Good Thursday Morning! A look at the conservative’s Project 2025 and what both presidential candidates say about the controversial plan; Trouble for Biden as more democrats call for him to step aside.

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Good morning,

The Paris games have yet to start, but Team USA may have already broken a record: The most crystals on an Olympic leotard.

• The 10,000 hand-placed crystals on just one of the team’s uniforms weigh almost a pound!

  • The New York Times reports that the Americans have a reputation not only for their skills, but for their use of crystals.

• In total, each gymnast will have eight competitive leotards that include more than 47,000 crystals.

Shine bright like a diamond!

Mosheh, Jill, & Lauren

PS: Don’t forget to refer friends & family to subscribe to the Mo Newsletter… you could get free Mo News merch — DETAILS at the bottom of this newsletter!

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📌 WHAT IS PROJECT 2025?

With just months to go until the election, many of you have been writing in about the conservative political plan known Project 2025. The questions come as Democrats from President Biden (see above) on down are trying to make the campaign about some of the more extreme proposals inside the plan. Let’s dive in.

THE BASICS
Project 2025 is a 922-page proposal from the conservative research organization, the Heritage Foundation. It outlines wide-ranging, step-by-step plans and ideas for a second Trump administration. The far-right blueprint calls for, among other things, a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch.

• Project 2025 is composed of four pillars:

  • A policy guide for the next presidential administration;

  • A database of personnel who could serve in the next administration (think: MAGA LinkedIn);

  • Training for that pool of candidates;

  • And a playbook of policy actions to be taken within the first 180 days in office.

WHO’S BEHIND IT?
It is led by a couple former Trump administration officials, including former Trump director of White House personnel, John McEntee, as well as former White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, and former Housing secretary Ben Carson, among others. Yet it’s become so controversial that even Trump recently tried to distance himself from it.

WHAT’S IN IT?
It’s basically a wish list of conservative ideas and plan to implement them. Some of the ideas have been supported by Republicans for years. Others are pretty new. It is unclear which ones Trump thinks are “abysmal,” though he has discussed a number of the plans regarding immigration and government on the campaign trail. That said, here is what the plan includes:

• Schedule F: A key part of the plan could allow for the firing of as many as 50,000 federal employees, by executive order, and replace them with Trump loyalists. [That’s where the massive MAGA jobs database of names comes in.]

  • Trump already tried to do this in 2020, weeks before the election. But it came very late in his administration, and Biden rescinded the order months later.

    • The government is mainly run by non-political civil service employees. They work for Republican and Democratic presidents, and build up expertise over time to ensure government remains functional. Some conservatives believe they are liberal members of what they call the “deep state”— and undermine their goals. They want to convert as many roles as possible to political appointees.

    • If this is legal, and went into effect (a big if), instead of appointing about 4,000 roles upon taking office, Trump would be able to appoint tens of thousands of loyalists across government.

  • On the chopping block: The plan calls for the elimination of the Department of Education, the Department of Homeland Security (created after 9/11), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (created after the Great Recession to help protect consumers from fraud), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (including the National Weather Service, which Project 25 calls “the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.”) A reminder that it requires Congress to dissolve a federal department.

  • National Security: It calls for a “top to bottom overhaul” of the Justice Department, including curbing its independence. Internationally, it calls for limiting the US role in NATO.

  • On social issues, it seeks to reverse the FDA’s approval of abortion pills like mifepristone and a ban on pornography.

  • On immigration, the plan calls for mass deportations, the construction of a border wall, and limiting LEGAL immigration.

POLITICIANS WEIGH IN
Trump and his campaign have distanced themselves from Project 2025, and the group has followed suit saying it is “not affiliated with former President Trump.” The Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts has said this is merely a “menu” for a future Trump administration. The Biden campaign, however, is drawing attention to the ties between the groups.

• Axios reports that Trump is actually annoyed by Project 2025 and the attention it’s taken away from him and his policy plan: Agenda47.

  • At the RNC next week, Republicans will vote to officially confirm the party’s new platform, which aligns with Trump’s. That’s what GOP candidates will run on this election cycle.

• Biden and Democrats are calling BS: “He’s trying to hide his connections to his allies’ extreme Project 2025 agenda,” Biden’s campaign has said. “The only problem? It was written for him, by those closest to him. Project 2025 should scare every single American.”

📌 BIDEN LOSING SUPPORT OF MAJOR ALLIES

Is President Biden out of the woods yet? Just when it looked like he shook off the disastrous debate performance and calmed fears within his party, some more prominent Democratic voices pressed Biden to step aside yesterday.

WHO THEY ARE
One of the biggest names: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She stopped short of calling for Biden to drop out of the race, but made a point of appearing on MSNBC’s Morning Joe— Biden’s favorite morning show—where she said, “I want him to do whatever he decides to do … we're all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short.”

• The 84-year old former Speaker repeatedly urged the 81-year old president to make a decision about whether to stay in the presidential race, despite Biden releasing a letter one day earlier that he was dead set on running for reelection.

• As the NY Times wrote, “She telegraphed not panic but respect, in hopes of appealing to the Joe Biden who has taken a breath and stepped aside in the past — not the Joe Biden who is currently staring down his party, daring Democrats to try to force him away from an office he spent decades pursuing.”

But a growing number of elected Democrats are not mincing words and publicly calling on Biden to step aside.

• Two Senate Dems: Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) wrote an op-ed last night saying Biden “needs to reassess whether he is the best candidate to do [beat Trump]. In my view, he is not.”

  • Michael Bennet (D-CO) said Tuesday night that President Biden was likely to lose the election by a “landslide,” and urged him to consider dropping out.

• Nine House Dems: The number of House Democrats publicly urging Biden to pass the torch rose to nine... and counting.

  • Reminder, there are 213 Democrats in the House. 47 in the Senate. The majority are publicly standing by Biden or silent right now.

And then there’s the star power: Democratic donor and actor George Clooney is calling for Biden to drop out. Last month, he hosted a star-studded event for Biden that broke fundraising records.

• But yesterday, Clooney wrote in op-ed in the New York Times saying Biden needs to drop out because of his age (81) and “nothing more.”

  • He wrote, “It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe “big F-ing deal” Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

  • Plan B: Clooney argued Democrats should pick a new nominee at the convention in August, noting the process would be “messy” but “wake up voters who, long before the June debate, had already checked out.”

Up next: Biden will hold a rare news conference today at NATO, and has another prime-time interview booked for next Monday, this time with NBC’s Lester Holt. Democrats will be watching. So will we! 📺

⏳ SPEED READ

🚨NATION

📌 Dangerous heat threatens millions of Texans without power for days in largest outage in utility’s history (CNN)

📌 AOC files articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito (MO NEWS)

📌 Bipartisan Senate group pushes ban on lawmaker stock trading (NPR)

📌 Dartmouth student found dead in river prompts hazing probe (NBC NEWS)

🌎 AROUND THE WORLD

📌 NATO leaders jointly affirm ‘Ukraine’s future is in NATO’ and its path is ‘irreversible’ (CNN)

📌 NATO leaders call out China as “decisive enabler” of Russia (AP)

📌 Moscow court orders the arrest of Alexei Navalny's widow, who lives abroad (NPR)

📌 US sending Israel some larger bombs that were previously on hold (TIMES OF ISRAEL)

📌 Swimmer rescued 36 hours after being swept out to sea; Spent two nights in ocean (GUARDIAN)

📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH

📌 Costco hikes membership fee for the first time since 2017 (CNBC)

📌 Microsoft ditches OpenAI board observer seat amid regulatory scrutiny (CNN)

📌 BMW recalling more than 390,000 vehicles due to airbag inflator issue (ABC NEWS)

📌 Elon Musk plans new Neuralink brain chip, despite previous issues (NBC NEWS)

🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT

📌 Alec Baldwin broke ‘cardinal rules’ of gun safety in ‘Rust’ shooting, prosecutors say in opening of manslaughter trial (CNN)

📌 Olivia Munn and John Mulaney marry in intimate New York ceremony (PEOPLE)

📌 US men's national soccer coach Gregg Berhalter fired (NBC NEWS)

📌 Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner’s daughter speaks out against mask bans and reveals she had post-viral condition (TODAY)

 🗓 ON THIS DAY: JULY 11

• 1804: Then-Vice President Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel, which killed him the next day. Burr blamed Hamilton for his presidential and gubernatorial election losses. While not confirmed, it is believed that Hamilton fired his shot into the air, rather than at Burr, in protest.

• 1914: Babe Ruth, perhaps the greatest Yankee of all time, makes his MLB Debut, for the Boston Red Sox.

• 1960: Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is first published.

• 1995: Shaggy (real name Orville Burrell) releases his album, ‘Boombastic.’

Smart, actionable news trusted by 1M+ subscribers

Looking for a quick way to stay on top of the latest market news?

Meet The Daily Upside, a free daily newsletter offering sharp analysis on finance, economics, and investing news. Created by Wall Street insiders and bankers, this insightful newsletter delivers valuable insights that go beyond the headlines.

And the best part? It’s completely free. Join 1M+ readers and subscribe today.