Noa Tishby, one of Israel’s best-known advocates, is waging a narrative battle that she says is aimed as much at defending Western values as the Jewish state.

With an Instagram following of nearly a million and an X following of almost a quarter million, she has fought misinformation in real time since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, against the TikTok bots, campus protests, and celebrities tilting the court of public opinion against Israel and the West.

She is a Hollywood actor (The Affair, Big Love, Nip/Tuck, NCIS, Dig) and producer (HBO’s In Treatment, which won 14 Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and a Peabody). She has also written two best-sellers, Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, and Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew, with Emmanuel Acho.

In 2022, Tishby was appointed Israel’s first-ever Special Envoy for Combating Antisemitism and Delegitimization, but was dismissed after Benjamin Netanyahu was re-elected as prime minister, after she spoke out against his proposed judicial reforms.

Dave Gordon interviewed Tishby for National Post ahead of the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks:

Q; What’s your perspective on the newly proposed ceasefire plan that came from President Trump and Israeli PM Netanyahu?

I pray to God that Qatar will convince Hamas to say yes to this plan. What’s extraordinary about it is that for the first time, Hamas is isolated by the Arab world. For the first time, they’re kind of acknowledging — some fully, some kind of half — an acknowledgement, from Saudi Arabia to the UAE to Turkey to Indonesia, that the war has to end, and they have isolated Qatar and Hamas.

To bring all these Arab countries together to stand as a united front against Hamas and to kind of acknowledge, to some extent, that Hamas simply took it too far and they cannot continue to rule Gaza, is absolutely extraordinary. Yes, Hamas needs to come to the table. If Hamas doesn’t agree, then I don’t even know how much more hell can break loose for the Palestinian people, but it is an absolutely extraordinary plan.

Israel defended itself. Israel didn’t start this war. Didn’t want this war, but has to win this war. And nobody wins in wars. Everybody loses. But what Israel wanted the entire time was return the hostages and get Hamas to not rule Gaza anymore. And effectively, this is the plan.

So look, Hamas is a Jihadi terrorist organization that is committed to destroying Israel, killing the Jews, and dying as martyrs for their 72 virgins. That’s who they are. They don’t hide it. So who knows what’s going to happen? But this was an extraordinary step.

Q; As a communications person online, I want to ask you about what you thought of Charlie Kirk’s letter to Netanyahu, which was recently made public, suggesting that the Israeli government ought to set up a real-time fact-check website, rather than have Israel’s allies scramble for answers?

Look, this is way before October 7. Israel’s too slow. I’ve been doing this since I started the first digital advocacy and rapid response organization dedicated to Israel in 2011. I was like, “Why are we not there?” I’ve been talking to government officials throughout the years, and NGOs and Jewish organizations. They’re not open to hearing anything about this. The reason that got me to do this to begin with was because of the first flotilla that came out of Turkey (2010). I saw that Israel’s (clarifying) facts, that took them 48 hours.

Whereas on Twitter at the time, the message was that Israel killed nine peace activists, out of nothing, and that came out in 48 seconds.

Why is there no IDF spokesman press conference every single day? Why isn’t there an Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs press conference every single day? Why? I don’t know, but there isn’t.

We’re very late to the game.

But it’s a bigger problem than that. What’s happening on TikTok is that we have kind of outsourced our children’s education to social media and an agent of an algorithm that isn’t even human, that is feeding to our kids something that we have no control or no knowledge over.

Yeah, it’s very dangerous. So not just for Israel or the Jewish people. This is very dangerous for Western values, for liberal democracies around the world.

Israel is just a piece or a pawn when we talk about the threat against Western values. They’re using Israel as a proxy to fight against America. Everything that’s happening on TikTok, all this feeding of this propaganda, it’s all paid and sponsored by entities and countries that want not just to see Israel down, but wants to see America fractured. It’s the undoing of the West’s social fabric.

Q; Is Israel losing the PR war, and what can it do better?

It’s already lost.

It neglected the PR front 30 years ago, and this has been going on specifically in the last 15 years actively. Israel did not see this coming. There had been a war waged on Israel, except one side knew that they’re at a war, and the other side was asleep, which is us.

They’ve been preparing the ground for this for 30 years. Literally, we know where that language started, and how it started, and how they infiltrated all these social justice movements, and what their plan was. Their plans were on college campuses, and it worked better than they probably have expected, right?

So Israel arrived at October 7, already losing, but not knowing it. I think that Israel, as a country, and to some extent, the Jewish communities around the world, we didn’t think we needed this. Like, why would a country think that it needs to justify its existence, right? But the reason that we need this is because the other side was trying actively to dismantle the State of Israel by delegitimizing its existence.

Israel is not committing crimes; Israel

is

 the crime to those people. Its mere existence. They’re not building a case against occupation ‘67; they’re building a case against occupation ‘48.

And what had happened was that Israel turned into the only country that its existence and creation is litigated again and again and again and again. And it’s completely astonishing. Because when you look back at the creation of every country on Earth, they were all created in a war.

No country was created on a bed of like, you know, unicorns and cupcakes.

And still, some people think that it’s about the so-called genocide libel, or the so-called starvation libel. That then turns out to be completely fabricated. It’s a bigger game, the game to delegitimize Israel’s existence.

Q; And what can Israel do, moving forward?

First of all, acknowledging that this is what’s happening. Second, actually actively work towards building peace and regional alliances in the Middle East. Deradicalize the entire region through textbooks.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants peace and quiet as well. He doesn’t want the Wahhabis, the jihadists and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. He doesn’t want them to have power. They’re threatening him too, meaning safety, security, stability, quiet, prosperity of Saudi Arabia. They’re threatening everybody, but they’re getting support on college campuses.

It’s the blindness of the Westerners and the Hollywood activists, and all these idiots; really, it’s heartbreaking, but it’s also specifically just very dangerous, because they don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t know what it is that they’re supporting, and how they’re helping these horrible forces.

Q; Speaking of Hollywood, why you think there’s so much quiet with the big voices in the entertainment industry?

This is not new, that people don’t want to put themselves out.

Right now, with all the libels about starvation in Gaza, it’s making people really afraid. People are legitimately scared. It’s more than they don’t want to risk their jobs. So that’s where we’re at, in 2025, when people in western civilization and Jewish people are afraid for their safety.

History is coming back, you know?

Q; Have you received pushback that your message might have less credibility, or more bias, because you’re Israeli?

I don’t see that as an issue at all. I’m a proud American, OK? And I was born, raised in Israel, and I have the perspective of both countries that are very similar. I have nothing to do with the Israeli government whatsoever. When I need to, I criticize the Israeli government, as I did with the proposed judicial overhaul that they attempted to do. I spoke up against it.

I get a lot of crap for it from like, very right-wing American entities. I always say that I’m pro-Israeli and a pro-Palestinian, and these two things are not mutually exclusive. I’m just against Hamas and against jihadists.

Q; I’m reminded of the quote from the Jewish sage Maimonides, who said to accept the truth, no matter the source.

That’s all 100%. And by the way, that’s one of the reasons probably why people are mum about the peace deal, because it came from Trump.

So instead of understanding that it actually has the backing of the regional countries in the Middle East, they’re ignoring it because it came from somebody that they didn’t like, which is unfortunate.

You have to separate yourself, and that’s how I see it. I’m a non-political entity. Nobody knows where my politics and policies are on anything. They just know that I’m pro-Western values.

Q; What do you find is the biggest difficulty in battling anti-Israel propaganda?

There’s always been the lie of colonialism and the lie of ethnic cleansing, and now there’s the lie of genocide. But honestly, I think that the biggest problem that we have right now are the bots.

The sheer amount of money that is put into platforms like TikTok to deliver horrific blood libel lies about Israel in a rhythm and amount and quantity that we cannot overcome. Qatari money, Iranian money, Chinese, Russian, Indonesian.

All this dark money that is going into actively poisoning young people’s minds against Israel and the Jewish people. Again, to fracture the West. Not just the Jews.

Young people’s minds, that’s the biggest problem. Their brains are being hijacked. It’s an orchestra, pushed in every platform, from the New York Times, all the way down to every single social media platform.

Q; Prime Minister Carney recognized Palestine at the United Nations last month. I’m wondering what you think of that?

Look, there’s no desire on behalf of Israelis to rule over millions of Palestinians. But if one thing became clear after October 7, and became clear with this proposed peace plan, is that the Arab world understands that the Palestinians need help. Because if they get a piece of land, what they come up with is October 7, and that cannot happen again.

There has to be many, many steps that need to be taken before a declaration like this can make any sense at all. It’s literally magical thinking.

It’s virtue signalling to their voters, their left-wing, brainwashed constituencies: Don’t vote me out! But it doesn’t mean anything.

This interview was edited for brevity.

• Avi Benlolo: In the face of Jew hatred, we are embracing Zionism more than ever before
• ‘Hamas is the genocidal entity’: Warfare experts on what the world is getting wrong on Gaza

Former soldiers Richard Kemp and John Spencer are among the world’s leading experts on urban warfare. Kemp, a retired colonel who commanded a British infantry battalion, and Spencer, a retired U.S. major who serves as the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, spoke to Postmedia’s Brian Lilley for the Full Comment podcast ahead of the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks.

They discuss the groundbreaking lengths the Israel Defence Forces go to mitigate harm in Gaza, and wholeheartedly reject claims against Israel by Prime Minister Mark Carney and his confederates in the United Kingdom, France and Australia who last month recognized a Palestinian state. The West, Kemp and Spencer say, has “blood on its hands.”

Below are some edited highlights of their conversation:

Brian Lilley: Well, gentlemen, let me start with the simple question (on) the issue of genocide. This claim is being used over and over again to vilify Israel. You’ve both been there. What are your thoughts on genocide?

Richard Kemp:

I’ll let John speak more about the accusations of genocide against Israel. What I would say is that the accusations of genocide should be levelled against Hamas. Hamas is the genocidal entity in this particular conflict. They have, by the definition of their charter, which requires them to kill not just the Jews in Israel but Jews everywhere. By that definition, they are genocidal terrorists.

By their actions on the 7th of October, which itself was an act of genocide, by their words since the 7th of October, in which they promised to repeat the 7th of October again and again and again, those are genocidal words. Now, they’re not going to succeed in their genocide, but they certainly will have the best possible try they can. And the accusation against Israel is simply an obscenity. I’ll let John speak perhaps more about that.

John Spencer:

I don’t mind as much the useful idiots, the sheer ignorance of the man or woman on the street wearing a Hamas headband and advocating for Hamas. But I do mind when governments join the bandwagon. Even if you don’t go to Gaza like Richard and I have multiple times, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to say, OK, what’s the accusation? Because there is no evidence (or) information that you’re using to wage this libel against Israel, like genocidal specific intent.

And then the evidence if they can’t prove intent is the numbers, whether it’s the starvation claim, which is false, and they want to rule out everything Israel has done to feed the enemy’s population, to vaccinate everybody in Gaza. All of the information is an assault on critical thinking.

Lilley: Both of you are veterans of war. Have you ever fought in a war where you had to feed your enemy, provide them clean drinking water and electricity? Because I don’t think a lot of people know that, that Israel has been providing the power and the water and then the food and then told, well, you’re not giving them enough food. You’re committing genocide. I don’t know how you commit genocide against a people that you were feeding and watering.

Kemp:

I think the Israelis have been facilitating, sometimes by direct assistance, significantly more humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip than is required by the population of the Gaza Strip, significantly more. In my knowledge and my experience, this is the first time in history that any army has facilitated the delivery of aid to the enemy population at the same time as they’re fighting that enemy.

Lilley: Normally, you lay siege to a place. You cut off the access to food and water as a way to try and get them to surrender. Here, they’re actively delivering more aid than the UN will pick up at times.

Kemp:

Absolutely and we’ve seen stockpiles of aid waiting inside Gaza that have been permitted in by the IDF, have been checked, searched, allowed in. And then it’s waiting there because the UN has a completely inefficient distribution system. And the UN itself has admitted that the vast majority of the aid that it has brought into Gaza has been hijacked and taken over by Hamas and used for Hamas’s purposes.

Hamas aren’t interested in the population being fed. In fact, they’d rather the population weren’t fed so they can perpetrate their own lies about starvation. What Hamas want (is) to control the population through distribution of aid, which is often sold — free aid given by U.S. taxpayers’ dollars. Free aid. They want to sell that. They’ve been selling that at vastly inflated prices to those that can afford it.

And this is one of the main reasons why they have opposed so strongly the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been the most effective organization, a U.S. initiative supported by Israel as well, mainly made up of former American soldiers, distributing aid directly to the Gazans, bypassing Hamas. So Hamas don’t get control of it and don’t use it to raise funds or control the population.

Lilley: What should listeners make of the claims that Israel has used the aid being distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Fund as a lure to get people to show up so they can shoot and kill them?

Spencer:

I mean, it’s as false as all the other claims. It doesn’t stand up against evidence. And it rules out any information from anybody but Hamas. And people won’t even listen to what Israel says. OK, fine. You think that Israel is lying, but they won’t (listen to) the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, not Israelis, mostly American, who are on the ground.

Lilley: Has Hamas effectively weaponized food in this war as another front? I would say while Hamas is not winning the war militarily, they appear to be winning on the PR side. They get a lot of great PR. To me, it feels like they really weaponize this food issue to turn hearts and minds even as they’re losing in the battlefield.

Kemp:

That’s exactly what they’ve done. Some of the most outstanding examples in the media of famine, starvation, etc. have been proven to be people who are not starving. They’ve been proven in some cases to be unfortunate children who are suffering from pre-existing diseases which give them a skeletal type appearance, which is that —

Lilley: I think you’re talking about the New York Times front page.

Kemp:

Right, the New York Times front page and many many other front pages on the internet and in print of the media including the BBC, which is one of the worst offenders I might say. Now if they need to do that, if they need to falsify it to that extent, that tells you something I think that’s quite important which is, why aren’t they just using the real evidence of it if there is real evidence? Well the reality is there isn’t real evidence.

I’m not saying there isn’t hunger in Gaza. I’m sure there is hunger in Gaza, largely brought about by Hamas. But I’ve spoken directly to at least 100 Gazans, civilians. Not one of them that I saw showed any sign of starvation. The people I saw were active, were moving around, were happy to be receiving for the first ever time free aid since the war began, and that came from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. These are just some of the examples of the way that Hamas have been manipulating, weaponizing food and starvation against Israel. And it’s been swallowed up by a gullible media and obviously people who don’t know any better who watch that media.

Spencer:

To say that Hamas has weaponized the food that’s gone into Gaza since October 7th is almost putting it lightly. For some reason in this war, Hamas gets a pass on any atrocity they commit or any violation of the law of armed conflict (by) using the hospitals, using the humanitarian zones. Where was (Hamas strategist) Mohammed Deif killed? Right next to the Al-Mawasi humanitarian zone.

Lilley: Israel’s offensive into Gaza City is getting a lot of attention now, gentlemen. And I’d like to get your thoughts. You know, I had a colleague say, why are they just going into Gaza now? Are they just trying to clear out remnants of Hamas?

Kemp:

 Gaza City may not be the final stronghold of Hamas, but it’s certainly now, I think, the largest concentration of Hamas terrorists inside Gaza, although I’m sure many of have left or tried to leave. And of course, without taking Gaza City, without destroying Hamas inside Gaza City, then you don’t destroy Hamas at all. So very clearly, they’ve got to deal with Gaza City.

And that is a tough problem. It wouldn’t be so tough if it wasn’t for the civilian presence there. The IDF, I think, are estimating now that maybe even up to 900,000 Gazans have left Gaza City and the IDF have been warning them by leaflet drops and by other means, numerous other means, to get out to safety and telling them where they can go to safety, to the south along designated routes. And a large number have been doing that. But of course, meanwhile, Hamas have been doing their best to prevent them from getting out of Gaza City because they want them there as human shields.

Another complexity, of course, is the presence there of at least some of the hostages inside Gaza City. On top of all that you then have the massive complexity of the massive tunnel system underneath Gaza City, the booby traps of very many of the buildings. Obviously a large number of the buildings have been taken over by Hamas to be used as military positions to command operations to attack the IDF. That of course includes hospitals, mosques, apartment buildings, schools and all the rest of the stuff we’ve seen in Gaza City.

Lilley: We’re constantly hearing what the death toll is. When you’ve looked at civilian deaths, in this war as compared to others, what have you found?

Kemp:

Yeah, I mean, the first thing I’d say is, I don’t think anybody knows how many civilians have died inside Gaza. I certainly don’t. You hear these 65,000 figure or 100,000, wherever it might be. These figures all come from Hamas, the Gaza Health Ministry or whatever. Some people quote the UN’s figures but the UN’s figures come from Hamas everyone’s figures come from Hamas, so we don’t know the reality.

You have to deduct from those figures the number of fighters that have been killed, because obviously, IDF are going to have killed a lot of fighters. They’ve been targeting the fighters, not the civilians, and many fighters will have died.

Spencer:

Hamas has killed thousands of civilians. Twenty per cent of the 14,000-15,000 rockets that Hamas has launched have landed inside of Gaza killing Gazan civilians who go on the list. Everybody just blames Israel for this number. It’s not true. The number is not true. It could be more. It could be less.

I can tell you that I don’t mourn the death of Hamas combatants. I don’t. Israel views every civilian casualty as a tragedy. It’s awful. Hamas views it as their strategy and they state they want the death. They want the death of every child, elderly person, everything so they can achieve their goal in the afterlife.

Listen to the full podcast here.

• Urban warfare expert debunks lies about Israel, explains how it shows restraint in Gaza
• Netanyahu slams the west for recognizing Palestinian state

OTTAWA — Calls are intensifying from the Conservatives and New Democrats for Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government to answer for an announcement made by one of his parliamentary secretaries that an Irish hip-hop trio was banned from entering the country for allegations of amplifying “political violence.”

The situation started two weeks ago when Vince Gasparro, whom Carney appointed as a parliamentary secretary for combating crime, announced in a video posted to X that members of the group, Kneecap, had been deemed “ineligible to enter Canada.”

The Liberal MP from Toronto, who won his seat in the past spring federal election, alleged that the group had “engaged in actions” and made statements, which he said were “contrary to Canadian values and laws.”

Gasparro previously served as a Postmedia board member, but stepped down before the election.

Since his announcement, however, a cloud of confusion has settled in, following recent statements by the band’s manager to several media outlets that they had received no notification from the government.

The band has also said on social media that Gasparro’s comments were “wholly untrue and deeply malicious.” The band’s management has not yet responded to a question from National Post, but its upcoming shows in Toronto have been listed as cancelled.

Both the Conservatives and the New Democrats have now begun pressing the Carney government for answers, and in particular, Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab, who, along with her department, has repeatedly declined to comment, citing privacy concerns.

“Either the parliamentary secretary lied to his constituents and all Canadians knowingly, or the government is cowering now in the face of controversy,” Melissa Lantsman, deputy leader for the Opposition Conservatives, told National Post in a recent interview.

“But either way, Canadians deserve an answer from a government that has stood on both sides of this issue.”

The issue in question has been the Liberal government’s handling of the rise in antisemitism that police have reported since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, triggering two years of war.

Since then, the Liberals have faced calls from Jewish advocacy groups that it has failed to respond to the rise in acts of hate and intimidation towards the Jewish community. The Liberal caucus has also at times found itself divided over the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Gasparro made the announcement the same day that Justice Minister Sean Fraser tabled a bill aimed at cracking down on protests in front of places of worship and displaying certain hate symbols, such as flags linked to terrorist organizations.

The parliamentary secretary declined to speak to the issue when asked again about it by reporters this week, saying questions should be directed towards the government.

Previously, he told reporters that he had been acting on information that had been available to him.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, which welcomed Gasparro’s announcement, had raised concerns about Kneecap’s upcoming performances for weeks, launching an “action alert” back in July, saying it had written to the Canadian government seeking clarity on whether its members would be allowed to enter.

Among the concerns it listed, which Gasparro mentioned, was the alleged displaying of a Hezbollah flag by one of its members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh, who goes by the stage name, Mo Chara, during a 2024 performance in London, captured on video.

Hezbollah is a listed terrorist organization in both Canada and the United Kingdom.

The incident resulted in a terrorism charge, which was recently dropped by a U.K. judge who cited the fact that it was filed passed the required deadline.

NDP MP Jenny Kwan, who this week wrote to Metlege Diab seeking answers on the issue, said the fact that Gasparro announced the government ban before the court case against one of the band members had been settled raises more questions about what transpired.

“Canada needs to make sure that such decisions are accountable and that they’re not subject to arbitrary and political weaponization,” she told National Post.

“It’s really important that we actually get clarity on what went on. Is this a sanctioned announcement from the government? Is the band Kneecap actually banned? Were they ever banned?”

A spokeswoman for Canada Border Services Agency said in a statement that it does not comment on individual cases, but said it works closely with international partners as well as officials in Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, which makes decisions regarding admissibility and visas.

That department also declined to comment on the specific case, saying in a statement that anyone looking to enter Canada must meet the criteria outlined under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

“Entry to Canada may be refused for a number of reasons, including concerns related to security, human or international rights violations, or criminal activity. Applicants are informed of their visa status through the email provided on their applications,” spokesman Matthew Krupovich said in a statement.

“An individual, whose electronic travel applications have been declined, can reapply for an (electronic travel authorization) once they have addressed the reason(s) leading to the refusal of their application.”

National Post

• Rap group Kneecap says they will take legal action after being barred from Canada for ‘supporting terrorism’
• MPs call on Canada to bar British rap duo Bob Vylan over ‘death, death to the IDF’ chant at Glastonbury

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.

Donald Trump has decided to embrace

“Project 2025”

the blueprint for governance developed by American conservative thinkers.

Project 2025 was originally set out as a policy and personnel “playbook” should Trump win re-election, aiming to quickly implement sweeping changes across the federal government. During the 2024 election campaign, Trump

disavowed Project 2025,

distancing himself from the content and its creators, claiming he knew nothing about it or the people involved.

“I’m not going to read it,” Mr. Trump

said at his first presidential debate

against Vice President Kamala Harris. “Everybody knows what I am going to do.”

However, that has changed since his second-term inauguration. Key contributors and authors involved in Project 2025 have been placed in

influential roles

within the Trump administration, ensuring policy proposals are swiftly enacted.

What is in Project 2025?

Its origins are as a comprehensive conservative policy and personnel initiative designed to prepare for a transition into a new Republican administration. The present version was produced by

The Heritage Foundation

and an alliance of over 100 conservative organizations.

The 900-page playbook is being enacted, with

hundreds of objectives tracked and completed

by federal agencies and the White House. It has garnered widespread attention due to its scale and intent to replace thousands of civil servants with loyalists and roll back what are deems to be progressive regulations and programs. To date 48 per cent of its objectives have been implemented.

The

core aim is to impose sweeping changes

in U.S. government structure and policy. This includes dismantling the so-called “administrative state,” consolidating executive power under the president, eliminating certain federal agencies, dismissing senior civil servants, and rolling back regulations regarding environment, civil rights, and diversity. The project also calls for significant changes to abortion policies, LGBT rights, and education, among other areas.

Centralizing executive power in the White House, it consists of

four main components

: a policy guide (“Mandate for Leadership 2025”), a database of vetted conservative personnel, candidate training (the “Presidential Administration Academy”), and a 180-day playbook for executive actions.

What is the Republican party history behind it?

Project 2025

builds directly on
a tradition of conservative transition planning
, most notably the “Mandate for Leadership” framework first published by The Heritage Foundation in 1981 for Ronald Reagan’s incoming administration, influencing how Reagan reorganized the federal government.

Heritage and allied think tanks produced

similar blueprints for subsequent Republican transitions

, including those for George W. Bush in 2001 and Donald Trump in 2016, but Project 2025 is the most expansive to date.

How will it guide the Trump administration’s actions during the government shutdown?

A few days into the federal government shutdown, Trump has spoken on social media about meeting with

Russell Vought

— one of Project 2025’s chief architects and the director of the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) — to

coordinate his administration’s handling of federal workers

.

“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, on Oct. 2.

He continued: “I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.”

This prompted former Vice President Kamala Harris to tweet that this was “always” Trump’s plan and “he’s implementing it right in front of our eyes.”

This was always the plan.

Project 2025 was Donald Trump’s blueprint to seize unchecked power within the federal government and restrict Americans’ freedoms. And he is implementing it right in front of our eyes. pic.twitter.com/rsU6So6tyN

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 2, 2025

Who is Russell Vought?

Vought is an American

government official

and conservative political strategist. He is recognized as creating a sweeping conservative policy agenda designed to reorganize the federal government according to Trump-aligned priorities.

He was

also director of the Office of Management and Budget

during the first Trump administration.

Vought’s career

spans over two decades in Washington, including key roles as deputy OMB director, vice president of Heritage Action for America, and in leadership positions with several Republican policy organizations. He has played a leading role in drafting budget reforms, pushing for executive branch power, and advocating for deep cuts in federal spending and restructuring several agencies.

His

tenure has been marked by efforts to centralize power within the executive

, utilize government shutdowns strategically, and implement far-reaching administrative changes.

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

U.S. President Donald Trump appears to be warming to

“Project 2025,”

the blueprint for governance developed by American conservative thinkers that he distanced himself from during the election.

Project 2025 was originally set out as a policy and personnel “playbook” should Trump win re-election, aiming to quickly implement sweeping changes across the federal government. During the 2024 election campaign, Trump

disavowed Project 2025,

distancing himself from the content and its creators, claiming he knew nothing about it or the people involved.

“I’m not going to read it,” Trump

said at his first presidential debate

against then vice president Kamala Harris. “Everybody knows what I am going to do.”

However, that has changed since his second-term inauguration. Key contributors and authors involved in Project 2025 have been placed in

influential roles

within the Trump administration, a number of its policy proposals appear to have been enacted and Trump posted on social media about Project 2025 on Thursday.

Here’s what you need to know about Project 2025 and what Trump has said about it.

What is in Project 2025?

Its origins are as a comprehensive conservative policy and personnel initiative designed to prepare for a transition into a new Republican administration. The 900-page playbook was produced by

The Heritage Foundation

and an alliance of over 100 conservative organizations.

The Project 2025 website is tracking

318 objectives

across 34 federal agencies. It has garnered widespread attention due to its scale and intent to replace thousands of civil servants with loyalists and roll back what are deemed to be progressive regulations and programs. To date, the website states that 48 per cent of its objectives have been implemented, including some by the White House itself.

The

core aim is to impose sweeping changes

in U.S. government structure and policy. This includes dismantling the so-called “administrative state,” consolidating executive power under the president, eliminating certain federal agencies, dismissing senior civil servants, and rolling back regulations regarding environment, civil rights, and diversity. The project also calls for significant changes to abortion policies, LGBT rights, and education, among other areas.

It consists of

four main components

: a policy guide (“Mandate for Leadership 2025”), a database of vetted conservative personnel, candidate training (the “Presidential Administration Academy”), and a 180-day playbook for executive actions.

While many of the policies outlined in its 900-plus pages align closely with the agenda that Trump was proposing during the election — particularly on curbing immigration and dismantling certain federal agencies — others called for action Trump had never discussed, like banning pornography, or Trump’s team was actively trying to avoid, like withdrawing approval for abortion medication.

What did Trump and his team say about Project 2025 during the election?

“I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump insisted in July 2024. “I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

Trump’s campaign chiefs were equally critical.

“President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the President in any way,” wrote Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita in a campaign memo. They added, “Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you.”

What is the Republican party history behind it?

Project 2025

builds directly on
a tradition of conservative transition planning
, most notably the “Mandate for Leadership” framework first published by The Heritage Foundation in 1981 for Ronald Reagan’s incoming administration, influencing how Reagan reorganized the federal government.

Heritage and allied think tanks produced

similar blueprints for subsequent Republican transitions

, including those for George W. Bush in 2001 and Donald Trump in 2016, but Project 2025 is the most expansive to date.

How might it guide the Trump administration’s actions?

A few days into the federal government shutdown, Trump posted on social media about meeting with

Russell Vought

— one of Project 2025’s chief architects and the director of the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) — to

coordinate his administration’s handling of federal workers

.

“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, on Oct. 2.

He continued: “I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.”

The federal government was thrown into a shutdown on Oct. 1, as Democrats held firm to their demands to salvage health care subsidies that Trump and Republicans in Congress have dismissed as something to possibly discuss later.

Trump has seized on the government shutdown as an opportunity to reshape the federal workforce, threatening mass firings of workers and suggesting “irreversible” cuts to programs important to Democrats.

Trump’s post prompted former Vice President Kamala Harris to tweet that this was “always” Trump’s plan and “he’s implementing it right in front of our eyes.”

Asked about Trump’s reversal, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said, “Democrats are desperate to talk about anything aside from their decision to hurt the American people by shutting down the government.”

This was always the plan.

Project 2025 was Donald Trump’s blueprint to seize unchecked power within the federal government and restrict Americans’ freedoms. And he is implementing it right in front of our eyes. pic.twitter.com/rsU6So6tyN

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 2, 2025

 

Who is Russell Vought?

Vought is an American

government official

and conservative political strategist. He is recognized as creating a sweeping conservative policy agenda designed to reorganize the federal government according to Trump-aligned priorities.

He was

also director of the Office of Management and Budget

during the first Trump administration.

Vought’s career

spans over two decades in Washington, including key roles as deputy OMB director, vice president of Heritage Action for America, and in leadership positions with several Republican policy organizations. He has played a leading role in drafting budget reforms, pushing for executive branch power, and advocating for deep cuts in federal spending and restructuring several agencies.

His

tenure has been marked by efforts to centralize power within the executive

, utilize government shutdowns strategically, and implement far-reaching administrative changes.

In his chapter in the blueprint, Vought made clear he wanted the president and OMB to wield more direct power.

“The Director must view his job as the best, most comprehensive approximation of the President’s mind,” he wrote. Vought described OMB as “a President’s air-traffic control system,” which should be “involved in all aspects of the White House policy process,” becoming “powerful enough to override implementing agencies’ bureaucracies.”

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said on Fox News Channel that Vought “has a plan, and that plan is going to succeed in further empowering Trump. This is going to be the Democrats’ worst nightmare.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson echoed that message, insisting the government shutdown gives Trump and his budget director vast power over the federal government and the unilateral power to determine which personnel and policies are essential and which are not.

Who else is tied to Project 2025?

Trump has close ties with many of its authors, including John McEntee, his former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, and Paul Dans, former chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Trump has stocked his second administration with the project’s authors, including “border czar” Tom Homan, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller and Brendan Carr, who wrote Project 2025’s chapter on the Federal Communications Commission and now chairs the panel.

Heritage did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press on Thursday. But Dans, the project’s former director, said it’s been “exciting” to see so much of what was laid out in the book put into action.

“It’s gratifying. We’re very proud of the work that was done for this express purpose: to have a doer like President Trump ready to roll on Day One,” said Dans, who is currently running for Senate against Lindsey Graham in South Carolina.

National Post, with additional reporting from The Associated Press

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

The moon over the Bay of Fundy along Nova Scotia’s coast on Sept. 6 was one night shy of full but showy enough to attract attention from Mark Grantham, a professional artist, and his partner David Parker, a musician who has played with symphonies around the world.

Outside their home on Highway 1 near Clementsport, about 200 kilometres west of Halifax, they were photographing the moon around 9 p.m., when a Mazda 3 smashed into a guardrail nearby.

The RCMP said Grantham and Parker offered to help the male driver inside, who had allegedly been drinking, but things went crazy.

The driver is accused of beating the two men severely, causing what police described as life-threatening injuries for both, one aged 61 and the other 58.

“Without warning or provocation, a stranger brutally attacked them and left them,” Grantham’s sisters said online.

That’s what the RCMP believe as well.

“I think they were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Constable Mandy Edwards said. Police say the accused driver is known to police for past acts of violence.

What neither Grantham nor Parker knew at the time is that shortly before the Mazda crashed, the driver was allegedly involved in a different altercation, with someone he knew, and then left the scene in the car. A 46-year-old man, also from Clementsport, received non-life-threatening injuries in that prior incident, police said.

After the assault on Grantham and Parker, the driver allegedly abandoned the car and ran.

The two older men’s injuries were significant. They were taken to a local hospital and then transferred to Halifax for a major trauma centre because of the severity of their injuries.

Grantham is an architect whose paintings of urban and rural landscapes have been shown and celebrated throughout Atlantic Canada. Parker has worked with symphonies around the world, including the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Sinfonietta and the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, as well as principal horn with Symphony Nova Scotia.

Almost a month since, they remain unable to return to work, family said on a GoFundMe fundraising campaign to help the two men recover and support them as self-employed artists who currently cannot work.

“They both required surgeries to repair their severe facial injuries. Mark also sustained a fractured arm. David received serious head trauma and spent three days in the ICU. Mark was discharged to be cared for at home, but David remains in hospital,” the fundraiser said.

The afternoon after the attack, Sept. 7, in nearby Digby, police arrested 25-year-old William Cedric Douglas Windsor, of Clementsport.

He has been charged with two counts of aggravated assault, assault causing bodily harm, assault, uttering threats, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, operation while impaired and two counts of failing to comply with a probation order.

Windsor is scheduled to appear in Annapolis Royal provincial court for a bail hearing on Oct. 8.

A family friend of Grantham and Parker said they are not speaking with media at this time.

“They have begun what doctors expect will be a long and challenging road to recovery. While the suspect has been arrested … it doesn’t undo the trauma and damage inflicted on these two innocent people,” reads a statement.

“Mark and David will both require ongoing medical care, physical therapy, and dietary support. David will also require cognitive rehabilitation. They will be unable to work for the foreseeable future…. The financial burden of this senseless attack is creating serious challenges during an already traumatic time.”

As of Friday,

the fundraiser

had raised $127,969 from 334 people.

“Mark and David have been touched by the support from friends, family, colleagues, and strangers alike. Your kindness has made a real difference during a difficult time,” Grantham’s sisters, Monica Grantham and Jenn Ferguson, wrote.

Chronicle-Herald and National Post 

• Your home is your castle but the front yard is fair game, Nova Scotia court rules
• New book coming from spouse of Nova Scotia’s mass killer who dressed up like a cop and murdered 22 people

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.