AUBURN — Watching political foes caterwauling about the Project 2025 report by The Heritage Foundation that lays out a proposed agenda for a Republican president, state Sen. Eric Brakey opted to fight back with humor.
The Auburn Republican, who is attending his party’s national convention in Milwaukee, said Monday that “a lot of the fearmongering I saw going around on social media resembled the plots of cartoon villains from my childhood.”
Brakey figured he’d outline “the actual plots of cartoon villains” that would fit well “and make the point that people are going a little overboard” in their criticism of the report prepared by many former officials in Donald Trump’s White House.
For example, he leaned on the plot of “The Lord of the Rings” when he posted on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that “Project 25 includes a plan to forge several rings of power and gift them to the leaders of the foreign nations, but to also craft, in secret, one ring to rule them all for Donald Trump.”
Brakey also “confirmed” that Project 2025 “includes a plan to harness the black material to summon a giant meteor to smash into the world, gathering all the planet’s life force in one place so the child of an alien being called Jenova can harness it to transform into a one-winged angel deity.”
For that, he dipped into a more obscure source. Jenova, “calamity from the skies,” is an extraterrestrial life-form in the Final Fantasy VII series.
Not everyone sees the humor in the report. The Maine Democratic Party has urged voters to look at the report to see what’s in store if Trump wins.
It said that “Trump’s top aides and allies are working on an extreme agenda for his second term that includes raising costs for middle-class Mainers, cutting Social Security, eliminating affordable healthcare, and banning abortion nationwide.”
The actual Project 2025 report, which has come under sharp criticism, calls in its 900 pages, for giving the president more powers, firing thousands of civil servants, banning pornography, wiping out the Department of Education, deporting millions of immigrants who have not been given permission to remain in the country and much more.
It doesn’t mention anything about “one ring to rule them all” or Jenova.
Brakey, though, didn’t stop there. Taking a tour through pop culture that touched on everything from “The Lion King” to “Star Wars.”
He recounted many more make-believe schemes from Project 2025.
Among them:
“Project 2025 includes a plan to gather the Infinity Stones together to blink left-wing America out of existence.”
“Project 2025 includes a plan to frame Roger Rabbit.”
“Project 2025 includes a plan to infect people with mind flayer parasites to establish psychic control over the world and make everyone worship Donald Trump as ‘The Absolute.’”
“Project 2025 includes a plan for the Fire Nation to establish a global world empire and eliminate the last air bender, ending the Avatar cycle for all eternity.”
“Project 2025 includes a plan to kidnap Princess Peach and keep her locked away in some other castle.”
“Project 2025 includes a plan to invade the Middle East country of Agrabah to secure a magic lamp that will grant Donald Trump three wishes.”
“Project 2025 includes a plan to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula.”
“Project 2025 includes a plan to kill Mufasa, frame Simba, and make Scar the new king of the Pride Lands.”
“Project 2025 includes a plan to round up the Smurfs and hand them over to Gargamel — so he can extract their Smurf essence and become the most powerful sorcerer in America.”
“Project 2025 seeks to freeze Han Solo in carbonate and turn him over to the Sith.”
Brakey, who is not seeking reelection, plans to move to New Hampshire after his term ends. He unsuccessfully ran in 2018 as the Republican challenger to U.S. Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent, and lost a GOP congressional primary in 2020.
Trump has distanced himself from the actual Project 2025 report.
He wrote on Truth Social that he disagrees “with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”
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