“Today, America and the conservative movement are enduring an era of division  and danger akin to the late 1970s. Now, as then, our political class has been  discredited by wholesale dishonesty and corruption. Look at America under the  ruling and cultural elite today … Contemporary elites have even repurposed the  worst ingredients of 1970s “radical chic” to build the totalitarian cult known  today as “The Great Awokening….” 

— (pg. 1, A Promise to America, Kevin Roberts, Project 2025) 

Project 2025’s architects take a dim view of elites. They include left elites, cultural elites, ruling elites, global elites -- the word is used as a catch-all box in which to label someone or a group as an enemy of the common man or woman. There are 37  references to supposed enemy “elites” in Project 2025. They include people who attend elite academic institutions. In fact, Project 2025 calls for getting rid of “left” professors, and purging the universities of intellectuals – also an enemy of the people. That’s richly ironic, considering how many Project 2025 authors benefited from the very education they deem so dangerous to America. 

We took a quick look at the educational bona fides of 47 of Project 2025’s authors to spotlight this glaring hypocrisy. A majority attended top-ranked Ivy League private universities and law schools, as well as others ranked among the best and most expensive, and also universities in England and France, and several top Catholic universities. 

They include Project 2025 bigwigs, including Paul Dans, (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Christopher Miller (George Washington University), and Stephen Miller (Duke) and Max Primorac (U of Chicago). MIT is ranked number three among top US universities; Harvard is in position two; Columbia is five, Yale is six; U of Chicago is eight. 

Just sayin. 

While attacking so-called elites, Project 2025 contributors also attended some of the most expensive US universities, based on current rankings by total cost. They include University of Chicago (No. 2), Columbia University (3), University of Pennsylvania (4), Yale (7), Georgetown (12), and others.

What’s also notable are those who attended George Mason University, a top Catholic private school that is affiliated with the Catholic branch Opus Dei. Among dark money contributors to Project 2025 is kingmaker Leonard Leo, who’s also tied to Opus Dei. Leo has funneled millions in dark money since 2022 into Project 2025’s conservative Advisory Groups and is also a major benefactor of GMU’s law school. (See our Special Report, “Follow The Dark Money” and related maps on the links of Project 2025 leaders, groups, and institutions to Leo – and Opus Dei). For his part, Leo graduated from Cornell Law School – now ranked no. 12 among top US universities.

Meanwhile, Kevin D. Roberts, who heads the Heritage Foundation and is helming Project 2025, did not attend an Ivy League school, but snagged a Master’s Degree from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. An MS degree spells elite in Project 2025’s world. Roberts has put his time and money into religious education. He started a K-12 school, Paul the Great Academy, then became President of Wyoming Catholic College. Both are also Opus Dei-affiliated, as is Roberts (see maps with Leo stories). He retains close ties to other members of Project 2025, some openly identified as Opus Dei members.  

The deep hypocrisy also extends to Project 2025’s attacks on public education, which include a call for eliminating the Department of Public education, redirecting federal dollars to private Christian charter schools, and refocusing the education of America’s youth toward trade schools, versus universities. Yet the bulk of its authors did not choose the non-university route, and are proud of their academic degrees.

In his introduction to the conservative blueprint to remake America, Roberts wrote: “Today, nearly every top-tier U.S. university president or Wall Street hedge fund manager has more in common with a socialist, European head of state than with the parents at a high school football game in Waco, Texas. Many elites’ entire identity, it seems, is wrapped up in their sense of superiority over those people.”

Clearly, Roberts forgot to look at the CVs of his vaunted team. We might even say to him and them: thou doth protest too much.

HAVE A LOOK…

Project 2025’s Elite University Grads

Ivy League:

• Jonathan Berry - Columbia U and Yale 

• Adam Candeub - Yale and U Penn 

• Ben Carson - Yale and U Michigan 

• Peter Navarro - Harvard 

• Michael Pack - Yale 

Foreign elite private schools:

• Diana Furchtgott-Roth - Oxford 

• Mora Namdar - Oxford  

• Veronique de Regy - Sorbonne, Paris 

• Paul Winfree - London School of Economics 

Other private elite schools:

• Paul Dans - MIT 

• Christopher Miller - George Washington U 

• Stephen Groves - Georgetown 

• Stephen Miller - Duke 

• Jennifer Hazelton - Emory 

• Max Primorac - U of Chicago 

• Roger Severino - Carnegie Mellon 

Catholic (including Opus Dei-linked*):

• Kevin D. Roberts - President, Wyoming Catholic College 

• Ken Cucinelli - George Mason U* 

• Stephen Moore - George Mason U* 

• Paul Winfree - George Mason U* 

• John Ratcliffe - Notre Dame U* 

• Kent Lassman - Catholic U 

• Brendan Carr - Catholic U 

• Lisa Correnti - Loyola Marymount 

Author : Anne-christine d’Adesky 

Research : Ann Cummins