Project 2025 or Project 1984?
by Ram Narayanan and Ted Landau
Does it increasingly seem like the author of Trump’s playbook is actually George Orwell and not Russell Vought? (Trump’s current Budget Director and primary author of Project 2025). Yes, references to Orwell’s “1984” in pop culture can be cliché or exaggerated. But that’s seemingly not the case in America today . Let’s have a quick (un)reality check:
Within three days of conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s murder last month, a 2024 study by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) — a part of the DOJ since 1968 — was taken down from the DOJ web site. Why? Presumably because it calls out right-wing terrorism. Here are the opening sentences of the report:
“Militant, nationalistic, white supremacist violent extremism has increased in the United States. In fact, the number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism.”
Hmmm….that doesn’t really fit Trump’s narrative that “The radicals on the left are the problem” does it?
The NIJ report goes on to state that, since 1990, radicals with far-right beliefs have been responsible for 227 domestic terror attacks and 520 deaths, versus 42 attacks and 78 deaths at the hands of far left radicals (and Islamist extremists). Political violence and murder is a tragedy no matter who commits it. But MAGA’s selective outrage against “the violent left” is outrageously hypocritical given that far-right ideology has led to five times the number of domestic terrorist attacks and nearly seven times the number of deaths.
By removing this pertinent study from its website, the DOJ is channeling a combination of the ironically named Ministry of Truth and the Ministry of Love from Orwell’s dystopian — and disturbingly prescient — “1984.” In the novel, truth is systematically erased from public consciousness and replaced with a false narrative that gets progressively easier to reinforce simply because there’s no longer any trace of truth left to counter the falsehoods.
Fast forward to today’s reality: Fox News? Truth Social? Newsmax? And the capitulation to Trump by major media organizations, from the Washington Post to CBS News.
To dispel any lingering doubt, just watch a few YouTube clips of FBI Director Kash Patel during his Congressional hearings on the Epstein files from a few weeks ago. Patel behaved like nothing less than a rabid Rottweiler defending his equally rabid master-in-chief. He refused to substantively answer a single question posed to him by Democratic lawmakers and instead wildly barked back conspiracy-laden MAGA talking points and propaganda (aka “doublespeak” from “1984”; aka outright lies in 2025). Patel’s boss at the DOJ, Attorney General Pam Bondi, followed suit this week during her confrontational hearing with the Senate Judiciary Committee. Bondi disgraced her role as the nation’s highest ranking law enforcement official, delivering her own master class in stonewalling, deflection and obfuscation while shamelessly shielding Trump from any incriminating ties to Epstein.
Yes, Orwell’s work is a broad and bitter condemnation of totalitarian government overreach, oppression, dishonesty and corruption under Communist regimes like Stalin’s Soviet Union. Ironically, but not surprisingly, many of the totalitarian abuses described in the book align quite well with Trump’s ultra-capitalistic authoritarian aspirations for the U.S.
This latest DOJ website trick is part of an ongoing attempt on part of the Trump regime to redefine the truth, rewrite history, and reframe the reality that Americans are currently experiencing: purging non-loyalists from the government; erasing history at the Smithsonian; lying about election results; lying about who pays tariffs; lying about inflation; and lying about manufacturing jobs coming back. And perhaps most alarming of all: lying about civil unrest as a bogus excuse for declaring martial law.
Where does the truth lie (sorry…couldn’t say no to that pun!) if all we hear are lies? We’re being collectively gaslit by a fake administration that’s generating massive dystopian-novel problems that are simultaneously real and surreal.
Well that’s the strategy isn’t it? To distort reality to the point where, per Orwell…“Ignorance is Strength”. Or, to cite a popular quote that paraphrases the ideas of historian and political philosopher Hannah Arendt:
“Constant lying is not aimed at making people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong.”
What can you do about all of this?
Yes, it can be exhausting and frustrating to stand firm and combat this windstorm of lies and misinformation each day. But we must do it because getting to the truth regarding key activities, events and institutions in our society is a critical step toward restoring democracy.
First, we must make sure that we do not succumb to lies ourselves.This requires thoroughly examining sources of information and verifying anything that seems questionable.
Next, don’t spread lies. Even repeating a lie in the process of debunking it — if done too often — can inadvertently perpetuate the lie.
Third, help to spread the truth. When your friends or relatives cite something you know to be untrue, point them to the truth (assuming they are open to such gentle persuasion). And publicize the truth everywhere and anywhere you can.
If enough of us do all of this consciously and regularly, the windstorm of lies will eventually subside. When we reach critical mass, the direction of the storm will reverse and the winds of truth will be at our back.
So, stay true and stay engaged! As the novel “1984” reminds us, succumbing to despair does not work out well.
