J.D. Vance didn’t have the guts or the integrity to admit that he plans to help pass the fascist extremism known as Project 2025. But his remarks to Sean Hannity made it perfectly clear that’s the plan.

Donald Trump and pal Stephen Miller have been doing their best to pretend to know nothing and claim they have nothing to do with The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, a plan to implement extreme MAGA policies if Trump wins in November. And to do so more efficiently than Trump could in his first term. Or, to put it another way, it's Trumpism on steroids.

The attempt to distance themselves couldn’t be more disingenuous and cynical because, as Media Matters noted, “given that the Heritage plan has the backing of virtually the entire conservative movement and links to numerous former Trump officials and advisers, it appears all but inevitable that Trump and his allies will rely on the policies and personnel assembled by Project 2025 if he is reelected in November.”

I agreed with Dan Pfeiffer's theory yesterday that Vance was picked for the purpose of helping enact Project 2025. Last night during his lapdog interview with Sean Hannity, Vance revealed that's exactly what he intends to do.

First, Vance revealed that Trump demanded loyalty and that Vance promises to give it. (At least so long as he doesn’t think it’s in his interest to flip-flop again.) Here’s how Vance described what his (presumably) favorite p***y grabber said when bestowing the VP role.

VANCE: [Trump] just said, look, I’ve got to go to save this country. I think you’re the guy who can help me in the best way. You can help me govern, you can help me win. You can help me in some of the midwestern states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and so forth.

And he said, rightfully, that we have been very, very close for a long time but especially since I endorsed you in 2022. And I would not have run that race without Donald Trump’s endorsement and the president’s trust then and his partnership since then has been something I value a great deal.

In November, Stephen Miller revealed that mass deportations and concentration camps are part of Trump's second-term agenda. They do not appear to be specifically part of Project 2025’s draconian plan. But Project 2025’s immigration plans are radical and cruel, too. They include, as per Media Matters, “a massive increase in the authority of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations.”

Vance signaled he’s on board with the cruelty, disruption and allocation of resources:

VANCE: We have to deport people. We have to deport people who broke our laws, who came in here and I think we start with the violent criminals. President Trump has been very, very effective at communicating on this, to the point where the majority of Americans believe that we need to deport a large number of people who came here illegally. That’s a major political victory for him and I think it’s going to lead to a policy victory for the American people.

 FACT CHECK: Sadly, Vance is right about the growing support for deportations.

Vance also assured Fox News viewers he’s there to make a second Trump term even more MAGA-y - which almost certainly means Project 2025. And, while he’s at it, Vance hopes to purge insufficiently loyalist Republicans. I’m sure he’s thinking it will set him up to be the next authoritarian fascist president once the p***y grabber is gone.

Here’s Vance describing how he sees his role as vice president:

VANCE: Look, Sean, I think it’s very simple. Number one, you need to support the president in enacting the agenda. Whether it’s going and meeting with foreign leaders, whether it’s working with the Senate and the House to get legislation passed. The president can’t be everywhere. Even Donald Trump can’t be everywhere, so you’ve gotta be a person he can trust, he can rely on to actually advance the agenda. That’s the most important job.

Of course, if something, God forbid, happens, you’ve gotta be ready to step into that office. That’s one of the most important roles of the vice president, but I think Donald Trump is very healthy, gonna serve four very good years. But we’ve gotta have Republicans who are helping him with the agenda.

You remember this as well as anybody, Sean. As successful as he was politically, even after he was elected, certain Republicans didn’t want to actually enact the America First agenda. You’ve gotta have leaders in Washington who are supporting him, not fighting against him.

As I will keep saying, there’s only one way out of this looming hellhole and that is to vote for the Democratic candidate for president and, while you’re at it, vote for every other Democratic candidate up and down the ballot. I say this as a disaffected Democrat who left the party when they refused to filibuster Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court. We can work on changing the system, changing Democrats and everything else but if you love America, its democracy and its freedoms, there’s no other way but to specifically vote Democratic to keep these fascists out of office. A vote for any third party candidate is a de facto vote for Trump.

If you’re not already convinced, perhaps the interview with Vance below, from the July 15, 2024 Hannity, will do it.