Project 2025 leader was hoping for Vance VP pick — and got his way

Some GOP donors were hoping that former President Donald Trump's choice for a running mate would be Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) or North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum — someone who would appeal to more traditional conservatives and isn't overly MAGA in their views. But during the opening day of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Trump went full MAGA when he chose far-right Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate.

Once a scathing critic of Trump — the "Hillbilly Elegy" author even compared him to Adolf Hitler in 2016 — Vance gave himself an ultra-MAGA makeover and is now a strident Trump loyalist. After Trump survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 13, Vance blamed President Joe Biden for the shooting — which Biden, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and other prominent Democrats forcefully condemned.

In an article published by The New Republic, journalist Edith Olmsted warns that the selection of Vance as Trump's running mate is a major victory for Project 2025 — the Heritage Foundation's controversial far-right blueprint for a second Trump Administration. Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, but Olmsted stresses that Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts was hoping Trump would pick Vance.

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"The leader of the right-wing think tank behind Project 2025 reportedly couldn't be happier that Donald Trump picked Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate Monday," Olmsted explains. "Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, which penned the lengthy blueprint for a potential far-right Trump takeover and draconian dismantling of the administrative state, was speaking to reporters when the announcement was made."

On X, formerly Twitter, the New York Times' Nick Corasaniti said of Roberts, "He reacted to the news 'with a broad smile on my face' and said that 'privately, we were really rooting for him.'"

Roberts himself tweeted, "Congratulations to @JDVance1 — a man who personifies hope for our nation's future. When Americans get to know him, they will appreciate his values and vision as I do."

Olmsted notes, "Roberts recently received widespread backlash for issuing a chilling warning to liberals. 'We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless — if the left allows it to be,' said Roberts during an appearance on Real America's Voice earlier this month."

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Read Edith Olmsted's full New Republic article at this link.