While the Heritage Foundation’s latest Mandate for Leadership and its overarching Project 2025 have been turned into a right-wing-‘boogeyman’ style Democratic talking point and fodder for Trump critics, its founders and current leaders maintain that its work product past and present speak for itself.

President Donald Trump has also criticized the latest iteration and denied any involvement in its formation: ‘I disagree with some of the things they’re saying, and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,’ Trump said last month.

From the Reagan administration through the present, the Heritage Foundation has published its Mandate for Leadership series almost every election cycle.

However, project leaders, including former Attorney General Edwin Meese III, who is now considered the preeminent ‘elder statesman’ of the conservative movement, contend there is nothing radical about the endeavor.

In an interview on Wednesday, Meese said the major difference between 1980 and 2024 is that the mechanics of the project have changed.

‘In the first one, in 1981, it was much more organizational, with information on structure and organizational norms, where – later on in 1989 – it was much more individual policy issues-based,’ he said. 

After then-President-elect Reagan named Meese director of his transition team, Meese recalled being invited to a dinner with members of the Heritage Foundation and other conservatives and being offered early proofs of the 1981 Mandate for Leadership itself.

Charles Heatherly, who worked on the first project during the 1980 cycle, said on Thursday that the Carter crew had been approached to discuss the initiative – appearing to debunk present-day claims the projects have been one-sided partisan affairs.

‘Both the Reagan campaign and the Carter campaign were invited to send a representative to that dinner. The Carter campaign never responded,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Meese said the 1981 project had been ‘particularly helpful’ in the Reagan years, because nothing of the sort had been done in a long time.

‘Years ago, there had been a coalition, I think, during the Johnson administration. That was quite some time before 1980. And, so it was really time [for this project]. . . .’

‘It was a really great effort [Heritage] made. They recruited authors who knew the [policy] topics because they had actually worked in those departments or in other [areas], which gave them the opportunity for knowledge about how the rest of the government worked.’

‘And each department or agency had a chapter in the book. It was about 500 some-odd pages, I remember. And so I was very much impressed with what had happened.’

Meese recalled telling Reagan about the new project and said the California Republican had been immediately eager to view the final product.

‘Reagan was so impressed that he had a meeting of his cabinet before the inauguration. And he put a copy of the book at every person’s desk.’

The meeting was held in the State Department’s conference center, and each secretary was told to ‘find your chapter,’ Meese said.

From that point on, what had started as a meeting of conservative experts began to have a positive effect on the efficiency and policymaking within the new conservative White House.

One excerpt reported by UPI recommended against affirmative action, in that the new 1981 administration should ‘base its civil rights policy on the notion that every person has an inherent right to obtain whatever economic or other rewards he or she has earned, by virtue of merit, and that it is inherently wrong to penalize those who have earned their reward by giving preferential treatment and benefits to those who have not.’

As for how the Reagan administration utilized the first project’s work, Heatherly said the then-president’s political appointees were a ‘mixed bag,’ which led to differences in consideration.

‘Some agencies took it more seriously than others,’ he said.

Heatherly also pointed to his recent Wall Street Journal column defending the project then and now:

He said he had recruited 20 teams of experts from previous White Houses, academic institutions and within then-fledgling Heritage itself. 

The 1980 cycle’s book project went on to make the Washington Post’s bestseller list for three weeks, he added.

Steve Groves served as an assistant special counsel in the Trump administration while the president was being probed by former FBI Director Bob Mueller.

He is also the co-editor of this term’s Mandate for Leadership – the policy book portion of Project 2025.

Groves pushed back on the idea that Project 2025 or its book were intentionally geared toward Trump. 

‘It’s just a lot of sloppy journalism,’ he said. ‘Most [journalists] don’t chase the facts to get them right.’

Groves said after Biden politically collapsed in the June debate, mentions of Project 2025 in the media ‘spiked through the roof.’

He said it was evidence that the media-liberal-political coalition needed a new narrative, which was to make the Mandate for Leadership into an ‘insane document.’ Groves said that many of the allegations, such as demands for the next president to outlaw abortion and end birthright citizenship, were entirely false.

‘They just wanted to change the subject,’ he said.

‘[The idea] it’s Trump’s project is a lie,’ Groves added, pointing to the fact the anthology came out in 2023 and had been crafted in 2022 when the presidential election was anyone’s game.

Groves and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts echoed each other’s sentiments in that regard, as Groves noted that many of the chapters in this year’s work do not present a singular ideological viewpoint.

Regarding trade policy in particular, conservatives hold divergent views that both fall under the proverbial ‘big tent’ on the right.

As Groves noted, Trump ally Peter Navarro – who would be considered a ‘fair trade’ proponent – and the CEO of the pro-‘free-trade’ Competitive Enterprise Institute, Kent Lassman, co-authored that chapter. 

Groves said Lassman’s purview more closely aligns with Heritage’s longstanding platform – but that Navarro’s inclusion further deconstructs allegations the project is a pro-Trump, far-right piece of propaganda.

For his part, Roberts suggested that situations like the above are what sets Heritage and Project 2025 apart from actual partisan policymaking endeavors.

In the 2024 cycle, he said, Heritage offered Project 2025 materials to every candidate or prospective candidate in the 2022-2023 timeframe, including Biden, Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

‘President Biden did not respond, but if he responded, I would have personally gone over to the White House very happily, not sarcastically, and offered him a briefing,’ Roberts said.

‘On the origins of the mandate, it’s always been the case that we offer it to any presidential candidate who is interested in a briefing. I mean, we offer congressional briefings to Democrats. Of course, here in Washington, fewer and fewer over the years have taken us up on that. But maybe one day we can see that happen again.’

Roberts said that another misconception is that Heritage has issued the same type of ‘project’ every election cycle. In two ways, he said, that claim is flawed.

One, in elections like 2004, there was no reason to completely rewrite the manual for conservatism for either George W. Bush or then-Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., because a Bush re-election would have represented policy continuity.

Spencer Chretien, a Project 2025 associate director, said at the project’s inception that conservatism has also changed in the time since the 1980 election. Conservatives used to oppose things like the 1975 ‘Church Committee’ – a congressional panel led by then-Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, examining the inner workings and ‘abuses’ of the intelligence community. 

Church’s committee might now be welcomed by conservatives, who have grown weary of the left’s embrace of the ‘government’s vast power.’ No longer do many conservatives see the Church Committee as a ‘kooky leftist attack’ against brave public servants, as they now themselves seek accountability for the actions of unelected bureaucrats there, he said.

Project 2025 is in other ways more like the original 1980-81 iteration, Roberts argued, in that it represents a consortium of sometimes-conflicting viewpoints that all fall within the conservative realm rather than a singular Heritage-viewpoint-based policy document.

Roberts also spoke to right-wing concerns about the project, including the high-profile condemnation from Trump – as many of the authors of Project 2025, like Navarro, were former administration officials, while others like Lassman were not.

‘This speaks to the heart of the project,’ Roberts said. ‘The project is really candidate-agnostic – so it’s been interesting to see commentary ranging from ‘This is specific to Trump’ to ‘It’s not specific to Trump enough.’

‘That actually underscores the point about how serious we are about it being candidate-agnostic. It’s important, obviously, given our IRS designation, but more importantly, our own ethics of the thing as it relates to Mr. Trump’s distancing of his campaign from it. That’s totally understandable.’

Roberts noted how the media have turned Project 2025 into a ‘boogeyman.’ When Americans of all stripes are told exactly what is in the project, they’re more amenable to it than any critic claims they should be.

The Heritage leader also dispelled rumors that the July departure of co-editor Paul Dans had anything to do with Trump’s comments or the media’s condemnations. Dans’ work had ended, and he had moved on to other projects, Roberts said.

He also added that, just like when Heritage presented the first project to Meese and Reagan, there remains no presumption that a candidate – conservative or not – will implement it.

‘It’s the kind of work that Heritage does all the time. Our honest response about Trump’s reaction to it: We’re gratified to see that it looks like a lot of that has calmed down,’ he said.

‘We want to wake up in a normal country. We want to wake up in a country where the American dream is alive. That’s what this project is about.’

Venezuelan authorities on Monday sought an arrest warrant for the opposition’s former presidential candidate Edmundo González, just over a month after election officials declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner of the disputed election that his opponents say he lost.

The prosecutor seeking the warrant in its request to a judge focused on terrorism-related crimes cites various charges against González, a former diplomat, including conspiracy, falsifying documents and usurpation of powers.

Ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared Maduro the victor of the July 28 presidential elections hours after polls closed. They did not show any detailed results to back up their claim as they had offered in previous presidential elections. The lack of transparency has drawn international condemnation.

The opposition, however, managed to obtain more than 80% of vote tally sheets, which are printed by every electronic voting machine, and said they show Maduro lost by a wide margin against González.

Polling is a useful tool in politics, if somewhat blunt and slow, and this weekend Democrats were taking no small comfort in an ABC/Ipsos survey showing Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump by 4 points nationally.

But the important thing about this poll is not the margin. After all, Rasmussen has Trump up by 2 points. Nobody knows which is right. What’s important is that on Aug. 13, this same ABC poll also showed Harris up 4. Put another way, Harris’ momentum isn’t just gone, it’s been gone for a while.

I first clearly felt the air escaping the Harris balloon a little more than a fortnight ago, in San Francisco of all places, where one would think she’d be viewed as a hometown hero. But already, from almost everyone I met, there were creeping questions as to what she stands for, what she would do as president.

We have all seen the viral videos, even from the Democratic National Convention, of delegates asked what their favorite Harris policy is, only to stare off into the distance, looking for an answer that isn’t there as if they had been asked to conjugate some word in ancient Greek. 

I have now seen this expression more times than I can count, in red states, in blue states, in suburb, city and small town, even many of those committed to vote for the vice president admit it is kind of like buying a political scratch-off ticket. They aren’t sure what they are going to win.

Now, make no mistake, from the time that Nancy Pelosi shoved President Joe Biden, face first, off of the stage until just before the Democrats gathered in Chicago, the momentum was there, the vibes were real, and Harris’ numbers were going up.

I felt that distinctly, and palpably in the Democrats I spoke to, who had felt a kind of doom and gloom surrounding Grandpa Joe, but vibes are funny things and they tend to run out of steam. In fact, just after Trump survived his assassination attempt, it was Republicans who were convinced that the image of a bloodied and defiant Trump had already won them the election.

But not so fast.

So why did the wheels fall off of Harris’ vibe bus just as the joyride was getting started? There are a few missteps to point to, including her obstinate and bizarre refusal to answer questions or do interviews. 

This is where the slow nature of polling becomes a problem. For two weeks, I were told by the liberal media that Harris didn’t need to do any interviews. She was surging, they promised. But she wasn’t. 

And in that period, almost without fail, every voter I talked to said she needed to start answering questions. Today, it sure looks like the sponge bath she and Gov. Tim Walz received on CNN last week is too little, too late.

The bigger, related problem for Harris is that she simply does not have political chops. A candidate with political chops can do three interviews a day without breaking a sweat, they thrive on the unscripted moment that can be turned to their advantage.

Harris has none of these abilities, and she didn’t have to. Nobody without political chops and top notch instincts can win a competitive presidential primary, because they lose to better candidates, but Harris never had to face any other candidates and that lack of battle testing is showing its ugly head.

As the first orange leaves flutter groundward this week, we find ourselves where we were before Joe Biden’s inability to serve was spelled out in giant neon. This race is a toss up, the electorate is as divided as ever, and we are basically going into the fourth quarter all tied up.

For Donald Trump and JD Vance who have now blunted the short-lived Harris surge, this means more of the same, staying in the public eye as much as possible. You wouldn’t be surprised to see either of them with giant scissors at the grand opening of a Dairy Queen.

Harris and Walz, on the other hand, need a Second Act. Kamala describing how she makes collard greens and Tim eating pork chops on a stick at the state fair isn’t going to cut it. The American voters have questions, a lot of them, but do these untested Democratic candidates have any answers? We will soon find out.

The United States seized a plane owned by Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in the Dominican Republic, Fox News has confirmed. 

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) flew Maduro’s personal plane back to the United States Monday morning, when it landed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and is now in U.S. custody, a U.S. official told Fox News following an initial report by CNN.

The plane, described by officials as Maduro’s version of ‘Air Force One,’ is used for Maduro’s state visits around the world and was seized in the Dominican Republic after it was purchased through a straw company in violation of sanctions laws and export controls, the official said. U.S. authorities cited a specific violation of U.S. executive order 13884, signed by former President Donald Trump in 2019. 

The plane, valued at $13 million, is a Dassault Falcon 900-EX. The seizure was a result of a joint investigation with HSI and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

‘This morning, the Justice Department seized an aircraft we allege was illegally purchased for $13 million through a shell company and smuggled out of the United States for use by Nicolás Maduro and his cronies,’ U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. ‘The Department will continue to pursue those who violate our sanctions and export controls to prevent them from using American resources to undermine the national security of the United States.’

‘Let this seizure send a clear message: aircraft illegally acquired from the United States for the benefit of sanctioned Venezuelan officials cannot just fly off into the sunset,’ Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod, of the Department of Commerce, added.  ‘It doesn’t matter how fancy the private jet or how powerful the officials – we will work relentlessly with our partners here and across the globe to identify and return any aircraft illegally smuggled outside of the United States.’

The seizure is expected to further frost relations between the U.S. and Venezuela.

In August 2019, Trump issued Executive Order 13884, which prohibits U.S. persons from engaging in transactions with persons who have acted or purported to act directly or indirectly for or on behalf of, the government of Venezuela, including as a member of the Maduro regime. To protect U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, the Department of Commerce has also imposed export controls for items intended, entirely or in part, for a Venezuelan military or military-intelligence end user, the Justice Department said Monday. 

In late 2022 and early 2023, persons affiliated with Maduro allegedly used a Caribbean-based shell company to conceal their involvement in the illegal purchase of the Dassault Falcon 900EX aircraft, which at the time was valued at approximately $13 million, from a company based in the Southern District of Florida, according to U.S. investigators.

Federal investigators say the aircraft was then illegally exported from the United States to Venezuela through the Caribbean in April 2023. Since May 2023, the Dassault Falcon, bearing tail number T7-ESPRT, ‘has flown almost exclusively to and from a military base in Venezuela and has been used for the benefit of Maduro and his representatives, including to transport Maduro on visits to other countries,’ the DOJ said. 

The Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security Miami Field Office is investigating the case, along with the DHS, HSI El Dorado Task Force Miami. 

Fox News’ David Spunt contributed to this report.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog eulogized Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin on Monday, apologizing ‘on behalf of the state of Israel’ after Hamas murdered six captives over the weekend.

‘Beloved Hersh, with a torn and broken heart, I stand here today as the President of the State of Israel, bidding you farewell and asking for your forgiveness, from you, and from Carmel, from Eden, from Almog, from Alex, and Ori, and from all your loved ones,’ Herzog said from the lecturn at Golberg-Polin’s funeral in Jerusalem. 

‘I apologize on behalf of the State of Israel, that we failed to protect you in the terrible disaster of October 7, that we failed to bring you home safely,’ Herzog continued. ‘I apologize that the country you immigrated to at the age of 7, wrapped in the Israeli flag, could not keep you safe. Rachel, Jon, dear Libby, and Orly, grandparents, and the whole family – I ask for your forgiveness, forgiveness that we could not bring Hersh back home alive. Your special light, Hersh, captivated all of us from the first glance, even through the posters crying out for his return.’ 

‘Most of us did not have the privilege of knowing you in life, but you have been so alive in us for eleven months now; together with many other brothers and sisters, held captive by cursed, monstrous murderers – since Simchat Torah – which turned into the day of our disaster,’ he said. ‘Know this: We are witnesses, and we will never forget. There is no door in the world on which your beloved family did not knock for you, for your rescue and well-being. There is no stone they left unturned, no prayer or plea they did not cry out – from one end of the world to the other – in the ears of God and man.’

Herzog told mourners that the state of Israel ‘has an urgent and immediate task.’ 

‘Decision-makers must do everything possible, with determination and courage, to save those who can still be saved, and to bring back all our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters,’ he said. ‘This is not a political goal, and it must not become a political dispute. It is a supreme moral, Jewish, and human duty of the State of Israel to its citizens.

‘We did not fulfill this duty. And now – we have a sacred and shared obligation, to stand up and bring them all back to their homeland. For the spirit, resilience, and unity of Israel,’ Herzog added. ‘Of course, we do not forget for a moment our obligation to hold accountable the despicable murderers who butchered you, Hersh, your friends, our sisters, and our brothers. Here too, the mission is clear and binding: To continue fighting relentlessly against the murderous terrorist organization Hamas, which has once again proven that there is no end to its savagery and the crimes against humanity it is willing to commit.’ 

Thousands attended the funeral Monday for Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old native of Berkeley, California, according to The Associated Press. He was one of the most well-known hostages, and his parents had led a high-profile campaign for the captives’ release, meeting with President Biden and Pope Francis and addressing the Democratic National Convention last month.

Biden, who had been on vacation for two consecutive weeks, arrived back at the White House from Rehoboth Beach, Delware, on Monday morning. He and Vice President Kamala Harris convened in the Situation Room with a hostage deal negotiating team following the murder of Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages by Hamas on Saturday. 

Goldberg-Polin, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, was seized at a music festival in southern Israel during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. Israeli forces recovered his body in the tunnels under Rafah, along with Israelis Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Master Sergeant Ori Danino. Hamas terrorists murdered the six hostages as Israeli forces closed in during a rescue mission in Gaza, according to the Israeli military.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant on Sunday, to pass ‘along his deepest condolences to the families of all of the slain hostages, and he expressed outrage at their vicious, illegal, and immoral execution at the hands of Hamas,’ the U.S. Defense Department said in a statement. ‘The Secretary affirmed that Hamas leaders must be held accountable for their crimes. And Secretary Austin and Minister Gallant reaffirmed their mutual commitment to swiftly reaching a ceasefire deal to secure the release of all of the hostages.’ 

Hamas still holds 101 hostages, including seven Americans, following the Oct. 7 attacks. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The 2024 Election season is reaching its crescendo.

Labor Day traditionally marks the final stretch ahead of a presidential election, and there are just nine weeks of campaigning left until Election Day on Nov. 5.

In a slew of states, however, the election actually gets underway this month. In swing state North Carolina, mail-in voting begins on Sept. 6. Early voting begins on Sept. 16 in Pennsylvania and Sept. 26 in Michigan, two other crucial electoral battlegrounds.

With the clock ticking, former President Donald Trump says he has the momentum.

‘We’re leading in the polls now,’ the former president said in an interview Friday with Fox News’ Bryan Llenas.

Minutes later, at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Trump touted that ‘our poll numbers are starting to skyrocket.’

Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is urging her supporters to ‘not pay too much attention to the polls because we are running as the underdog.’

Harris, at a rally in Savannah, Georgia, late last week, pointed to her showdown with Trump and said, ‘We have some hard work ahead of us.’

Most of the latest national surveys show Harris with a slight single-digit edge over Trump, but the presidential election is not a national popular vote contest. It is a battle for the individual states and their electoral votes.

The latest surveys in the seven battleground states that decided the 2020 election between Trump and President Biden – and will likely determine the outcome of the 2024 showdown – indicate a margin-of-error race. Among those polls are a batch from Fox News that made headlines last week.

It is a big change from earlier this summer when Biden was still running.

Biden’s disastrous performance against Trump in their late June debate turned up the volume of existing doubts from Americans that the 81-year-old president would have the physical and mental stamina to handle another four years in the White House. It also sparked a rising chorus of calls from top Democratic Party allies and elected officials for Biden to drop out of the race.

National and battleground state polls conducted in July indicated Trump had opened up a small but significant lead over Biden.

The president dropped his re-election bid on July 21 and endorsed his vice president, and Democrats immediately coalesced around Harris, who quickly enjoyed a boost in her poll numbers and in fundraising.

Still, pollsters and political analysts stress that the Harris-Trump contest remains a coin-flip at this point.

While the former president touts his standing in the polls, his team emphasizes they like the current poll position, as they point out that the former president has a history of outperforming public opinion surveys.

‘At this point in the race in 2016, Donald Trump was down to Hillary Clinton by an average of 5.9 points. At this point in the race in 2020, it was 6.9 to Joe Biden,’ senior adviser Corey Lewandowski noted this weekend in an interview on ‘Fox News Sunday.’

Meanwhile, Harris predicts that ‘this is going to be a tight race until the very end.’ 

President Biden claimed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not doing enough to secure a hostage deal with Hamas terrorists.

Biden made the remarks to reporters before heading into the Situation Room, where he and Vice President Harris are convening with a hostage deal negotiating team following the murder of 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin and five other hostages by Hamas on Saturday. 

On the South Lawn of the White House, where Biden disembarked from Marine One upon returning from his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, one reporter asked, ‘Mr. President, do you think it’s time for Prime Minister Netanyahu to do more on this issue? Do you think he is doing enough?

‘No,’ the president responded flatly. 

Asked what makes him think this deal will be successful in a way that the other proposals were not, Biden said, ‘Hope springs eternal.’ The president said ‘we’re very close’ to being able to present a final hostage deal. He told reporters he was headed into a national security meeting and would be going to Pittsburg later in the day. 

‘Yes. I have spoken to the American hostage … I spoke to his mom and dad, and we are not giving up. We are going to continue to push as hard as we can. Thank you,’ Biden said. 

Earlier Monday, Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of an Israeli-American hostage still being held by Hamas, pleaded for the U.S. and Israel to broker a deal ‘with Satan.’ 

Dekel-Chen, appearing on ‘Fox & Friends,’ acknowledged that the United States together with Qatar and Egypt are trying to broker an agreement between Israel and ‘a savage terrorist organization,’ but insisted that Israeli intelligence shows Hamas’ forces are depleted at this stage. 

He said Netanyahu cannot offer ‘an excuse anymore to not complete this deal’ to bring the remaining 101 hostages, including seven Americans, taken into Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, home. 

Israel saw a massive labor strike on Monday after demonstrators took to the streets in droves Sunday protesting Israel’s leadership’s failure to reach an agreement to release the hostages 11 months into the war.