"We can do this the easy way. Or we can do this the hard
way." -- FCC Chair and Project 2025 author Brendan Carr
Fun fact: Before he was named FCC chair, Brendan Carr was one of the authors of Project 2025, the Trump 2.0 blueprint his majesty said
he knew nothing about.
Specifically, Carr wrote the plan for overhauling the FCC, so I figured I'd take a look at how much of the plan he has actually implemented.
The chart above shows
the "completion rates" for Project 2025 to date, according to a website -- Project 2025 Tracker -- I've become obsessed with. That is, when I'm not
obsessing about my bad case of "Trump Derangement Syndrome," of course.
Anyone who is interested in the future of American democracy should become obsessed with it too, because just a little
over 15% into Trump's second term, it is nearly half completed.
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And no, this is not a set-up for a John Wanamaker line, because thanks to Project 2025 Tracker, we know explicitly which half.
You can go there and see which departments have already fulfilled most, if not all of their Project 2025 objectives, but I singled out the Department of Justice above, because it is the one that has
been most tangibly weaponized against American democracy so far.
The project's objectives for the DOJ are nearly two-thirds completed, and I for one can't wait to see what happens with the
next third.
But today's post is about Carr's relationship to the blueprint and his role in the FCC. Remarkably, he has only achieved 17% of his mission.
But if his "we can do it the
easy way, or we can do it the hard way" assault on the First Amendment this week is any indication, it's not going to be all that warm and fuzzy.
Or as long-time late-night talk show host
David Letterman quipped during this week's The Atlantic Festival, "Who is hiring these goons? Mario Puzo? The FCC: we're not happy until you're not happy, for God's sakes.”
For
those not familiar with the Puzo reference, he wrote "The Godfather," not the section about the FCC in Project 2025.
In fairness, my sense of Project 2025 is that it's more of a playbook than an
explicit roadmap -- at least in the Silicon Valley or Madison Avenue sense of that word -- and that the administration -- meaning Trump -- adjusts it based on what's on the field at the moment, and
more specifically, how he can simultaneously advance his yardage in terms of seizing power, and exact revenge on his enemies.
Given the timing of the post-Charlie Kirk assassination rallying
cry, I think Trump simply saw it as an opportunity to get a two-for -- make that a three-for, since it also successfully turned the media cycle away from Epstein, which may be his main objective in
everything he does lately.
So who knows what the actual trajectory is for Carr's FCC Project 2025 objectives, but one thing is clear. He's already doubling down, spiking balls in the end zone,
and already seeking to gain yardage for the next play. Which, according to reports, means going after ABC's "The View" daytime talkshow, because of the "public interest."
Wired dropped a great piece today pointing out that Carr isn't going to stop unless someone
makes him stop, although it doesn't explicitly state who that might be. Certainly not the White House, nor the legislature. That means someone is going to have to take legal action, or more likely, a
series of legal actions. Maybe Jimmy Kimmel will file suit. Or given Trump's hit list, a late-night host class-action suit.
Honestly, I have no idea how Carr's FCC assault is going to play
out, but I do know he's locked and loaded and is going to accelerate things very quickly.
Now let's review where the FCC has actually manifested its Project 2025 objectives to date.
Three of them are explicitly stated:
Narrowing the scope of Section 230, the threat of which probably explains why the Big
Tech barons have been so obsequious in kissing Trump's, er, ring? Interestingly, the Project 2025 Tracker says that objective hasn't even begun yet.
Expedite low-earth satellite networks like Elon Musk’s Starlink. No comment, but that one already is well in progress and threatens to transform the allocation of
U.S. broadcast spectrum that will benefit some and hurt others. You can guess who.
- Stop companies feeding, training, improving AI datasets belonging to Chinese
companies. That objective also has not officially begun, but the question is, does it even matter given news this week about Trump's deal giving the most state-of-the-art AI chip technology -- the
kind we use for national defense -- to the UAE, allegedly in exchange for $1.5 billion in UAE funding for Trump's family crypto business?
I threw
the FEC (Federal Elections Commission) on the chart, because it is a baseline and has not completed any of its Project 2025 objectives yet, and because it's another executive brand regulatory agency
that has implications for the media industry, as well as democracy.