Mora Namdar is an attorney who served as assistant secretary of state for Consular Affairs and as a highly placed lawyer in the United States Agency for Global Media during the Trump administration. The United States Agency for Global Media oversees the better-known Voice of America media outlet. Her State Department bio says that she “is a native Texan who is the child of Iranian immigrants and speaks fluent Farsi.” The Texas bar association lists her as Morvared ‘Mora Namdar’ Namdarkhan.
Namdar’s time in public service was not without controversy. As an article in Politico describes it, she was among the “top officials at the…media group” who allegedly abused their authority, violated the law, and mismanaged the organization. A complaint filed by whistleblowers alleged that a senior official conducted “research on the voting history of at least one employee at the media agency–a violation of laws protecting civil servants from undue political influence or reprisal.”
One whistleblower in the complaint alleges that Namdar was among those who violated “the law in pressuring his office to withhold congressionally appropriated money from USA GM’s Office of Cuba Broadcasting in violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act.” Further, a whistleblower alleged that Namdar made “ex parte communications,” which as an attorney she would know can break the rules. Namdar also allegedly politicized “the J1 visa sponsorship process.” (The J1 visa allows for educated foreigners to stay temporarily in the United States. Presumably, the media group for which Namdar worked sponsored such visas to allow foreigners to work for the group.)
Project 2025 plans to increase the number of political appointments to government agencies. It seems safe to assume, therefore, that actions like those alleged in the whistleblower complaint—snooping on and harassing employees who may have the wrong political views or may have insufficient will to carry out political goals, even if doing so violates the rules—would increase throughout the U.S. government if Project 2025 comes to pass.
Also, Project 2025 endorses the unitary executive theory, which implicitly grants the president and by extension the executive branch the power to break the law, for example by spending money as the president or one of his political appointees sees fit rather than as directed by Congress. This is what took place if managers at the media agency did withhold congressionally appropriated money from USA GM’s Office of Cuba Broadcasting, in violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act, as alleged.
Namdar appears as a guest in a podcast by conservative media figure Glenn Beck that credits her as breaking down “what’s really going on with Iran and Israel.” In the podcast, she heaps blame on the Biden administration for its policy on Iran, alleging that Biden’s border and immigration policy is allowing terrorists into the United States. The false claims that under the Biden administration the United States has open borders that allow for unchecked illegal immigration and that people on the government’s terrorist watch list are not being intercepted at the border are taken as true. She praises the Trump administration for its Mideast policy, saying that Trump deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for the Abraham Accords, which she says were wildly successful. She goes on to say that the United States needs to be a stable ally and a stable foe with its Mideast policy and not flip-flop from administration to administration.
Speaking of flip-flops, it is worthwhile to take note of some things. One is that, in general, both Democratic and Republican administrations have supported Israel and viewed Iran as hostile since 1979. In this sense, the United States has been a stable ally and a stable foe. However, there were shifts in specific policy (which could be considered flip-flops) between the Obama and Trump administrations. For example, the Trump administration scrapped Obama’s accord with Iran regarding nuclear development. According to the Associated Press, this move “deepened [Trump’s] isolation on the world stage and revived doubts about American credibility.” Another example is that Trump supported moving the capital of Israel to Jerusalem, which CNN described as “upending seven decades of US foreign policy.” As the Brookings Institution comments, “Trump’s Jerusalem decision is a victory for Evangelical politics,” was “personal,” and was contrary to “the advice of his own national security team, including his secretaries of defense and state.” On the other hand, Trump’s decision was “of incredible significance for the broader GOP Christian base.”
Namdar’s alleged conduct while serving under Trump and her comments on the Glenn Beck podcast reveal a highly politicized, partisan outlook, which is exactly what Project 2025 proposes that the federal government should have. This political partisanship would include, for example, agencies with police powers. This should be cause for great concern for all Americans whose views do not align, or are perceived as not aligning, with those of the next conservative president.
