Trump denies involvement in Project 2025, despite close ties to organizers

Former US president Donald Trump denied on Thursday any involvement with Project 2025, a conservative think tank’s blueprint for the next Republican presidency, as Democrats aimed to turn it into a political liability for him in the upcoming November election against US President Joe Biden.

“I have no idea who is behind it,” Trump posted to Truth Social, his social media platform. “Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

Project 2025 outlines four main goals

Project 2025, outlined in a 922-page, 180-day document titled “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” is the brainchild of The Heritage Foundation, an American conservative think tank known for its deep links to previous Republican administrations, including several who worked in Trump’s administration or as allies in his reelection campaign. Their plan outlines four main goals: "Restoring the family as the centerpiece of American life, dismantling of the administrative state, defending the nation’s sovereignty and borders, and securing God-given individual rights to live freely."

The proposals range from a massive overhaul of the federal government, including the expansion of executive branch powers, to more controversial policies, such as dismantling the Education Department, passing sweeping tax cuts, and imposing strict limits on abortion. It also aims to increase the White House’s control over the Justice Department, significantly reduce and restructure the federal workforce, scale back climate change initiatives while promoting fossil fuels, and grant the president more authority over the civil service.

The handbook also calls for assembling an “army” of conservatives ready to fill positions if Trump assumes office in 2025. The initiative aims to ensure preparedness from “day one” of a conservative presidency since unfilled positions caused much disorganization during Trump’s term.

“Our goal is to assemble an army of aligned, vetted, trained, and prepared conservatives to go to work on Day One to deconstruct the Administrative State,” Project 2025 director Paul Dans said on the project website.

Democrats have rallied to publicize the agenda and depict it as a toxic election issue with potentially terrible consequences. In June, a group of House Democrats launched the Stop Project 2025 Task Force to start fighting the proposal and prevent its imposition if and when Trump returns to power. Following Biden’s disastrous debate performance and subsequent drop in polling numbers, they intensified their efforts. However, it wasn’t until Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts’ July 2 appearance on Steve Bannon’s War Room show that Trump officially distanced himself from the project.

Roberts told former US Rep. (VA-7) Dave Brat, a guest host on the podcast while Bannon carries out a four-month prison term, that Democrats are “apoplectic right now” because the right is winning, and Republicans are “in the process of taking this country back.” In response to a question about “what the Heritage Foundation is doing to protect the rule of law and to protect individuals in this great country,” Roberts declared that the US is in the midst of a “second American revolution” that can be “bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

Democrats immediately jumped on Roberts’ “threatening” and “violent” statements as Trump attempted to disavow Project 2025 and separate himself from the controversy. “I know nothing about Project 2025,” he wrote the next day. “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying, and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.”

Few are willing to believe Trump’s claim, arguing that his claim is unlikely due to the fact the proposals were written by many of his former appointees as president. Project 2025 director Paul Dans was chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management under Trump, while Russ Vought, also affiliated with the project, headed the Office of Management and Budget when Trump was president. Other notable figures involved are John McEntee, a former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office under Trump, Spencer Chretien, Trump’s former special assistant and associate director of Presidential Personnel, and Ben Carson, Trump’s former housing secretary.

Trump also publicly allied himself with The Heritage Foundation as president. On the Project 2025 website, the group states that the “Trump administration relied heavily on Heritage’s “Mandate” for policy guidance, embracing nearly two-thirds of Heritage’s proposals within just one year in office.”

Olivia Troye, a former White House adviser to Mike Pence, said Trump’s attempt to distance himself from Project 2025 was driven by a fear that the controversial policies detailed in the playbook could negatively impact his presidential bid. “This is preposterous if you look at the collaborators and the authors of this plan,” she told CNN when asked if Trump’s denial is credible. “A lot of these people…served in Trump’s cabinet during his administration. There are people that I worked with. I sat in those policy meetings with them.”

Marco Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida and a frontrunner as Trump’s vice presidential candidate, denied the connection between Project 2025 and Trump in an interview with CNN on July 6. “Think tanks do think tank stuff,” he said. “They come up with ideas, they say things. But our party’s candidate for president is Donald Trump.”

“Project 2025 is the extreme policy and personnel playbook for Trump’s second term that should scare the hell out of the American people,” Biden campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement following Trump’s statements on social media. “Project 2025 staff and leadership routinely tout their connections to Trump’s team, and are the same people leading the [Republican National Committee] policy platform and Trump’s debate prep, campaign, and inner circle.”

“As we’ve been saying for years, Project 2025 does not speak for any candidate or campaign,” The Heritage Foundation said in a statement to X, formerly Twitter, on July 5. They reiterated that they are a coalition of 110 groups planning for the next GOP president and stated that “it is ultimately up to that president, who we believe will be President Trump, to decide which recommendations to implement.”