CHICAGO (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris and her Democratic allies have made Project 2025 one of their most consistent tools against former President Donald Trump’s campaign. Now they have taken the fight over the conservative-written handbook to a recent, bigger level.
Mallory McMorrow, a 37-year-old senator from Michigan, produced a huge copy of the 900-page Mandate for Leadership on Monday night, the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. She slammed it down on the lectern and then made a face to signal how massive it was as she opened it to read.
“They wrote down all the extreme things Donald Trump wants to do in the next four years,” McMorrow said from the stage. “We read it.”
Trump says Project 2025 has nothing to do with his campaign and denies knowing anything about the Heritage Foundation, which is overseeing its own transition effort with the facilitate of dozens of his allies and former staffers. Democrats have tried for months to blame Trump for Project 2025’s most far-reaching proposals.
DNC officials plan to discuss Project 2025 every night of the convention. McMorrow said in an interview Tuesday that there is a “keeper of the book” and that the book will be handed over to a recent speaker each night.
On Tuesday evening, Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta brought the book back out. “Normally, Republicans want to ban books, but now they’re trying to force this on us,” he said.
What is Project 2025 about?
Launched by the Heritage Foundation as a handbook for the next Republican administration, Project 2025 attracted widespread attention because it was written by longtime allies and former Trump administration officials.
The document outlines a dramatic expansion of presidential power and a plan to fire up to 50,000 government employees and replace them with true supporters of the president. It calls for the closure of the Department of Education and the dissolution of the Department of Homeland Security, with parts of it to be absorbed by other federal agencies.
The plan states that the Ministry of Health should pursue a “robust agenda” to protect the “fundamental right to life”.
Democrats have falsely claimed that it also proposes “hollowing out” Social Security. But the document contains no proposals to cut Social Security, even though the Heritage Foundation, which oversaw it, has long pushed for changes to those benefits.
Where is this huge book from?
The idea of creating a supersized version of Project 2025 first emerged several weeks ago when Harris’ campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez contacted McMorrow to ask him to speak about Project 2025 at the convention, McMorrow said.
McMorrow said she had never spoken to an arena full of people before and wanted to create a moment that would “resonate both at home and in the arena.”
In an interview, she joked that the book weighed as much as her three-year-old daughter and was completely filled with the actual text from Project 2025.
“Dropping the book on the podium played a big part in what we wanted to do,” McMorrow said.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is expected to release the book on Wednesday, followed by U.S. Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, according to a person familiar with the plans who disclosed them on condition of anonymity.
Who is behind Procec
t 2025?
Some of the people involved in Project 2025 are former high-ranking government officials with close ties to the Republican Party. The project’s former head, Paul Dans, was chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel under Trump.
Trump’s former White House budget chief, Russell Vought, was one of the key architects of this plan and was also appointed to the Republican National Committee’s platform drafting committee.
John McEntee, former director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel in the Trump administration, was a senior adviser. McEntee told conservative news site The Daily Wire earlier this year that the Project 2025 team would integrate much of its work into the campaign after the summer, when Trump will announce his transition team.
What does Trump say about Project 2025?
Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025 and denied knowing who is behind the plan.
Tom Homan, who headed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Trump administration, warned against exaggerating the project, arguing that Washington think tanks were drawing up plans for recent administrations that were not always followed.
Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, a key Trump supporter, criticized how much Democrats talk about the plan.
“It’s not a problem for the president because he has already publicly stated that he has nothing to do with it,” Donalds said. “Their focus on Project 2025 is insane.”
The decision to make Ohio Senator JD Vance his vice presidential running mate was seen by some as another connection to Project 2025. Heritage President Kevin Roberts said he was good friends with Vance and that the Heritage Foundation had secretly been rooting for him to be the vice president.
Vance wrote the foreword to Roberts’ recent book, which was originally scheduled to be released in September but has now been postponed as the 2025 project runs into turmoil. Roberts is delaying the release of his potentially timely recent book until after the presidential election in November.
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Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Associated Press writers Meg Kinnard and Brian Slodysko in Chicago contributed to this report.
