Why Is Trump Bashing Conservative Project 2025?

ANALYSIS – Policy difference or power play? Many conservatives like me are very happy with the majority of policies and proposals laid out by Project 2025.

The effort, led by the Heritage Foundation (arguably America’s premier conservative organization), provides a solid MAGA blueprint for what a second Donald Trump administration should do in office.

Much of it early on in his presidency.

The Project, consisting of a coalition of over 100 prominent conservative organizations, has produced a 900-page handbook with policies on just about everything. And many of its contributors are former Trump officials.

Their primary mission is to dismantle the administrative “deep state,” beginning with the proposal to fire a good number of federal bureaucrats and replace many with political appointees better suited to carry out the president’s agenda.

The effort has also vetted and recruited a large number of potential conservative nominees and staffers for a future Team Trump.

Still, there are some areas in their plan that I would disagree with, and some which I believe are just politically infeasible. There are also some topics that diverge from Trump’s stated views.

Democrats have seized on some of the more controversial recommendations of the Project and their links to Trump to bash his campaign.

This is why Trump has been aggressively distancing himself from the conservative Project, to the point that he even got supporters to boo the initiative during a recent campaign rally.

In early July Trump claimed: “I know nothing about Project 2025, [and] I have no idea who is behind it,” he added, “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying, and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.” He did not specify what “things” he meant.

I was surprised and dismayed by his statements. Especially since it was untrue and made him look like he was retreating and disowning an effort he had initially supported.

Trump was well aware of the Project, and the Heritage Foundation is now stacked with conservative MAGA diehards. These include several former senior Trump administration officials who remain in regular contact with Trump.

Trump and his team’s attacks on the effort finally resulted in its leader, Paul Dans, who served as chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management under Trump, resigning from his post.

Dans had been with Project 2025 since its inception, two years ago. He has moved on to other projects at Heritage.

Team Trump has been vexed by Project 2025 for a while, claiming members affiliated with the project exaggerated their ties to the former president and his campaign.

Trump’s concerns have only grown as Democrats began demonizing the effort and homing in on some of its proposals – including calling for the Food and Drug Administration to reverse the approval of mifepristone, part of a two-drug regimen to induce abortions.

Trump has been emphasizing that in a post-Dobbs world, the abortion issue is for individual states to decide. He has also noted his desire to have a national compromise on abortion to diffuse it as a wedge issue.

There is also Project 2025’s recommendation that the Health and Human Services Department should stick to a “biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family.” This sounds good to me, but its Bible focus is clearly a problem for many. Cutting veterans benefits would also create widespread opposition, starting with me..

The Project 2025 additionally intends to eviscerate the Department of Education and dismantle the Department of Homeland Security, among other federal entities.

And, even though many of the more far-reaching suggestions could be seen as first steps toward a solution, not a guaranteed end in themselves, it is easy to see why Trump wants to disavow any links to the Project.

Still, Team Trump apparently put real pressure on the effort – with Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita reportedly putting “the screws” to Dans. And the campaign is happily cheering the leadership changes they provoked.

Campaign co-chiefs Susie Wiles and LaCivita said in a statement Tuesday, according to the New York Post:

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 [former] president in any way. 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.

These are harsh words for former, and potentially future MAGA/Trump teammates, as well as scores of conservative Trump allies.

But as Rolling Stone reported:

Multiple Project 2025 authors and key figures in the Heritage-housed initiative tell Rolling Stone that they aren’t taking Trump’s supposed disavowals personally. They are aware that he and his campaign staff are hyper-focused on not scaring off too many swing voters who will determine the 2024 presidential election. One project author simply dismisses Trump’s words as “ass-covering” and little more. And several of these sources remark that the ex-president and his lieutenants’ fury lately had done nothing but create a “Streisand effect,” drawing greater attention to Project 2025 and Trump’s connections to it.

More to the point, the Beast noted that “the rift between the Trump campaign and the Heritage Foundation was not ideological, but rather was about power and who will ultimately control Trumpworld and make staffing decisions in a possible second Trump administration.”

Meanwhile, the Heritage Foundation stressed that Project 2025 will carry on after Dans’ departure – to the apparent dismay of the Trump campaign.

The president of Heritage. Kevin Roberts, said on X, formerly Twitter:

“Project 2025 will continue our efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels—federal, state, and local.”  He added that he was “extremely grateful” for Dans’ work on the policy platform and his “dedication to saving America.”

Do you support Project 2025? *

• Yes, I support it and am well-informed about it.
• Yes, I support it but need more information.
• No, I do not support it.
• I am not familiar with Project 2025.

Vote

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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