Think tank looks to lasso 'deep state' by recruiting conservatives to work in government in 2025

The prominent conservative think tank Heritage Foundation has launched a major initiative titled "Project 2025" to rein in the federal bureaucracy by recruiting patriotic Americans to staff the next conservative administration. 

"You just don't have enough time after the election to put together the government," Heritage Foundation Executive Vice President Derrick Morgan said on "The Heritage Foundation's 2025 Presidential Transition Project Special Report" hosted by John Solomon and premiered on Real America's Voice. 

"We need to give the next conservative president a running start," Morgan said. 

According to the "Project 2025" website, the database has three main points: lay groundwork for a White House more friendly to the right, outline a plan for conservative success and to send a message to the political class.

"In November 2016, American conservatives stood on the verge of greatness," the website states. "The election of Donald Trump to the presidency was a triumph that offered the best chance to reverse the left’s incessant march of progress for its own sake."

"Many of the best accomplishments, though, happened only in the last year of the Trump administration, after our political appointees had finally figured out the policies and process of different agencies, and after the right personnel were finally in place," the site continued. 

One of the goals of this project is to train conservatives to work effectively in the White House if a Republican, whether that be former President Donald Trump or someone else takes back the White House in 2025. 

"I think that one of the things that you have to do is remember that there's three branches of government, not four," former Acting Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, Katie Sullivan said. "I know that in leading a couple of the offices at the Department of Justice, I would always remind staff as soon as I came in that we're here to implement the rule of law. That is what Congress does, and you know, what Congress directs us to do."

According to The New York Times, the Heritage Foundation has a goal of having as many as 20,000 potential administration officials in the database by the end of 2024.

Heritage President Kevin Roberts said the Washington, D.C., foundation has identified several thousand potential recruits.

A big issue that has been a concern for many conservatives is the weaponization of federal agencies such as the FBI and the Department of Justice. Conservative congressional candidates such as Abe Hamadeh have made it clear in their 2024 vision to fight the deep state. 

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said the unfettered power on federal bureaucrats needs to be reined in after the next election.

"We've somehow allowed a fourth unaccountable, extra unconstitutional branch to sneak into the picture," Lee said. "And it's time for conservatives to dismantle the administrative bureaucracy and to return power to the American people. We have to make sure that the laws are written only by men and women of our own choosing."

Lee said that a good way to start to hold the bureaucracies accountable is the passage of the REINS Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) Act.

"If we enacted the REINS Act, all major rules having a significant economic impact on the American economy would have to be affirmatively enacted into law by Congress," he said. "They wouldn't take effect automatically, simply because some federal bureaucrat made it."