Trump again denies Project 2025 — despite Vance writing foreword for chief architect’s book

24 July 2024

The heightened attention the Heritage Foundation's authoritarian Project 2025 initiative is getting appears to be worrying former President Donald Trump, who is again denying any association with it.

In a post to his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, Trump posted yet another denial of the controversial blueprint to orchestrate what People magazine characterized as a "far-right Christian nationalist" takeover of the federal government. This is the third time Trump has publicly sought to distance himself from Project 2025 as it continues to break through into mainstream political discourse.

"I have nothing to do with, and know nothing about, Project 25. The fact that I do is merely disinformation put out by the Radical Left Democrat Thugs," Trump wrote. "Do not believe them!"

The former president's post is harder to take at face value when considering that his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), wrote the foreword to the forthcoming book by Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts. According to progressive group Media Matters, the proceeds from Roberts' book will fund the Heritage Foundation itself, which is the main organization driving Project 2025.

Vance himself has longstanding ties to Heritage. After learning that Trump selected Vance to be his running mate, Roberts admitted that "privately, we were really rooting for him," referring to Heritage. Russ Vought of the Center for Renewing America — one of Heritage's main partner organizations in pushing Project 2025 — was described in a March article for Politico as a "close ally" of the Ohio senator. Vought is also rumored to be a contender for White House chief of staff if Trump is elected to a second term. And of Project 2025 itself, Vance candidly said in an interview prior to his nomination as the GOP's vice presidential nominee that there were "some good ideas" in the blueprint.

Trump has spoken at Heritage in the past, and even alluded to knowledge of an initiative to put some of the conservative movement's major policy goals into a single document. During a 2022 speech, Trump called Heritage a "great group" that is "going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do."

The former president's latest denial may be due to how poorly Project 2025 is being received by the American electorate. One recent poll found that its unfavorability dramatically increased from 19% to 43% over a three-week period.

Heritage typically produces sweeping policy documents outlining conservative goals for each prospective new Republican administration. The New York Times reported in 2018 that during Trump's first year in office, he implemented two-thirds of Heritage's wish list.

Click here to read Media Matters' report in full. And click here to read People Magazine's comprehensive write-up of Project 2025's policy proposals.

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