The View from Russia[REGNUM] The more victories former US President Donald Trump wins in internal party elections - caucuses and primaries - the more actively influential figures in the American establishment, inconspicuous apparatchiks of the Republican Party, big business sharks, and conservative thought factories are preparing for his new presidential term - think-tanks.
They do not have a common vision of the situation, they often compete with each other, pursue conflicting goals, and sometimes even "hate each other with a passion," as one Trump campaign official put it. But there is one common desire for all these people and groups.
All of them are aimed at ensuring that Trump's new term will not be similar to his first presidency.
The consensus about 2016—2020 is that Trump essentially had no prepared team, people were recruited almost at random, key figures were knocked out in the first months of the presidency ( Michael Flynn, first National Security Advisor, Steve Bannon, chief strategy advisor) or changed chaotically ( Herbert McMaster, John Bolton - national security advisers, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ).
As a result, throughout the four years of Trump’s presidency, he did not have a strong and well-coordinated team, which significantly weakened his position both domestically and internationally.
Trump relied heavily on his personal friends and relatives (such as daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner ), but this network was too small to staff federal agencies with competent and loyal people.
In the end, what happened was what happened: it was not Trump who drained the "Washington swamp," but the swamp that sucked in his administration and deprived him (most likely through fraud) of his victory in the 2020 elections.
THE ROAD TO THE OVAL OFFICE
Planning revenge in the 2024 elections, both Trump himself and the pressure groups supporting him are seriously aimed at forming an effective, coherent and maximally efficient administration.
In order not to repeat the mistakes of the past, the selection and training of personnel for the future administration is distributed among several centers, primarily the well-known conservative think-tank Heritage Foundation and the America First Policy Institute. The Heritage Foundation is coordinating Project 2025, which, according to Heritage Foundation President Kevin Robrets, "aims to recruit and train a deep pool of patriotic Americans ready to serve their country on day one of the next administration."
AFPI has a similar mission. Founded in 2021 by first Trump administration alumni Brooke Rollins and Larry Kudlow, the Path to 2025 initiative promises to "ensure the strongest policymakers and workforce are in place on Day One in January 2025."
Both groups are trying to make Trump 2024 a "better" president: more effective, more ruthless, more committed to conservative dogma. But Heritage and AFPI represent different factions of Trumpism, and each is suspicious of the other.
AFPI operatives see Heritage as latecomers to the Trump train, establishment wolves in the shoes of "America First." Some at Heritage see AFPI as a bastion of precisely those untrustworthy Trump appointees—con artists and RINOs ("Republicans in Name Only") who are trading on their relationships with the president to ensure their ability to hold top positions in a future administration.
An important role in Project 2025 is played by John McEntee, Trump's former personal bodyguard, later director of the White House Office of Personnel Management, reporting personally to the president. After leaving the White House, McEntee created a special dating service for conservatives, The Right Stuff, and is now recruiting employees who are fanatically (like himself) devoted to Trump. To a large extent, the selection of candidates for leadership positions in the new administration depends on McEntee, who, apparently, has the full confidence of Trump.
Vice President: lady's first
Attorney General for Operation Retaliation
Secretary of State and National Security Advisor
Fairly long & detailed - (IMO) fairly comprehensive intro