MILWAUKEE — Former President Donald Trump is trying to distance himself from Project 2025, but many Republicans are on board with its proposals — even those who don’t know much about it.
“I don’t know what it is,” Ken Money, an alternate delegate from Texas, said at the Republican National Convention this week. “Help me out.”
Once he heard some of the proposals, he said they sounded good: “I’m in favor of all that.”
Glenn Nocera, a New York delegate from Brooklyn, wasn’t familiar with the project either. “Who has time to read hundreds of pages?” he said. “Maybe they have books on tape for that, perhaps?”
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But he was on board with what he heard about, particularly with restructuring the executive branch.
“Maybe a lot of these agencies at the end of the day need to be revamped, because these agencies apparently are rotten to the core,” said Nocera.
The Heritage Foundation’s magnum opus, Project 2025, is an extremely detailed and incredibly large plan that lays out a conservative agenda on the border, government agencies, abortion — basically, every political issue under the sun.
Democrats are doing their best to tie the proposals to Trump: Just this week, President Joe Biden’s campaign sent 13 emails referencing Project 2025, including one sent just after Trump’s speech concluded Thursday night. The emails claim the project is Trump’s agenda and that its policies would harm workers. And they call his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, the “poster boy” for the agenda.
Trump campaign co-chair Chris LaCivita told Politico on Thursday that the project is a “pain in the ass” and said it’s not true that the policies would be adopted by Trump. But Trump hasn’t elaborated on what pieces he disagrees with. Project 2025’s plan was crafted by the former president’s close allies and aligns with many of the policies he pushed in his first administration. Multiple RNC speakers, including Ben Carson, Peter Navarro and Tom Homan, authored or contributed to sections of the project, suggesting that the document is closely aligned with the party’s policy wishes.
While it’s not receiving its usual attention from the masses, Heritage didn’t leave its baby at home. At the think tank’s policy fest on Monday, Director Paul Dans and President Kevin Roberts discussed Project 2025 at a hotel blocks away from Fiserv Forum, the arena hosting the RNC. Dans later made an appearance at its Wednesday social hour just outside the arena. Roger Severino, another project author, also attended.
Within the RNC perimeter, though, Project 2025 was barely mentioned. It was a glaring absence, especially compared to its heavy presence at another prominent conservative convention, NatCon 4, just last week, where speakers extolled its virtues and panelists proclaimed its benefits.
Some RNC delegates said they were worried that the project could distract from Trump’s message and create easy fodder for Democrats.
“It’s a massive and unneeded political liability,” Texas delegate Jackson Carpenter said.
But most told NOTUS they weren’t worried about it. It might help that they said they knew little about the document.
“Well, I know it’s a Heritage Foundation publication,” said CJ Milmo, a Colorado delegate. “I haven’t read it. I don’t think about it.”
“If they didn’t have Project — what is it?” Milmo said of Democrats’ messaging. “If they didn’t have that, they’d put out ‘Mein Kampf.’”
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Ben T.N. Mause is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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