This was a group of people that got together. They came up with some ideas I guess some good some bad, but it makes no difference. I do believe that he didn't want to read that I don't think he's ever really wanted to read anything But it turns out that maybe that wasn't totally true who could have guessed so for more on what the think-tank generated blueprint for turning America into a libertarian version of the Black Hole Sun video has in store for us, I spoke with David Graham. He's a staff writer at The Atlantic and author of the new book, The Project, how Project

2025 is reshaping America. We also talked a little bit about why even Trump can't figure out how to sell his tariffs to the American public. David, welcome to What A Day. Oh, thank you for having me. So Trump is the ultimate spin master, and I feel bad for giving him that nickname. He managed to convince half the country that the insurrection was both a deep state conspiracy and a completely peaceful demonstration.

So why are the tariffs proving difficult for even him to spin? I think it's because it comes down to money. Like, it's really hard to both take money from people and tell them that they're not actually giving anything up. And that's exactly what he's trying to do. Hmm, okay. Presidents have asked Americans to make sacrifices in the face of a crisis before, like in World War II,

fuel shortages in the 70s, but those were all crises inflicted on the nation by outside forces and not the president himself. So what does history tell us about Americans' willingness to make personal sacrifices like that? You know, Americans not huge on personal sacrifice, I would say. You've got to have a really good cause for it. I mean, I was thinking about like the difference between World War II rationing sacrifices and the way people responded to Jimmy Carter telling them to turn up their thermostat, which was basically to vote him out of office. So it doesn't tend to go well. I mean, you got to give people a reason and you've got to have them

on board. And I don't think he's given them a reason and I don't think they're on board separately. Yeah. The sweater heard around the world when Jimmy Carter was like, hey kids, put on a sweater. Wow. That was taken as quite offensive by Americans. So okay, Trump is maybe losing a step when it comes to selling parts of his agenda to the American public, but your book, The Project, details how the administration has been successful at reshaping the government.

And the blueprint of that has been Project 2025, this massive policy proposal from the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. As someone tracking this, how much of Project 2025 has Trump successfully implemented so far? I've been trying to figure out how to answer that question because it's such a weird project with things that are really small, boring, specific,

and things that are so sweeping. You know, I think the big thing is they have really succeeded in taking a buzz saw to the federal government and closing departments, shrinking things, laying people off, and that stuff that's going to be very hard to put back. All of the other things are going to come slowly. There's a lot of regulatory processes, but I think in terms of the systemic stuff and the methods they want to impose their will, they've really made a ton of progress in a very short period of time. What do you think have been some of their most notable specific successes?

I think that just laying off tens of thousands of workers is in a weird way a success. It feels strange to say that. But they've done that within any challenge from Congress. So all of these things are happening and they've managed to strengthen government, lay people off, change their classification, fire inspectors general, all of these things without Congress saying a word. And so I think they have managed to usurp more power from Congress even than they intended, just by doing it so quickly and with Republicans who aren't interested in challenging Trump at all. And what parts of Project 2025 do you expect the administration to turn to next?

The thing that they haven't done a lot of, and I just think we're going to see more of, is stuff around gender roles and family and sexuality. We already saw obviously like the trans athletics order, we saw the these you know two sexes order, I think that's really only the beginning. We haven't seen anything on abortion. And I mean they they wanna use every department really to enforce this nuclear family with a man who's a breadwinner and a mother who's at home and two and a half children who are straight and normal. And that hasn't happened yet, but it's so key to what the authors of Project 225 want. I think it's only a matter of time.

And I think it also takes them getting their employees sort of embedded into the government. And that has taken a little bit of time. And I think it also takes them getting their employees sort of embedded into the government and that has taken a little bit of time. Why do you think the administration has had the success it's had implementing Project 2025 in such a short period of time? I mean, you mentioned in some ways it's surpassed even their own expectations. How so? I think they didn't account for Elon basically.

They had thought deeply about how to do these things and how to take over the executive branch. But they had thought about how to do these things and how to take over the executive branch. But they had thought about how to do that legally. And they were thinking about what the strictures of government were. And it turns out they didn't need to do that. I also think the acquiescence of Congress is a big deal. That's the check that's there. And we slowly see the courts doing things, but courts are slow.

So if Congress just watches while you take their power from them, you can get a lot done very fast. Yeah, it's sort of like a button mash, like strategy. Have you ever tried to play a video game that you just don't know how to play and you just hit the buttons and you're like, wow, I got in the top 10 scores. I feel like that was maybe Elon trying to do the things

that the Heritage Foundation thought would be a little bit trickier. Yeah, it's the only game he's actually good at, I guess. Ooh, burn. Elon Musk catching some strays. What's the only game he's actually good at, I guess. Ooh, burn. Elon Musk catching some strays. What's the end goal of Project 2025? What's the ultimate vision for what society looks like

if this is implemented to its fullest potential? It's this weird, it's sort of like the 50s. You have this really conservative family vision. Abortion is illegal. Everybody is straight. Trans people are pushed into the shadows. But it's not quite like that because they also wanna dismantle a lot of the New Deal,

they wanna dismantle the civil service, they wanna reduce taxes drastically. So it's a sort of bizarro libertarian vision of the 50s, but also really backwards in a lot of social ways. It's kind of dystopian. Yeah, I mean, how do they expect to bring the 50s back if they're not gonna bring quailudes back? As a woman, that is my primary concern

because staying home ain't it. What stands in the way of making that vision a reality at this point? Because you said, you know, Congress isn't doing anything. Is there any checks left to this? I think the courts are starting to serve as a check. And the other thing is just like popular opinion. I mean, thinking about the tariffs thing,

so many of the things they're doing are really unpopular. They were really unpopular last summer when Heritage pulled it and found like a 14% approval. They're really unpopular now. And that's tricky because they hold them the reins of government, but I think that does limit what they can do. And part of the other trick there is they understand they're unpopular.

And that's one reason they wanted to move fast. They wanted to get it all done as quickly as they could before anyone could kind of organize against it and slow them down. Mm-hmm. But to that end, I mean, does Trump care about popularity? He's not running for reelection. Or, I mean, he jokes around that he is, but nobody serious thinks? He's not running for reelection. Or I mean, he jokes around that he is, but nobody serious thinks that he's actually running for reelection.

And I don't think he thinks he's running for reelection. And so there's really nothing in it for him personally. Like, so why would Trump care about popularity? You know, I am baffled to see how little he seems to. I thought he cared about it just because it's sort of the way he rolls. But you see him just not responding to the stock market. You see him not responding to negative polls I mean angry about them. It doesn't seem like he's restrained by them anymore

It's a weird paradox where you kind of wish he thought he was running for office because he might care about these things But then he might also run for office again. So that would be bad. Mm-hmm. Yeah, maybe he'll run for Pope also run for office again. So that would be bad. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Maybe he'll run for Pope. Trump repeatedly denied knowing anything about Project 2025 while on the campaign trail and disavowed it repeatedly.

And yet here we are with many of its core objectives being implemented. To what extent do you think Trump's claims on the campaign were a lie? Because I can see a scenario where he's just kind of the vessel for the more specific policy visions of the people he's surrounded himself with. And also we know he hates reading.

So do you think he really didn't know or do you think he knew and was bluffing? I think he totally didn't read it. I believe that. Okay. I think he knew. You know, these people, it's like a quarter of the people who wrote it were in his first administration,

including multiple members of the cabinet. His head of OMB was the intellectual architect. He pointed that guy to run his platform committee at the RNC and then appointed him to run OMB once again. But I do think it's kind of a vessel thing or a symbiosis thing. They have all these really specific policies they wanna get done that they know

he doesn't really care about, but he's a vessel for them. And what he gets is a bunch of employees and president's appointees who are motivated and on the team. And he also gets control of, you know, the Justice Department and the executive branch that allows him to do things he wants, like re-retribution, while they get the things they want like a unitary executive. So, you know, I think they've figured out how to accommodate each other.

Let's talk again about his joking about potentially running for a third term, even though the Constitution bars him from doing so. But you write that his administration doesn't need four more years, they just need us to stay distracted. So what are the things that are distracting us right now? There's a lot to keep up with, what do you think we're missing?

It's so hard because even the distractions are important. You know, like it's hard to write, like the third term thing is such a, you know, like you say, no serious person thinks he's going to run again, but then again, like, I don't know, I didn't think a lot of things. Um, and if you sort of just let that normalize, then I think he, he could try it. I'm just trying to keep my eye on these long-term currents because when everything feels like chaos, I want to remind myself that there is in fact a plan underneath that some people are working on and I want to sort of keep my eye on that ball as much as they are.

David, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. That was my conversation with David Graham, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of the new book, The Project, How Project 2025 is reshaping America. We'll link to his book in our show notes. We'll get to more of the news in a moment, but if you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads. This show is sponsored by Better Health. I got to say it is a lot easier to maintain a clean house than it is to go from having

a dirty house to a clean house. And I feel the same way about mental health. It is much easier to maintain and to minimize harm than it is to just let things get really, really bad and then try to pull yourself back up there. That's why I think that therapy is important regardless of where you are in your mental health journey. Even if you feel like you're stable and you're happy, I think it's an important thing to just maintain and have a relationship with. Mental health awareness is growing, but there's still progress to be made. 26% of Americans who participated in a recent survey say they have avoided seeking mental

health support due to fear of judgment. Sounds like they've been talking to my grandpa. When people hesitate to get help, it doesn't just affect them. It impacts families, workplaces, and entire communities. This is Mental Health Awareness Month. Let's encourage everyone to take care of their well-being and break the stigma. The world is better when people are healthy and happy. Going from having zero children to having one child and then two children is a real

journey through your mental health, your own hangups, your own past. And it's been really helpful for me during the course of going from not being a mom to being a mom, to have mental health care support, to just help me figure out where I'm going, who I am, and who I'm going to be. BetterHelp has over 10 years of experience matching people with the right therapist from their diverse network of more than 30,000 licensed therapists with a wide range of specialties.

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It partially is right now. And I really mean this. I think the good parts of the Trump economy and the bad parts of the Biden economy because he's done a terrible job. He did a terrible job on everything. President Trump claimed responsibility for certain aspects of the economy during an interview with NBC's Meet the Press Sunday. Those aspects? The good parts. However, the Commerce Department reported the economy shrank in the first quarter of this year. NBC host Kristen Welker asked Trump

about a slew of other topics in the interview to mark his first 100 days in office. There was a lot Trump said and a lot he didn't say. When discussing the man mistakenly deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March, Welker pressed the president about due process. Your secretary of state says everyone who's here, citizens and non-citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree, Mr. President? I don't know. I'm not a lawyer. I don't know. Well, the Fifth Amendment says this. I don't know. Fifth Amendment? Never heard of her. Really, really comforting to hear the leader of the free world say he doesn't know who deserves due process, a right that is literally enshrined in the Constitution.

It might say that, but if you're talking about that, then we'd have to have a million or two million or three million trials. We have thousands of people that are some murderers and some drug dealers and some of the worst people on earth. But it's- Some of the worst, most dangerous people on earth. And I was elected to get him the hell out of here. And the courts are holding me from doing it. But even given those numbers that you're talking about, don't you need to uphold the constitution of the United States as president?

I don't know. I don't know. He sounds like a teenager whose mom just asked if there was alcohol at the party and there definitely was alcohol at the party. Something else President Trump doesn't know is if ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, will meet the latest deadline extension to sell the company to an American investor. Trump said he would be willing to extend the deadline to keep TikTok, excuse me,

TikTok online in the U.S. if a deal isn't reached. Perhaps I shouldn't say this, but I have a little warm spot in my heart for Tic-Tac. Sounds like a mistake somebody with perpetual bad breath would make. President Trump signed an executive order Thursday attempting to cut public funding for PBS and NPR over claims of left-wing bias. The order directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board of directors to stop

federal funding for the two news organizations, though it's unclear if he has the authority to actually do that. NPR CEO Catherine Maher told CBS's Face the Nation Sunday that although NPR and PBS get relatively little federal funding on the national level, the executive order would have the most dramatic effect on local stations, some of which get up to 50% of their funding from the CPB. We're seeing an advance of news deserts across the nation. 20% of Americans don't have access to another local source of news. The impact of this could really be devastating, particularly

in rural communities. Oh, they'll be fine. They've got Facebook. And PBS CEO Paula Kerger said in that same interview that should the CPB follow the executive order, the consequences for her organization would be almost immediate, especially for educational children's programming. You're not going to turn on your TV set and not see our children's programming anymore. But if that funding is cut off, we have programs in development right now. And that will suddenly skid to a halt. We also have stations around the country that work directly with preschool providers and parents and this funds those activities.

So the immediate impact would be fairly significant. Coming out strong against toys and Daniel Tiger, he's probably not gonna win the kid vote. Though Republicans have consistently threatened NPR and PBS over the last few decades, Kerker said the seriousness of the administration's recent attempts to end funding for public broadcasting is unprecedented.

Obviously we're being challenged. The whole world is being challenged by the Houthis, including in the dastardly attack they did today near Ben Gurion Airport. We will not tolerate it. We will take very strong action against them. And we always remember that they act with their patron Iran's direction and support. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised retribution for a strike by Yemen's Houthi militia near Israel's main international airport Sunday. Israel's paramedic service said a few people were injured. Flights were also briefly suspended.

Netanyahu said in a post on Twitter that Israel will respond to the Houthi strike and, quote, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters. In a video statement, a Houthi military spokesman took responsibility for the attack and said America and Israel's interception systems failed, and they successfully shut down service at the airport. The Iranian-backed Houthis have been striking Israel in solidarity with Palestinians throughout the Israel-Hamas war. The strike comes as Israel's military announced

it would start to call up tens of thousands of reservists for its operations in Gaza. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday for the federal sex trafficking case against Bad Boy Records founder Sean Combs, widely known by his stage name Diddy. Prosecutors allege that for over two decades, the hip hop mogul used his fame, money, and power to engage in shocking

patterns of sexual abuse and violence. Prosecutors also claim Combs worked with vast networks of collaborators who engaged in, quote, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice. Combs has denied the allegations against him and turned down a plea deal. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Testimony in the case is expected to start next week. And that's the news. Before we go, when we're in charge, The Next Generation's Guide to Leadership by Amanda Litman drops next week on May 13th, and it's the playbook you've been waiting

for. Litman, co-founder of Run for Something, has spent years helping launch young political careers. Now she's sharing the insights that will help the next generation of leaders make an impact without burning out. With wisdom from over 100 next generation leaders, like Representative Maxwell Frost and Teen Vogue's Versha Sharma, When We're In Charge is your roadmap

to leadership in the modern world. Pre-order now at crooked.com slash books or wherever you get books. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, get excited for the Met Gala red carpet and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just about the Costume Institute's new exhibition, Superfine, tailoring black style like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Erin Ryan, and don't you dare threaten my 250 pencils.

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