Former President Donald Trump attempted Friday to publicly distance himself from Project 2025 — an initiative referred to as the “presidential transition project,” spearheaded by the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. Over the course of the Biden administration, Project 2025 has put out a series of proposals for how a second Trump administration might radically reshape executive branch power, remaking the federal workforce and instituting a wide range of far-right policies on topics ranging from abortion to climate change to immigration.
In a post on Truth Social on Friday, Trump claimed that he knows “nothing about Project 2025.”
He added: “I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree 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.”
Project 2025 was, in fact, founded by three alumni of the Trump White House. Its advisory board includes a host of Trump-aligned organizations, including the Center For Renewing America, which was founded by Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought, and projects involving Stephen Miller, Trump’s former advisor.
Trump’s social media post follows an interview, aired earlier this week, in which Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts made alarming comments on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. The nation, Roberts said, is in the “process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
The comments have put Project 2025 in the spotlight once again.
The Biden campaign has, in recent months, focused its messaging more heavily on highlighting the ways in which Project 2025 proposes to infringe upon democratic checks and balances and potentially give Trump, in the campaign’s words, “more power over your daily life.”
Project 2025’s over 900-page proposal outlines what a possible Trump presidency might look like, and includes pathways to overhaul government agencies, strengthening the power of the president and weakening the administrative state. The extensive roadmap for what a new Trump presidency might look like also includes a plan to remake the federal bureaucracy, with plans to get rid of thousands of federal employees and replace them with Trump loyalists.
After Trump suddenly distanced himself from the project on Friday, Ammar Moussa, spokesperson for the Biden campaign, pointed out on X that a Trump super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc., has been running ads for a website called Trump Project 2025.
This post has been updated with additional details about the website a Trump super PAC promoted.
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