Donald Trump's face over "Project 2025"

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

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Trump and his allies are denying any association to Project 2025 and its architects. History speaks for itself.

Despite claims that Trump has “nothing to do with Project 2025,” almost 240 people have ties to both the candidate and the transition plan

Written by Gideon Taaffe

Published

Update (7/12/24): This article has been updated to include additional examples about Trump’s ties to Project 2025.

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has claimed that he has “nothing to do with” Project 2025, a broad effort to develop a blueprint for the next Republican presidential administration, but the initiative’s inner circle has a closely linked history to Trump and his previous administration. At least 140 former Trump administration staffers have worked on Project 2025, and Trump’s policy for his second term has significant overlap with the Project 2025 agenda. 

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  • As Project 2025’s notoriety grows, Trump and his allies in right-wing media are trying to distance him from the platform

    • On former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s radio show, the Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts claimed, “We're in the second American revolution.” Roberts added that the “revolution” will be “bloodless if the left allows it to be.” The Heritage Foundation is the conservative think tank leading Project 2025. [Media Matters, 7/3/24]
    • A few days later, amid increasing pushback to Roberts and discussions around Project 2025, Trump posted on Truth Social that he has “no idea who is behind” Project 2025 and has “nothing to do with them.” His post claimed, “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.” Trump again distanced himself from Project 2025 a few days later, writing, “I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, … [and] had nothing to do with it.” [The Associated Press, 7/6/24; Truth Social, 7/11/24]
    • Trump allies have tried to claim Trump is not associated with Project 2025 and dismissed the platform as a liability. Fox News host Laura Ingraham attacked Project 2025 for “creating political problems for Trump.” Trump associate and radio host Roger Stone said that “no one associated with Donald Trump has any formal role” in Project 2025. Donald Trump Jr. said on his podcast that “we don’t have any affiliation with them.” The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles said, “It is true that Trump has nothing to do with Project 2025.” [Twitter/X, 7/6/24; InfoWars, The Alex Jones Show, 7/10/24; Rumble Studios, Triggered, 7/8/24; The Daily Wire, The Michael Knowles Show, 7/9/24]

  • Despite his comments, Trump and his campaign have deep connections with the Project 2025 architects

    • Since Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, Roberts has contradicted him multiple times, saying Trump’s and Project 2025’s staff members “have been in conversation throughout the campaign on the matters of policy." Roberts also claimed, “I suspect very soon the president and his staff and I will sit down and talk through all of this.” During another media appearance, Roberts noted that “the overlap is tremendous” between Trump's campaign platform and Project 2025, adding, “There are some quibbles and differences of opinion here and there, which not only is OK, but it's actually good. I mean, we're going to be able to sort those out once the presidential administration declares what their priorities are.” [WMAL News, The Vince Coglianese Show, 7/10/24; Blaze TV, Blaze News Tonight, 7/11/24]
    • CNN reported that there are “nearly 240 people with ties to both Project 2025 and to Trump,” which includes nonadministration people. CNN's review also found that “at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025” including “more than half of the people listed as authors, editors and contributors to 'Mandate for Leadership,' the project’s extensive manifesto for overhauling the executive branch.” [CNN, 7/11/24]
    • 31 of the core 38 Project 2025 writers and editors worked in Trump’s administration and transition. The list includes potential vice presidential pick Ben Carson, who was Trump’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development. [Twitter/X, 7/8/24]
    • The Trump campaign and the RNC nominated Project 2025 leader Russ Vought as the policy director of the RNC’s 2024 Committee on the Platform. Vought, who served as the director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Trump administration, has also authored a chapter in Project 2025’s guiding document, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. [Media Matters, 5/21/24]
    • John McEntee, a Project 2025 senior adviser, said in April he was working to “integrate a lot of our work” with the Trump campaign later this year. McEntee also served as a personal aide to Trump and later as the director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office during his administration. [Media Matters, 4/22/24]
    • Trump gave the keynote address at the Heritage Foundation’s annual leadership conference in April 2022, where he said the organization “is going to lay the groundwork and detailed plans on exactly what our movement will do.” “He’s going to be so incredible,” Trump said of Roberts. “I know that for a fact, because I know what he did and where he came from, and he’s going to be outstanding, and congratulations to his very exciting new role and a very important role.” [Media Matters, 7/8/24; Twitter/X, 7/11/24]
    • Trump and Roberts appeared at the annual NRB Christian Media Convention in February, where Roberts said Trump and his administration should take “credit” for Project 2025. Later, Trump said, “The Heritage Foundation president … [is] doing an unbelievable job.” [Twitter/X, 7/6/24, 7/5/24]
    • Project 2025 director Paul Dans previously said the project has a “great” relationship with Trump and he’s “very bought in with this.” [Media Matters, 7/11/24]

  • Trump’s policy for a second term has significant overlap with Project 2025’s policy goals

    • The Heritage Foundation said Trump and his administration “embraced nearly two-thirds of the policy recommendations” from the group in the first year of his previous presidential term. The organization credited this success in part due to 70 former Heritage employees working on Trump’s transition team and in his administration. [The Heritage Foundation, 1/23/18]
    • The Trump campaign, the RNC platform, and Project 2025 all have a strikingly similar plan to deport over 11 million migrants. This plan also adds further immigration restrictions and is in the Republican National Committee’s platform. [The Guardian, 7/9/24]
    • Trump and Project 2025 also have similar plans to gut the federal education department. In addition to slashing the department’s funding, both Project 2025 and Trump want to implement anti-LGBTQ policies and limit diversity initiatives in schools. [The Guardian, 7/6/24]
    • Trump and Project 2025 have similar agendas on curtailing reproductive rights. Both want to appoint more conservative judges, limit access to reproductive medicine, and allow states to ban abortion. [Twitter/X, 7/5/24]

  • Clarification (7/11/24): We updated this piece to clarify that Project 2025 is an initiative, rather than an organization.

    Correction (10/18/24): This piece originally said RNC 2024 platform deputy policy director Ed Martin is president of the organization Eagle Forum, an advisory board member of Project 2025. In fact, Ed Martin is president of Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund, not the Eagle Forum that is involved with Project 2025.