Watch GLAAD’s Ominous New Project 2025 Ad, “The Purge”
GLAAD has released a second ad as part of its campaign warning voters about the dangers of Republicans' terrifying Project 2025 initiative.
GLAAD has dropped the second installment in its ongoing national ad campaign seeking to warn voters about Project 2025 and how it might be implemented under a Republican president.
Project 2025 is a presidential transition plan and guidebook for governing, crafted by right-wing interest groups, including The Heritage Foundation, that outlines policies a future Republican president should seek to undertake in their first six months in office.
The 920-page blueprint was developed by at least 140 former Trump administration officials and more than 100 conservative-leaning partner organizations.
Part of that blueprint includes firing tens of thousands of federal workers and replacing them with loyal political appointees who will use their positions to carry out the president’s policy wishes quickly and efficiently.
It is this aspect that GLAAD emphasizes in its latest ad, “The Purge.”
The commercial, set in February 2025, features a female government employee undergoing a job evaluation. Her new supervisor — presumably appointed by the Trump administration — remarks how the worker has been promoted twice and has an exceptional work record since being hired six years ago.
The supervisor then begins grilling the woman, whose smile fades and is replaced by bewilderment as she’s asked questions with the aim of “purging” those who do not ideologically align with the new administration’s views.
“Have you participated in diversity or DEI initiatives?” the supervisor barks. “Or any initiative that promotes gender ideology or deviates from the Biblically-based definition of a marriage?”
The background music takes on an ominous tone, the audio begins to fade out, and the supervisor continues questioning the employee in a manner reminiscent of the McCarthy hearings during the Red Scare: “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the following groups…?”
Project 2025 is particularly troubling as it calls for erasing transgender identity from all government regulations; banning drag and depictions of same-sex couples from books and media; barring transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming care, and making those same treatments more difficult for adults to obtain, both logistically and financially; and shaping federal policy in a way that prioritizes, and in some cases even incentivizes, families headed by married heterosexual parents over other families.
The blueprint calls for the elimination of any diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the workplace.
Mindful that some of Project 2025’s provisions are not widely popular, Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has claimed he does not know anything about it, despite having touted, in a campaign video, the idea that “as many as 100,000 government positions could be moved out” of Washington and relocated to more conservative areas of the country, with former employees being replaced by “patriots.”
Trump also previously praised the work of Heritage Foundation staff — who were in the midst of working on the Project 2025 blueprint — at a dinner hosted by the right-wing think tank in 2022.
Republicans and media outlets have sought to downplay the initiative, particularly following the decision by Project 2025’s director, Paul Dans, to step down. However, that does not mean others aren’t hoping to implement Project 2025’s recommendations should Trump win, with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts now leading the charge for such policies.
Even so-called “moderate” or “reasonable” Republicans, like Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, have endorsed the idea of mass firings of federal workers for insufficient loyalty or lack of ideological purity.
In recent comments seeking to tout the alleged economic success Virginia has enjoyed under his watch, Youngkin said that, should Virginia’s 140,000 civilian federal employees lose their jobs, there would be “fabulous opportunities for folks to find a new employer in Virginia,” as first reported by Virginia public radio station WVTF.
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance also has ties to Project 2025.
Vance — who previously wrote a blurb endorsing a book that labels progressives “unhumans” and calls for dismantling democracy — wrote a forward for a book penned by Roberts, who has employed incendiary, war-like rhetoric about conservatives mounting a “second American Revolution” that could either devolve into politically-motivated violence or could be “bloodless” if the Left surrenders.
Roberts’ book — in which he rails against contraception, in vitro fertilization, childless adults, and even dog parks — was set to be released this fall but has been conveniently delayed in the run-up to November’s election.
Referencing the supervisor’s line of questioning in the ad “The Purge,” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis warned that people shouldn’t be fooled into complacency by the dwindling media coverage of Project 2025.
“It is an assault on every American and would strip away the progress we have made for LGBTQ people, people of color, women, and other marginalized communities,” Ellis said in a statement. “The more Americans learn about this dangerous plan, the more they realize it must be stopped.”
Watch “The Purge” below:
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