Former President Donald Trump revealed his views on Project 2025 this week, appearing to criticize the plan created by The Heritage Foundation.
"I know nothing about Project 2025. 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," Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Friday.
Project 2025 is an initiative developed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, to make significant changes to the backbone of the United States federal government. It is designed to be implemented if former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election.
The project is built around a conservative policy agenda and aims to ensure that Republican loyalists are in place at all levels of the federal bureaucracy to carry out policies effective from the first days of a new administration.
The Project 2025 website states that it is a "2025 Presidential Transition Project," with a goal of building on "four pillars that will, collectively, pave the way for an effective conservative administration: a policy agenda, personnel, training, and a 180-day playbook."
Project 2025 proposes removing civil service employment protections for all federal employees with "policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating" in their job titles.
After replacing the civil service, the Project then proposes the implementation of other conservative policies, such as eliminating the Department of Education, reducing the scope of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and rolling back renewable-energy programs to create a regulatory environment that favors the fossil fuel industry. The project also seeks to remove all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring policies from federal programs.
In a statement to Newsweek, a spokesperson for Project 2025 said, "As we've been saying for more than two years now, Project 2025 does not speak for any candidate or campaign. We are a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups advocating policy and personnel recommendations for the next conservative president. But it is ultimately up to that president, who we believe will be President Trump, to decide which recommendations to implement."
Ammar Moussa, the rapid response director for President Joe Biden's reelection campaign, told Newsweek on Friday that "Project 2025 is the extreme policy and personnel playbook for Trump's second term that should scare the hell out of the American people. Project 2025 staff and leadership routinely tout their connections to Trump's team and are the same people leading the RNC policy platform and Trump's debate prep, campaign, and inner circle."
"Trump's Supreme Court and Project 2025 have designed the playbook for Trump to achieve his dream of being a dictator on day one, with unchecked imperial power. Allowing a self-absorbed convicted felon that kind of power would be devastating for our democracy and middle-class families. This November, voters must stop Trump from turning the Oval Office into his throne room," Moussa said.
Earlier this week, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts shared a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, where he unveiled a new plan for life in America following a "second American Revolution."
"Americans in 2024 are in the process of carrying out the Second American Revolution to take power back from the elites and despotic bureaucrats. These patriots are committed to peaceful revolution at the ballot box," Roberts wrote. "Like the First American Revolution, the second began when a corrupt ruling class sought to overthrow the existing institutions of American life. But whereas the British passed laws and imposed colonial officials, our elites have been more subtle."
Roberts also appeared on Steve Bannon's War Room podcast this week, where he said that the recent presidential immunity ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court could bolster a second American Revolution.
He said the Supreme Court's judgment on Monday that presidents are immune from prosecution for "official acts" will free them up to introduce policy without having to "triple-guess every decision they're making in their official capacity."
"In spite of all this nonsense from the left, we are going to win. We're in the process of taking this country back," Roberts said. "We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be."
Update 7/5/24, 1:28 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
Update 7/5/24, 1:47 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from a Project 2025 spokesperson and additional information.
Update 7/5/24, 2:04 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Ammar Moussa.
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