Carla Sands Fall Update

Ready on Day One

Last week, we unveiled our America First Transition Project in front of a packed house of friends of the America First movement including more than 250 patriots that were on the Trump team in the last administration. With it, we move one step closer to a conservative administration (and hopefully, many, many more to come) that is prepared to govern long before inauguration day.

It was truly a full-circle moment for me. We began our transition preparedness planning efforts in 2021, a time when many questioned the staying power of the America First movement. But the incredible AFPI family—including you—never did. In 2022, we further elevated that work by creating and hiring a fully operational and specialized team.

Our work, revolutionary in the context of the conservative movement, was born out of acknowledging a harsh reality—and having lived that reality firsthand in the last Administration.

You see, one of the great successes of the progressive left across the past century has been its willingness to go beyond — and often against — the Constitution, establish new structures, and then leverage those new structures against those of us who wish to stay within Constitutional bounds.

As a movement, this puts us conservatives time and again in the position of reacting to those institutions — which we often fail to do, sometimes because we prefer to ignore them, sometimes because their missions are antithetical to our own, and sometimes because we simply do not understand them. 

This mechanism unfolds time and again, and always to the left’s advantage — and always well outside the vision of the American Founders and their understanding of civic equality and self-governance.

Left to its own devices, the great apparatus of the administrative state will subvert, undermine, and seek to end the lawful and Constitutional governance that is the American birthright. We cannot overstate this: their efforts are the end of America. We also must be clear, for anyone naive enough to believe that all this is a singular, specific, and discrete reaction to President Donald J. Trump: every conservative President, every conservative administration, and every conservative agenda may expect to face all of this and more, every time, for all time. They crossed their Rubicon, and there is no going back. 

This is why we have the America First Transition Project. 

We have it because in the last Administration, we learned how they do what they do — and we are meeting them, and beating them, on their own ground. If they repose in the permanence of their agenda, then we are going to dominate and direct their agenda. If they repose in the permanence of their personnel, then we are going to choose and validate their personnel.

We’ll do all this, and we’ll do it better because we have something they don’t: the truth, the American inheritance, and the endorsement of the American people. That armament is superior to any they may bring to bear — and we have no compunction in using it.

Alongside more than 400 volunteers, including nearly 50 (!!) former agency heads or deputies, we are developing the policies, doing the personnel planning, and documenting the best practices for how to get things done. Our team is developing “Action Plans” for 30 departments and agencies, drafting scores of executive actions, and advancing legislative planning.

To be clear, AFPI cannot be in this arena alone; the task at hand is too large for any organization or even two to handle on their own. We are thankful to our many partners who are assisting in laying the groundwork for January 20, 2025, and we welcome any who wishes to join this righteous fight to save America with open arms. The heart of our work is identifying “how” to drive policy, budget, and personnel changes for the next president. While others are focused on the “who” of personnel, we are focused on personnel planning — the “when,” “where,” “what,” and “why.”

Together, we will be ready on day one.

I want to extend a sincere thank you to all who joined us, both in-person and virtually, for your continued support in this fight for an America First nation — an America our Founding Fathers would be proud of.

Pictured above are some of the key patriots who have been working behind the scenes to launch this crucial project, including Doug Hoelscher, Mike Rigas, Chad Wolf, Hogan Gidley, and former Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt. Secretary Bernhardt is just one of the 9 former cabinet members we have at AFPI—truly the best of the best working to advance the America First Agenda.

If you missed the event, you can watch it here. Additionally, the America First Transition Project launch video can be found here.

We are the Administrative State’s Nightmare

Speaking of dismantling the administrative state and restoring America to its original vision, there may be no better expert in the country than our very own James Sherk, a former member of our White House Domestic Policy Council team, who is the brains behind the Schedule F executive order signed in the Trump Administration.

Schedule F enabled agencies to dismiss intransigent or poorly performing career employees from policy-influencing positions. In doing so, it allowed the president to hold key portions of the federal bureaucracy accountable and ensure that policy was made by the American people’s elected representatives.

Of course, Biden did away with Schedule F almost immediately upon taking officeproviding more power to faceless bureaucrats, expanding the ever-growing swamp. It’s a deliberate and calculated attempt to keep and misuse their power as they please, with no repercussions whatsoever.

A key part of our America First Transition Project is preparing the executive actions as well as legislation that will return power to those who are actually elected by the American people — and, therefore, can be held accountable.

And we have caught the attention of the Swamp. A recent CNN piece opens:

“The Biden administration is seeking to strengthen protections for federal workers as a host of Republican candidates, including frontrunner Donald Trump, make reducing and altering the federal workforce a key component of their campaigns. In a new proposed rule, the administration seeks to clarify civil service protections for federal workers and make it more difficult to reclassify them into a category where they could be stripped of certain protections.”

Only in Washington do people believe the bureaucracy needs to be held less accountable.

Fortunately, as James Sherk told the New York Times, “The Biden administration can, if they want, make removing intransigent or poorly performing senior bureaucrats harder on themselves. The next administration can just as easily rescind those restrictions. With regards to reissuing Schedule F, this proposed rule would be a speed bump, but nothing more.”

Rest assured; we will be ready to take on the Swamp head-on.

You can read more on Schedule F and its significance here.

Biden Border Crisis

Illegal immigrants are flooding the southern border every single day, with over 11,000 in a single day this week alone, according to CBP. You’ve seen the media coverage, which shows the ease at which these illegal aliens, many working-aged single males, are simply walking across the border with impunity.

It’s heartbreaking to see an American president, one who was elected to protect the people, have so little interest in the effects this massive influx of illegals is having at home. Worse, not only is the Biden Administration failing to adequately defend and secure the border, but they are fueling the crisis.

It is an embarrassment on the world stage — but more, it’s a dereliction of duty.

It must be noted that the border crisis is not a partisan issue, as every town is now a border town.

In fact, it has gotten so bad that even leaders of the country’s most liberal cities, including New York City Mayor Eric Adams, are calling for immediate action. The city is seeing over 10,000 migrants a month.

“Everyone will be impacted by this,” said Mayor Adams. “The city we knew — we’re about to lose.”

He’s right, of course, but he shouldn’t expect any help from the Biden Administration.

A discussion between Larry Kudlow, the Vice Chair of our Board, and former DHS Secretary and current AFPI Executive Director Chad Wolf on Friday, is linked here.

It is worth noting that it’s not just people from Central and Latin America enteringour homeland. There are now 170 nationalities being encountered at our border.

And scary enough, as Chad explains, it’s become quite clear that anyone who wants to come to America, whether that be with good intentions or malicious, knows that all they must do is show up at the southern border with nothing but their person. “It’s wide open,” he said. Easy as that.

Chad also joined America Reports on Fox where he stressed the urgency to change the policy along the border, noting that we must treat this as a national security issue.

Watch the clip here.

Fortunately, we have the solutions to protect and secure the border because we have the experts who have done so successfully before—and who will do so once again.

(And by the way, what a joy to see our own Larry and Chad—really all of AFPI—continue to lead the way on this top issue—truly the America First vision come to life.)

DEI on College Campuses

There is no question that American universities lean heavily towards the left and sadly, conservative students, along with many professors, have been almost entirely silenced in fear of being canceled, failed, and ostracized on campus and in the classroom. DEI — Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion — figures and programs are unfortunately very prevalent on college campuses, fervently trying to influence students to become warriors of extreme liberal ideologies after graduation. College is no longer a place for healthy debate, growth, or opinion. The left is taking advantage of these young, impressionable minds that are living in the last few of their formative years.

A frightening yet hopeful read by Jonathan Pidluzny, PH.D. last week dives into what it means to have these radical beliefs instilled in the classroom, the damage that’s been done so far, and what legislation has been proposed to rid universities of this incessant rot and decay.

I’ve linked Jonathan's research here.

Welcome to the team, Congressman Doug Collins!

This year, we took the America First Agenda across the Nation, achieving over 400 legislative wins in 21 states. To further advance our work in the states, we launched the first-of-its-kind America First Governors’ Council, and we will soon begin the first phase of our nationwide expansion with the launch of state chapters in California, Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

As such, we recently brought on former Congressman Doug Collins to Chair our Georgia state chapter. In addition to serving in the Georgia state house and in Congress, U.S. Air Force Reserve chaplain, Doug has ministered to our country's military since 2002.

We are blessed to have the best of the best at AFPI, and we are so grateful for Doug being willing to lean in once more for Georgia and for America.

ICYMI: A Few Select Pieces for More In-depth Weekend Reading! Enjoy!!

A Happy Saturday in Aggieland

The Aggies are officially back coming off our two recent wins against Arkansas and Auburn! Team Rollins was at Cowboys AT&T stadium yesterday to watch the Aggies take down the Razorbacks!

This weekend, Luke, my oldest and new member of the Aggie Corp of Cadets, and 22 of his fellow cadets arrived at our home in Fort Worth! I am so proud of Luke and his fellow cadets. These young men have chosen a much more challenging path for their college years in the name of protecting our great Nation.

As always, thank you for your love and support of AFPI and for your partnership as we continue to fight for America’s future. If you would like to keep up with me and our work at AFPI more regularly, be sure to follow me on Twitter (@BrookeLRollins) and on Instagram (@brookelrollins). Additionally, if there are issues you’d like to see covered in my newsletters, please reply here!

Have a wonderful weekend, and God bless America!!

My very best,

Brooke Rollins
Founder, President & CEO, AFPI
Former White House Domestic Policy Chief

This email was sent to [email protected]. Don't want to receive these emails anymore? Unsubscribe

America First Policy Institute, 1001 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Suite 530, Washington, DC 20004