Donald Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, a massive proposed overhaul of the federal government drafted by longtime allies and former officials in his administration, days after the head of the think tank responsible for the program suggested there would be a second American Revolution. The 922-page plan outlines a dramatic expansion of presidential power and a plan to fire as many as 50,000 government workers to replace them with Trump loyalists. President Joe Biden‘s reelection campaign has worked to draw more attention to the agenda, particularly as Biden tries to keep fellow Democrats on board after his disastrous debate. “He’s trying to hide his connections to his allies’ extreme Project 2025 agenda,” Biden said of Trump in a statement released by his campaign Saturday. “The only problem? It was written for him, by those closest to him. Project 2025 should scare every single American. “
Quick Read
- President Joe Biden criticized Donald Trump’s distancing from Project 2025, a plan proposing a massive overhaul of the federal government by Trump’s allies.
- Biden’s campaign has highlighted Project 2025, claiming it poses a threat to democracy and aims to give Trump limitless power.
- Trump denied involvement with Project 2025, calling some of its proposals “ridiculous and abysmal,” and stated he had no connection to it.
- Project 2025 outlines expanding presidential power and replacing up to 50,000 government workers with Trump loyalists.
- The Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts referred to Project 2025 as a “second American Revolution” during a podcast appearance.
- Biden’s campaign accused Trump and his allies of harboring extreme and dangerous ambitions, including nationwide abortion bans and dismantling checks and balances.
- Project 2025 involves former senior Trump administration officials and plans to integrate its work with the campaign after summer.
- The Republican Party is set to begin drafting its party platform, with Project 2025 influencing its policy agenda.
- A Biden campaign spokesperson warned that Project 2025’s policy playbook should concern the American public.
- On Independence Day, Biden’s campaign posted a dystopian image referencing “The Handmaid’s Tale,” suggesting a bleak future under Trump’s Project 2025.
The Associated Press has the story:
Biden assails Project 2025, a plan to transform govt & Trump’s claim to be unaware of it
Newslooks- MIAMI (AP) —
Donald Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, a massive proposed overhaul of the federal government drafted by longtime allies and former officials in his administration, days after the head of the think tank responsible for the program suggested there would be a second American Revolution.
“I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump posted on his social media website. “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.”
The 922-page plan outlines a dramatic expansion of presidential power and a plan to fire as many as 50,000 government workers to replace them with Trump loyalists. President Joe Biden‘s reelection campaign has worked to draw more attention to the agenda, particularly as Biden tries to keep fellow Democrats on board after his disastrous debate.
“He’s trying to hide his connections to his allies’ extreme Project 2025 agenda,” Biden said of Trump in a statement released by his campaign Saturday. “The only problem? It was written for him, by those closest to him. Project 2025 should scare every single American. “
Trump has outlined his own plans to remake the government if he wins a second term, including staging the largest deportation operation in U.S. history and imposing tariffs on potentially all imports. His campaign has previously warned outside allies not to presume to speak for the former president and suggested their transition-in-waiting efforts were unhelpful.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast Tuesday that Republicans are “in the process of taking this country back.” Former U.S. Rep. Dave Brat of Virginia hosted the show for Bannon, who is serving a four-month prison term. “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” Roberts said.
Those comments were widely circulated online and assailed by Biden’s campaign, which accused Trump and his allies of “dreaming of a violent revolution to destroy the very idea of America.”
Project 2025 should scare every single American. It would give Trump limitless power over our daily lives and let him use the presidency to enact ‘revenge’ on his enemies, ban abortion nationwide and punish women who have an abortion, and gut the checks and balances that make America the greatest democracy in the world. It’s extreme and dangerous.
Some of the people involved in Project 2025 are former senior administration officials. The project’s director is Paul Dans, who served as chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management under Trump. Trump’s campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt was featured in one of Project 2025’s videos.
John McEntee, a former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office in the Trump administration, is a senior adviser. McEntee told the conservative news site The Daily Wire earlier this year that Project 2025’s team would integrate a lot of its work with the campaign after the summer when Trump would announce his transition team.
Trump’s comments on Project 2025 come before the Republican Party’s meetings this coming week to begin to draft its party platform.
Project 2025 has been preparing its own 180-day agenda for the next administration that it plans to share privately, rather than as part of its public-facing book of priorities for a Republican president. A key Trump ally, Russ Vought, who contributed to Project 2025 and is drafting this final pillar, is also on the Republican National Committee’s platform writing committee.
Project 2025 said in a statement it not tied to a specific candidate or campaign. “We are a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups advocating policy and personnel recommendations for the next conservative president,” it said. “But it is ultimately up to that president, who we believe will be President Trump, to decide which recommendations to implement.”
A Biden campaign spokesperson said Project 2025 staff members are also leading the Republican policy platform. “Project 2025 is the extreme policy and personnel playbook for Trump’s second term that should scare the hell out of the American people,” said Ammar Moussa.
On Thursday, as the country celebrated Independence Day and Biden prepared for his television interview after his halting debate performance, the president’s campaign posted on X a shot from the dystopian TV drama “The Handmaid’s Tale” showing a group of women in the show’s red dresses and white hats standing in formation by a reflecting pool with a cross at the far end where the Washington Monument should be. The story revolves around women who are stripped of their identities and forced to give birth to children for other couples in a totalitarian regime. “Fourth of July under Trump’s Project 2025,” the post said.
