Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily not this is the
Speaker 1: DAILI ohs oh, now it makes sense. Good morning, and
Speaker 1: welcome to the Daily OS. It is Friday, the nineteenth
Speaker 1: of July.
Speaker 2: I'm Billy, I'm Zara.
Speaker 1: You've likely heard of Project twenty twenty five. It is
Speaker 1: a set of conservative policy recommendations for former President Donald
Speaker 1: Trump if he does become the next president. Now, Trump
Speaker 1: says he is not directly involved in it, and he
Speaker 1: has publicly tried to distance himself from it. However, Democrats
Speaker 1: have consistently attacked Trump's ties to the plan. Biden has
Speaker 1: labeled it quote the biggest attack on our system of
Speaker 1: government that has ever been proposed in the history of
Speaker 1: this country, and he has also pointed to the fact
Speaker 1: that some of Trump's top advisors have been involved in
Speaker 1: today's deep dive, we are going to explain exactly what
Speaker 1: you need to know about Project twenty twenty five. But
Speaker 1: for Sarah, what is making headlines today.
Speaker 3: Federal Labour has announced its cut ties with the CFMEU,
Speaker 3: Australia's Peak construction Union. It means a labor party will
Speaker 3: no longer accept donations from the union, which is now
Speaker 3: facing multiple investigations into alleged corruption. After a recent nine
Speaker 3: Network investigation, Labour's National secretary, Paul Ericson confirmed on Wednesday
Speaker 3: that the ALP was suspending all affiliations with the union.
Speaker 3: A Labor statement said, and I quote, the number one
Speaker 3: job of any union and its officials is to look
Speaker 3: after its members. The reported behavior is the complete opposite
Speaker 3: of this. We didn't explain on what is happening with
Speaker 3: the CFMU and Labor earlier this week, and we'll throw
Speaker 3: that link in today's show.
Speaker 2: Notes.
Speaker 1: Australia's unemployment rate remains steady at four percent in June,
Speaker 1: according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This refers to
Speaker 1: the percentage of people who were looking for work but
Speaker 1: couldn't find any. The seasonally adjusted rate increased slightly to
Speaker 1: four point one percent last month, and that number removes
Speaker 1: the influence of calendar specific patterns on employment like fruit
Speaker 1: picking jobs in the summer. There were fourteen point four
Speaker 1: million people employed in Australia in June, up fifty thousand
Speaker 1: from May.
Speaker 3: Uber Eats has issued a warning about a new scam
Speaker 3: targeting WhatsApp users an email's customers from the food delivery
Speaker 3: platform said that hackers have been sending users a message
Speaker 3: offering them rewards to join a promotional team. Uber Eats said,
Speaker 3: if you receive these messages, we strongly advise you not
Speaker 3: to engage or click any links.
Speaker 1: And today's good news, Lily Gladstone and Kaylee Reese have
Speaker 1: made history becoming the first Indigenous women to be nominated
Speaker 1: for an Acting Emmy. Gladstone was nominated for Under the
Speaker 1: Breach and Reese for True Detective Night Country. The Bear
Speaker 1: also broke records with its twenty three nominations, the most
Speaker 1: comedy series has ever received in a single year. The
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four Emmys will be held in September, eight
Speaker 1: months after union strikes delayed the Train twenty three ceremony
Speaker 1: to January.
Speaker 3: Billy, I really feel like Project twenty twenty five popped
Speaker 3: up out of nowhere, I mean to me at least,
Speaker 3: but is now everywhere. I'm seeing it every time I
Speaker 3: look at my phone, every time I turn on the news.
Speaker 3: Can you just take it back a step and just
Speaker 3: explain what the context to this Project twenty twenty five
Speaker 3: actually is.
Speaker 1: Well, explain where some people might have seen it around.
Speaker 1: So I've personally been seeing it a lot in the
Speaker 1: Democrats ads, Joe Biden's ads when they are critiquing Donald
Speaker 1: Trump are talking about Project twenty twenty five a lot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when I first saw it, it was just like a three
Speaker 1: second clip of Joe Biden saying Project training twenty five.
Speaker 1: Look it up. It was giving conspiracy theories, and so
Speaker 1: it really required a fact check, deep dive I think
Speaker 1: by the Daily Ohs. And now I'm seeing it much
Speaker 1: more in mainstream media. You know, the ABC's Four Corners
Speaker 1: did a deep dive into it this week. The New
Speaker 1: York Times have done several explainers on it, So I
Speaker 1: think it's time for The Daily also to do it.
Speaker 2: I think so too.
Speaker 3: So, without further ado, what the hell is Project twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five.
Speaker 1: So, basically, it is a set of conservative policy recommendations
Speaker 1: for the next Republican president in the US, who they
Speaker 1: believe will be Donald Trump. And it's basically just an
Speaker 1: outline of proposals and I think that's the key word here,
Speaker 1: proposals for what Donald Trump could do if he does
Speaker 1: become the next president at the election later this year.
Speaker 3: Okay, so it's not the Republican Party's formal proposals, right,
Speaker 3: Who's actually behind Project twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: No, so it was organized by the Heritage Foundation, which
Speaker 1: is a right wing policy advocacy group, okay, with the
Speaker 1: support of more than one hundred conservative organizations, and a
Speaker 1: Project twenty twenty five has been worked on by hundreds
Speaker 1: of conservative policy advisors. So this is not directly Trump
Speaker 1: or the Republican Party. It's a think take called the
Speaker 1: Heritage Foundation.
Speaker 2: Well, they're getting good traction, yes.
Speaker 1: But some people listening may not have heard of them.
Speaker 1: I personally hadn't heard of them before this. They have
Speaker 1: actually helped shape the policies of Republican presidents in the
Speaker 1: US since Ronald Reagan, who was the president in the
Speaker 1: US in the eighties, and Reagan really put this group
Speaker 1: on the map. I was actually looking at Reagan's official
Speaker 1: website run by his foundation before and it very clearly
Speaker 1: states that the Heritage Foundation was his favorite think tank
Speaker 1: and that he really embodied their ideas and principles. And
Speaker 1: what I found a really interesting stat is that throughout
Speaker 1: his presidency, the Heritage Foundation made two thousand recommendations to Reagan,
Speaker 1: and he adopted two thirds of those two thousand recommendations. Wow.
Speaker 3: So they have had and certainly seemed to still have
Speaker 3: a lot of influence over the Republican presidents of the
Speaker 3: day exactly.
Speaker 1: So all of this is to say that they aren't
Speaker 1: a new group. And actually, when Trump was elected in
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, by twenty eighteen, the Heritage Foundation said that
Speaker 1: of the three hundred policy recommendations they had made to
Speaker 1: the Trump administration at the time, he had adopted two
Speaker 1: thirds of them as well. So not only have they
Speaker 1: had this ongoing influence over Republican presidents in the US,
Speaker 1: they also have historically had influence over Trump's policies.
Speaker 3: The policies that they're putting forward aren't Trump's policies, right,
Speaker 3: or at least in a formal sense. They're not his
Speaker 3: policy agenda.
Speaker 1: No, they're not his formal policy agenda. And also he
Speaker 1: has tried to somewhat distance himself from it.
Speaker 3: I do want to get to that because I think
Speaker 3: that that's the most interesting part of this kind of
Speaker 3: entire scenario and this entire story. But I think we
Speaker 3: need to just go through exactly what the policies included
Speaker 3: in this Project twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Five actually are.
Speaker 3: So can you just take us through at a high level,
Speaker 3: what they are.
Speaker 1: Yeah, start really broad and then we can get into
Speaker 1: a few different examples. So at a really top level,
Speaker 1: it wants to undo quote the damage the left has wrought,
Speaker 1: so referencing the Biden administration, and they want to do
Speaker 1: that through making really big policy changes from those adopted
Speaker 1: by the Baden administration in areas like immigration, abortion, defense, tax,
Speaker 1: and education policies. Now, Project twenty twenty five has four
Speaker 1: main pillars, but we're just going to focus on the
Speaker 1: first one, which is the policy agenda. Disclaimer, it is
Speaker 1: a nine hundred page document, so obviously we can't.
Speaker 3: Go through all of the ten hours later, yes.
Speaker 1: But we're just going to go through a couple that
Speaker 1: I think we're interesting. So firstly, on immigration, they use
Speaker 1: extremely conservative language. The group wants to increase funding for
Speaker 1: a ball on the US Mexico border, and of course
Speaker 1: that is one of Trump's key policy areas, that wall,
Speaker 1: and they say that the border should be sealed. That's
Speaker 1: a quote on abortion. It is very against abortion. For example,
Speaker 1: it states, quote from the moment of conception, every human
Speaker 1: being possesses inherent dignity and worth, and it states that
Speaker 1: all quote health activities should be rooted in a deep
Speaker 1: respect for innocent human life from day one until natural death.
Speaker 1: And it wants to see abortion pills pulled from the
Speaker 1: market and greater restrictions imposed on abortion across the US.
Speaker 1: It also talks about quote identity politics, and it states
Speaker 1: that quote radical actors are promoting harmful identity politics, by
Speaker 1: which they mean trans people and quote bases a person's
Speaker 1: worth on their race, sex, or other identities. They say
Speaker 1: this quote dressns Americans fundamental liberties as well as the
Speaker 1: health and well being of children and adults alike, and
Speaker 1: is called for a policy that quote protects children's minds
Speaker 1: and bodies and respects parents' basic right to direct the upbringing, education,
Speaker 1: and care of their children. So when we talk about
Speaker 1: their education policy, that is really what they're focused on,
Speaker 1: is identity politics. Now, on climate change, the group says
Speaker 1: that while it supports creating a better environmental tomorrow, the
Speaker 1: government needs to quote stop the war on oil and
Speaker 1: natural gas, and so it wants to slash funding for
Speaker 1: renewable energy completely. And so, you know this big transition
Speaker 1: that is kind of happening in the world away from
Speaker 1: fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. It is completely against that.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: So some fairly significant policy proposals laid out there. I
Speaker 3: mean when I listen to them laid out that way,
Speaker 3: they do sound not overly different to what Donald Trump
Speaker 3: has said over and over again over the years. But
Speaker 3: what has he said about this specific project.
Speaker 1: Well, Trump claims that he quote knows nothing about Project
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. Okay, So in a since deleted post
Speaker 1: on his true social network, he actually said, quote, I
Speaker 1: know nothing about Project twenty twenty five. I have no
Speaker 1: idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of
Speaker 1: the things they're saying, and some of the things they're
Speaker 1: saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. He continued with that quote,
Speaker 1: saying anything they do, I wish them luck, but I
Speaker 1: have nothing to do with them. But there are a
Speaker 1: few things to point out. The first is that Summer,
Speaker 1: his closest policy advisors, are involved in Project twenty twenty
Speaker 1: at five and have worked on this nine hundred page document. So,
Speaker 1: just to give you an example, Russell T. Vaught is
Speaker 1: Trump's former director of the Office of Management and Budget
Speaker 1: when Trump was president in twenty seventeen to twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: and he authored one of the plan's chapters. There is
Speaker 1: also Stephen Miller. He is a former Trump advisor who
Speaker 1: is also expected to return if Trump does win in November.
Speaker 1: And he has also been associated with a legal team
Speaker 1: on Project twenty twenty five's advisory board. And that's just
Speaker 1: for examples. There are a whole list of other people
Speaker 1: who are close to Trump and who are also heavily
Speaker 1: involved in Project twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: So if Trump has said that he a knows nothing
Speaker 3: about this or claims to know nothing about this, but
Speaker 3: b find some of these policies to be ridiculous and abysmal,
Speaker 3: that's a very strong quote in my mind. What is
Speaker 3: his policy platform?
Speaker 1: So Trump's policy platform is called Agender forty seven, got.
Speaker 2: Less of a ring to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they are twenty of his core promises if he
Speaker 1: were to become president again, and that number forty seven
Speaker 1: comes from if he was elected again, he would be
Speaker 1: the forty seventh president of the United States.
Speaker 3: And so what does that Agenda forty seven actually outline?
Speaker 1: Well, firstly, Agenda forty seven is relatively short, particularly when
Speaker 1: you compare it to a nine hundred page document.
Speaker 2: Anything short in comparison.
Speaker 1: Yes, it basically is a list of twenty promises that
Speaker 1: are just explained in one sentence. They're all in capitals,
Speaker 1: which Trump, Baris and bratal.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: There are some similarities to Project twenty twenty five, but
Speaker 1: there are also some differences.
Speaker 2: Okay, So let's go through the similarities first.
Speaker 1: Okay, So one of Trump's immigration policies is to quote
Speaker 1: seal the border and stop the migrant invasion, and that
Speaker 1: similar language to what I talked about before with Project
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, which states that the border should be
Speaker 1: quote sealed. There's also similarity on electric vehicles, so, for example,
Speaker 1: Trump also wants to quote cancel the electric vehicle mandate,
Speaker 1: which is also similar to Project twin twenty five, which
Speaker 1: says to quote end federal mandates and subsidies of electric vehicles.
Speaker 3: I imagine that would be an interesting dinner time conversation
Speaker 3: for the owner of the biggest electric car manufacturer in
Speaker 3: the world.
Speaker 2: But there you go.
Speaker 1: There are though, also some things that Trump mentions that
Speaker 1: Project twenty twenty five doesn't. So, for example, Trump says
Speaker 1: that one of his twenty key policy areas is to
Speaker 1: quote keep men out of women's sport, which isn't explicitly
Speaker 1: in Project twenty twenty five, but does have some similarities
Speaker 1: to what we were talking about before with identity politics.
Speaker 1: And he also plans to introduce quote large tax cuts
Speaker 1: for workers and no tax on tips, which I also
Speaker 1: couldn't find explicitly stated in Project twenty twenty five. All
Speaker 1: that to say, there are some differences, there are also
Speaker 1: a lot of similarities. I think both broadly have the
Speaker 1: same kind of architecture, they are very conservative agenda. But
Speaker 1: there are some differences there.
Speaker 3: Okay, so some clear similarities obviously, that is in stark
Speaker 3: difference to the Democrats and to President Joe Biden, who
Speaker 3: is of course campaigning for reelection. We started this podcast
Speaker 3: by saying that the Democrats have included mention of Project
Speaker 3: twenty twenty five in so many ads. What have we
Speaker 3: actually heard from President Joe Biden about this project?
Speaker 1: Well, Biden continues to accuse Trump of having deep ties
Speaker 1: with Project twenty twenty five. He says that it is
Speaker 1: quote run and paid for by Trump people. At a
Speaker 1: campaign rally over the weekend in Michigan, Biden warned American
Speaker 1: voters that Project twenty twenty five is quote the biggest
Speaker 1: attack on our system of government and our personal freedom
Speaker 1: that has ever been proposed in the history of this country.
Speaker 1: I've also heard Kamala Harris talk about it a lot,
Speaker 1: saying it poses a big threat to democracy in the US.
Speaker 1: So they are going very hard, and despite the fact
Speaker 1: that Trump is trying to since himself, the Democrats are
Speaker 1: trying to link them as much as they can.
Speaker 3: I don't remember a bigger week in American politics outside
Speaker 3: of an actual election week, and I think that this
Speaker 3: is just beginning, and we are likely to see more
Speaker 3: and more of this sort of conversation as we get
Speaker 3: closer to November.
Speaker 1: And before we go Zara, I just want to mention
Speaker 1: all of the different podcasts because there are a whole
Speaker 1: range of different topics that we have covered on the
Speaker 1: podcast this week in case you want to go back
Speaker 1: and listen. So on Monday, we did an explainer on
Speaker 1: that attempted assassination on Donald Trump and what it could
Speaker 1: mean for the future of his campaign and for the
Speaker 1: US election in November. On Tuesdays, Are You and I
Speaker 1: looked at the string of lawsuits against Andrew Tait, the
Speaker 1: controversial influencer who is also a self proclaimed misogynist.
Speaker 3: On Wednesday, we shifted to talk about the biggest story
Speaker 3: dominating Australian politics this week, which is about one of
Speaker 3: Australia's biggest unions and the labor parties.
Speaker 2: So that was a story about the CFMAU.
Speaker 3: Today we had a fascinating chat with Joe Friedman, who
Speaker 3: runs a newspaper dedicated to serving prisoners in Australia.
Speaker 2: That was a fascinating chat.
Speaker 3: Rounding off with today another chat about US politics and
Speaker 3: one to take us through on the weekend.
Speaker 1: We'll put a link to all of those episodes in
Speaker 1: the show notes. Thank you so much for listening to
Speaker 1: this episode of The Daily Os and we will be
Speaker 1: back again on Monday.
Speaker 3: My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda
Speaker 3: Bungelung Caalcuttin woman from Gadighl Country.
Speaker 1: The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on
Speaker 1: the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to
Speaker 1: all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations. We pay
Speaker 1: our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both
Speaker 1: past and present.