Nancy MacLean, Cook Center faculty affiliate and William H. Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University, was recently quoted in a major DeSmog investigation revealing ties between current cabinet members and the organizations behind Project 2025.
The DeSmog report found that 70 percent of Trump’s cabinet has direct ties to groups affiliated with Project 2025. MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains, which traces the rise of the radical right and the coordinated influence of think tanks like The Heritage Foundation, emphasized the significance of this finding.
That’s a hugely significant finding,” MacLean said. “In Heritage’s own longtime language, ‘personnel is policy.’ It shows the incredible bad faith of Trump’s denials, because this is who he stocked his administration with.”
She also noted the broader implications of such tightly interwoven networks, cautioning that many of these groups operate under the appearance of independence while sharing donors, staff, and strategic goals.
This is a very well-integrated network of ostensibly separate organizations,” MacLean explained, “organizations that share the same donors very often, and share the same core mission and purpose and agenda.”
Read the full article here: MAPPED: 70 Percent of Trump’s Cabinet Tied to Project 2025 Groups
