Former President Donald Trump’s campaign on Tuesday declared Project 2025 dead, as it sought to put distance between itself and a conservative plan that has turned into a political problem for the GOP.
Democrats had said the collection of ideas, including good-government proposals and far-right thoughts about reshaping the executive branch, was a road map for what a second Trump term would look like.
But his campaign said Project 2025, orchestrated by The Heritage Foundation and supported by a coalition of other conservative groups, was never a Trump campaign product.
“President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the president in any way,” said Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, the campaign’s senior advisers.
“Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you,” the two added.
The statement came after The Washington Post reported that the office that served as the nerve center for the project was winding down and employees were rushing for the exit — and worried that their association with Project 2025 could jeopardize their hopes of working in a new Trump administration.
Mr. Trump has spent recent weeks disavowing the entire project, though some of his allies were instrumental in its creation.
Project 2025 billed itself as the Trump presidential transition team in waiting, with policy proposals, a database for potential political appointees to populate the agencies, and training materials so they would be “ready on day one.”
It was a response to a criticism of Mr. Trump’s first term that he was thwarted by an entrenched bureaucracy and even some of his appointees who worked against him.
The Trump officials walked a tightrope Tuesday between celebrating the end of the project and trying to dissociate themselves from its entire existence.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign signaled it won’t make it easy for Mr. Trump to put the matter behind him.
“Project 2025 is on the ballot because Donald Trump is on the ballot. This is his agenda, written by his allies, for Donald Trump to inflict on our country,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Ms. Harris’ campaign manager. “Hiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn’t make it less real — in fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding.”
Ms. Harris and fellow Democrats have focused on Project 2025’s 900-page policy manifesto.
Among the bigger ideas are abolishing or consolidating several federal agencies, expanding direct presidential control of the federal bureaucracy and battling the entrenched power of public-sector unions.
Specific policy proposals include mandatory funding for constructing a border wall, adding work requirements to welfare programs, pushing the National Weather Service to make use of private forecasting services and revoking the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the chemical abortion pill.
One irony of Project 2025 is that it gets far more attention from Democrats than from Republicans.
On Capitol Hill, Democrats injected criticism of Project 2025 into seemingly unrelated hearings and floor debates.
It even reared its head in hearings to examine the security failures in the assassination attempt of Mr. Trump. Democrats said budget cuts, an FBI restructuring and changes to Biden administration equity programs would make the law enforcement agency’s job tougher.
Faced with those attacks, the Trump campaign had been telling those involved in Project 2025 to cool it.
And Mr. Trump took to social media to say he wasn’t paying attention to it.
“I know nothing about Project 2025,” he said in one post. In another he said he had “not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, and, unlike our very well-received Republican Platform, had nothing to do with it.”
The Heritage Foundation confirmed the Project 2025 chief, Paul Dans, was stepping down. Mr. Dans served in the Trump administration in the Office of Personnel Management.
“Under Paul Dans’ leadership, Project 2025 has completed exactly what it set out to do: bringing together over 110 leading conservative organizations to create a unified conservative vision, motivated to devolve power from the unelected administrative state, and returning it to the people,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said. “This tool was built for any future administration to use.”
Among the Trump figures who wrote chapters for Project 2025 are Russ Vought, who served as White House budget director; Peter Navarro, the former president’s trade adviser; Ben Carson, his Housing and Urban Development secretary; and Ken Cuccinelli, who served as deputy secretary at the Department of Homeland Security.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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