(NewsNation) – Questions about former President Donald Trump’s ties to the controversial conservative plan Project 2025 are intensifying as he is set to accept his nomination as presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention this week.
Trump has previously denied He was critical of the plan, posting on his social media page that he had “no idea” who was behind Project 2025 and knew “nothing” about it. However, the plan involved dozens of people who had worked closely with him and helped shape his government.
“I disagree with some of the statements they’ve made, and some of the statements they’ve made are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” Trump wrote. “Whatever they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”
The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that wrote Project 2025, said it was a guide for the next president to facilitate him repair the “damage” to America that it said was caused by liberal politicians.
However, critics say Project 2025 is extremist, “authoritarian” and even dystopian.
The plan’s authors said in a statement to NewsNation that they are “not affiliated with any candidate” and “do not speak for President Trump, who was not involved in the creation of the Mandate for Leadership.” They also said that Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, “is not involved.”
What is Project 2025?
Project 2025 is an almost 1,000-page document written by the conservative think tank Legacy Foundation.
It lays out a multi-pronged plan to restructure the federal government for the next Republican administration.
A key component of Project 2025 is the layoff of up to 50,000 federal employees who conservative groups say would hinder the president’s agenda.
Project 2025 would “abolish” agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education and place others, such as the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice, under presidential control.
A so-called comprehensive “overhaul” of the Justice Department would end the FBI’s efforts to crack down on disinformation, the Pentagon would “eliminate” diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives if passed in 2025, and soldiers fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine would be reinstated.
On abortion, Project 2025 calls for restricting the procedure by limiting mail-order sales of drugs and penalizing providers. Project 2025 would also roll back and privatize other health and human services, such as Medicare and Social Security, and reverse the Biden administration’s climate policies.
Dozens of former Trump officials are working on Project 2025
Although Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, many senior officials and political advisers who worked under his administration and some currently involved in his campaign have contributed to the plan.
Karoline Leavitt, the national press secretary of the Trump campaign, is said to have Video Funding Project 2025’s Presidential Administration Academy, which, according to the plan’s website, will “prepare and train future political appointees now to be ready on day one of the next Conservative administration.”
She appears to be one of the “experienced leaders” highlighted in the academy.
The Heritage Foundation said it had “no specific knowledge of Karoline’s involvement.”
The video was produced in September 2023, when Leavitt was serving as a spokesman for the pro-Trump super PAC Make America Great Again Inc., a separate organization from the Trump campaign, reported ABC News.
Leavitt joined the Trump campaign in January and has since criticized the project, which she helped create in her official capacity as Trump’s spokeswoman. “Project 2025 has nothing to do with our campaign and does not reflect official campaign policy,” she said New York Magazine.
Stephen Miller, who served as Trump’s senior White House policy adviser and speechwriter, also appears as a leader in the promotional video.
Since then, he has also tried to distance himself by issuing a statement to abc news.
At least six of Trump’s former Cabinet secretaries were either authors or advisers to Project 2025.
Russ Vought, Trump’s former director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote a chapter on the “Executive Office of the President” for Project 2025.
Vought also serves as political director of the Republican National Convention’s programming committee, an appointment approved by the Trump team.
Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, former Deputy Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn, former Justice Department Senior Counsel Gene Hamilton and former Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller have also worked on Project 2025.
At least 140 other people who worked in the Trump administration were also involved in Project 2025. CNN reported.
Why did Trump publicly reject Project 2025?
Several of Trump’s close allies have signed the plan, but Trump himself is likely keeping his distance because the plan is so politically controversial, experts told NewsNation.
They add that it is highly unlikely that he knows “nothing” about it, as he claims.
“His campaign people are not stupid and they say you have to distance yourself from it because it won’t appeal to the voters he needs,” said Beau Breslin, a political scientist at Skidmore College. “If it were politically popular, in some ways he wouldn’t distance himself from it.”
Trump also likes to take credit for his policies, he added, and by adopting Project 2025, he is giving those credit to something else.
Given his numerous ties to former government officials, it is very unlikely that Trump was unaware of the plan and approved at least some of the key campaign programs, says Casey Burgat, director of the Legislative Affairs Program at George Washington University.
Trump has shown that he is letting people on the ground do the work on his behalf. But that does not mean that he has not seen or been informed about the main features or overall goals of Project 2025, Burgat said.
“It’s too big a leap to accept that he had nothing to do with it, given not only the connections but the way this platform supports many of the key policy goals outlined by President Trump in his first term,” he said.
But the good impression could harm Trump in the elections, so he must avoid it, he said.
“The more people talk about it, the more negative side effects there are when it is implemented. Trump is trying to find a magical way to distance himself from the outside world and still reap the political benefits if and when the policy is implemented.”
Trump’s other connections to Project 2025
Project 2025 is supported by more than 100 other right-wing organizations.
Some of these groups have worked closely with Trump during his time in office.
The Heritage Foundation created a “mandate for leadership” in 2015, before Trump’s first term. Two years after he took office, it boasted that Trump had implemented 64% of policy recommendations, ranging from increasing military spending to withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. CBS News reported.
Trump has praised the group in the past, saying at an event sponsored by the Heritage Foundation in April 2022, “They will lay the groundwork and develop detailed plans for exactly what our movement and what your movement will do when the American people give us the colossal mandate to save America.”
Other groups that have worked closely with Trump are also part of Project 2025. They include Turning Point USA, the Center for Renewing America, the Claremont Institute, the Family Policy Alliance, the Family Research Council, Moms for Liberty and America First Legal, reported NBC News.
NewsNation’s Cassie Buchman contributed to this story.
