Project 2025 breaks through
Just about everyone online is talking about the latest Vast Right Wing Conspiracy to take over the federal government
Thousands of people are employed in DC think tanks, non-profits, lobbying shops, and advocacy groups to produce lengthy policy papers that are meant to sway lawmakers or serve as blueprints to put theories into practice. While many of those policy plans don’t really go anywhere, few have made waves like Project 2025, a far-right policy paper and plan drafted last year by the Heritage Foundation.
In the unlikely event you’ve never heard of it, the TLDR is that it’s essentially a detailed plan for far-right political groups to take over the federal government when Trump is re-elected, install MAGA loyalists throughout the government, and find legal ways to implement insane policies to change the American way of life. The extreme nature of the document’s policy recommendations, coupled with the level of detail the authors provide and the author’s access to Trump-world, has sent alarm bells among Democrats and pretty much anyone who doesn't want to live in a Christian Nationalist authoritarian state come next January.
Liberal political groups and progressive creators started highlighting Project 2025 shortly after its publication last spring. In the fall, more organizations and the mainstream press began reporting on the extreme plan in earnest. Explainer videos and graphics started to move around on social media, and even non-political creators started sharing their concerns.
Digital staffers will tell you that content about Project 2025 performs very well on social media, with freaked-out younger users on Instagram and TikTok often hitting the like and share buttons en masse. As a result, the Biden campaign told Semafor in March that they were seeing solid signs of engagement and would make it a centerpiece of their digital messaging strategy moving forward. More recently, a Washington Post analysis found that mentions of Project 2025 among progressive influencers have “skyrocketed” in the past month.
Actress Taraji P. Henson mentioned it on stage at the BET Awards last week, and it was the subject of a viral Last Week Tonight with John Oliver episode that has racked up more than 7 million views on YouTube alone. This week, it has been the subject of several cable news segments, and it was front-page news in Milwaukee on Wednesday.
According to new research from CAP Action, views of posts about Project 2025 across multiple social media platforms have exploded in recent weeks. So far in July, posts about Project 2025 from top political and news pages are receiving 10 to 20 million views a day across platforms, an increase from just 1.7 million per day in June. And those numbers look to be steadily rising:
The subject has become so ubiquitous in our political discourse that even Donald Trump himself has felt the need to respond. On July 5th, Trump threw fuel on the fire, posting on Truth Social “I know nothing about Project 2025, I have no idea who is behind it…” (This was quickly countered by a CNN review that found that 140 people who worked in the Trump Administration have had a hand in creating Project 2025.)
Shortly after the post, Google Search interest for Project 2025 spiked, reaching its highest point ever.
This wave of online interest clearly has the plan’s backers spooked. This week, Project 2025’s official Twitter account (yes, they have a Twitter lol) tried to do some myth-busting to refute Democrats’ claims about their work. It’s widely known in PR world that if you get this point, you’re already losing. 👀
In an election year and news cycle dominated by personality wars, Biden’s age, and Trump’s criminality, Project 2025 is one of a few policy-focused messaging tracks taking hold among large online audiences. It’s a rare issue for Democrats where polling, online engagement, and policy incentives are aligned - and campaigns and organizations on the Left are going all in on it.
⚡ The TikTok Election
The political social media ecosystem is changing rapidly, and one thing is for certain: TikTok is playing an outsized role in the 2024 presidential election. That’s why we just launched #FYP, a brand-new weekly newsletter tracking the political conversation on TikTok. Co-authored by Josh Klemons, Lucy, and myself, #FYP is going to provide you with data and insights you can’t get anywhere else. Click on the button below to subscribe and read yesterday’s sneak peek issue.
Digital ad spending, by the numbers:
FWIW, political advertisers spent just over $13.6 million on Facebook and Instagram ads last week. These were the top ten spenders nationwide:
The Biden campaign is running new video ads on Facebook featuring Rep. AOC firmly supporting President Biden and Vice President Harris. The ads are targeted at groups of Latino voters in Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.
Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL) also spent $110,000+ on new video ads this past week that attack the conservative SCOTUS justices and highlight the Biden-Harris administration’s support for reproductive rights.
Meanwhile, political campaigns spent $8 million on Google and YouTube ads last week. Here were the top ten spenders nationwide:
Democrat Josh Stein, the NC Attorney General who is taking on Republican extremist candidate Mark Robinson in North Carolina’s gubernatorial election, dropped over $120,000 this past week on video ads that display Robinson’s *very* anti-woman take on abortion.
On Snapchat, political advertisers in the U.S. have spent $3.2 million on ads year to date. Here are the top spenders:
…and on X (formerly Twitter), political advertisers have spent over $6 million on the platform in 2024. Here are the top spending accounts:
Your 2024 digital dispatch
FWIW, here’s how weekly digital ad spending (Facebook/Instagram, Google/YouTube) compares between the Trump and Biden campaigns year-to-date:
As you can see, the Biden campaign continued to spend heavily on digital advertising last week. They’ve outspent Team Trump every single week in 2024.
On the outside, we’re starting to see more digital ad spending from the candidates’ super PACs and other outside groups. For example, Future Forward USA, President Biden’s primary Super PAC, spent $621,370 on digital ads this past week – meanwhile, Make America Great Again Inc., Trump’s PAC, spent $181,035.
More from around the internet:
As her star is rising, “coconut-pilled” is apparently a phrase people are using now to describe VP Harris’ supporters.
Meanwhile, young progressives are embracing the “funny, relatable” aspects of the VP’s personality and public appearances and meme-ing her – which is also driving online attention and support to Harris on X, TikTok, and Instagram.
The Washington Post has a great profile of The Shade Room and the media startup’s impact on our politics.
Threads turned one this week. Taylor Lorenz wrote about how the platform is still struggling to win over content creators.
That’s it for FWIW this week. This email was sent to 22,293 readers. If you enjoy reading this newsletter each week, would you mind sharing it on Twitter or Threads? Have a tip, idea, or feedback? Reply directly to this email.