Project 2025 adviser says the initiative will “integrate a lot of our work” with the Trump campaign later this year

The Trump campaign has thus far attempted to distance itself from Project 2025

Written by Media Matters Staff

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Project 2025 adviser says the initiative will "integrate a lot of our work" with the Trump campaign later this year

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From the April 21, 2024, special edition of The Daily Wire's Morning Wire

JOHN BICKLEY (DAILY WIRE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF): Now you're working with Project 2025. That's with The Heritage Foundation.

...

And have you been coordinating directly with Trump or the Trump campaign on this?

JOHN MCENTEE (PROJECT 2025 SENIOR ADVISER): You know, I think we've kept them pretty separate for now. I think the candidate and the campaign need to keep their eye on the ball. They need to be totally focused on winning. We're totally focused on what happens after and, leaving superstition aside, I don't think it's good to mix the two.

Obviously, there will need to be coordination and the president and his team will announce an official transition this summer, and we're gonna integrate a lot of our work with them. But I think keeping the two separate is actually the most beneficial way to go about it.

Project 2025 is a comprehensive transition plan organized by right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation to guide the next GOP presidential administration. Backed by an advisory board of over 100 conservative groups, the initiative aims to implement an extremist agenda that represents a threat to democracy, civil rights, the climate, and more. 

The Trump campaign has thus far attempted to distance itself from Project 2025.

John McEntee served as a personal aide to former President Trump and later as the director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, where he was in charge of vetting potential political appointees. Under his leadership, the office sought to purge the executive branch of federal government employees who were not sufficiently loyal to Trump.

In the weeks before January 6, McEntee backed Trump’s attempts to stay in office after he lost the 2020 election, helped staff the administration with loyalists willing to defend Trump’s anti-democratic actions, and sent a memo to former Vice President Mike Pence encouraging him to not certify the results of the presidential election.