And it goes far beyond Project 2025
The below article first appeared in David Corn’s newsletter, Our Land. The newsletter comes out twice a week (most of the time) and provides behind-the-scenes stories and articles about politics, media, and culture. Subscribing costs just $5 a month—but you can sign up for a free 30-day trial of Our Land here.
One of the most under-covered stories of the Trump era and the 2024 presidential campaign is Donald Trump’s relationship with far-right extremism. This has been going on for years. During the 2016 race, he hobnobbed with and praised conspiracy-monger Alex Jones and encouraged anti-Muslim hatred. A few months into his presidency, Trump hailed participants in the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville as “very fine people.” The insurrectionists who stormed Capitol Hill on January 6 for Trump included Christian nationalists, members of right-wing militias, white supremacists, Confederate flag wavers, neo-Nazis, and others. In 2022, he supped with antisemite Kanye West and Hitler fanboy Nick Fuentes. He has repeatedly winked and nodded at the unhinged QAnon movement.
These are just a few examples of Trump’s long-running affiliation with radicals of the right—an affinity that has not prevented him from becoming president and, now, the GOP’s banner carrier for a third time. While the instances cited above have been covered by the mainstream press—except perhaps for Trump’s pat on the back for Jones—they haven’t shaped the overall Trump narrative. And Trump’s current ties to fringe and hard-right activists are not at the center stage of the 2024 election. Far more (digital) ink has been spilled on Joe Biden’s age.
Take Project 2025, the operation organized by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing think tanks to develop a far-reaching agenda for a second Trump term that would grant him expanded powers to run an authoritarian-ish government in which he could order the prosecutions of his foes and critics and demand loyalty oaths from federal workers. This initiative has earned a couple of stories in the New York Times and the Washington Post. But how many voters are aware of this extensive scheme? A recent poll found that 76 percent of voters said they had heard “a little” or “nothing” about Project 2025.
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