Project 2025 leader’s book — with foreword by JD Vance — now delayed until after election

07 August 2024

A forthcoming book by Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts — the leading architect of the far-right Project 2025 playbook — now won't be published until after the November election.

RealClearPolitics (RCP) reported Wednesday that Roberts' book, Dawn's Early Light, was initially meant to hit bookstores on September 24, though Roberts has since pushed the publication date back to November. In a public statement to the outlet, Roberts said he wanted to focus all of his time and energy on helping the Republican ticket this fall rather than promote his book before the presidential election.

“There’s a time for writing, reading, and book tours – and a time to put down the books and go fight like hell to take back our country,” Roberts told RCP. “That’s why I’ve chosen to move my book’s publication and promotion to after the election.”

Notably, Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) has close ties to the Heritage Foundation, and even wrote the foreword to Roberts' book. Once it hits shelves, proceeds from the sale of the book will go directly toward funding Heritage's efforts. The New Republic (TNR) reported that the original subtitle of the book was "Burning Down Washington to Save America," and showed a match on the cover. The match has apparently been removed from the cover art and the subtitle was changed to "Taking Back Washington to Save America."

In his foreword for the book — which TNR obtained on a website that provides advance copies of books (the website has since reportedly taken down the advance copy of Dawn's Early Light)— Vance wrote that Roberts' policy proposals were an "essential weapon" for conservatives, who he encouraged to "circle the wagons and load the muskets." He also praised the Heritage president for "articulating a fundamentally Christian view of culture and economics," and lauded him for "recognizing that virtue and material progress go hand in hand."

"The old conservative movement argued if you just got government out of the way, natural forces would resolve problems," the Ohio Republican wrote. "We are no longer in this situation and must take a different approach."

Roberts has also heaped praise on Vance, and celebrated former President Donald Trump's selection of the Hillbilly Elegy author as his 2024 running mate while speaking with reporters during the Republican National Convention.

"Privately, we were really rooting for him," Roberts told the New York Times' Nick Corasaniti, in reference to his colleagues at Heritage. He added that he reacted to the announcement with "a broad smile on my face."

While Trump has tried multiple times to distance himself from Project 2025, Vance took a different approach in a July interview with pro-Trump network Newsmax. He told host Rob Schmitt that even though he felt "most Americans couldn't care less about Project 2025," he nonetheless opined that "there are some good ideas in there."

In its comprehensive write-up of Project 2025, People magazine described the 920-page policy blueprint as a "far-right, Christian nationalist vision for America that would corrode the separation of church and state, replace nonpartisan government employees with Trump loyalists and bolster the president's authority over independent agencies." Trump has also shown a willingness to consider Heritage's policy proposals in the past, with the group boasting that during his first year in office, the former president implemented roughly two-thirds of its policies.

Click here to read RCP's article on the delay of Roberts' book.

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