'They were prepared': GOP lawmaker says the quiet part out loud about Trump’s agenda
The fact that President Donald Trump moved with lightning speed in signing dozens of executive orders and naming members of his Cabinet was no surprise to one House Republican, who recently made a revealing comment about why Trump's second term is moving much quicker than his first.
Talking Points Memo reported Monday that Rep. John Rose (R-Tenn.) had a simple explanation when asked why Trump has moved at a breakneck pace just a little over 40 days into his second term: Project 2025. Rose, who is running for governor of the Volunteer State in 2026, told local publication Nashville Scene that the far-right Heritage Foundation's 900-plus page blueprint for a second Trump administration was the key strategic playbook for the 47th president and his team.
“How do you think the president was prepared to issue all these executive orders?" he said. "How do you think they were prepared to make all of these appointments in such quick succession after he got into office? Project 2025."
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As Rose referenced, several Project 2025 authors were early nominees for Trump's Cabinet. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr wrote the section of Project 2025 pertaining to the FCC, which he now leads. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought was also one of the central figures behind Project 2025, and wrote sections about the Executive Office of the President. Trump "border czar" Tom Homan also contributed to the playbook along with CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Pete Hoekstra – who Trump picked as U.S. ambassador to Canada — was also a contributor.
Last month, Politico noted multiple Project 2025 imprints on Trump's executive orders. Chief among them include Trump's orders reclassifying federal employees in order to make them easier to replace with political loyalists, advancing "school choice" policies that defund public education through the use of private school vouchers, banning transgender troops from the U.S. military and orders eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs, among others.
“You know, we couldn't talk a lot about that during the campaign,” Rose told Nashville Scene. “It became the lightning rod that Democrats were trying — but they knew what was happening, and they knew that if President Trump was elected that he was going to hit the ground running. We see that on display.”
As Rose mentioned, Trump frequently distanced himself from Project 2025 on the campaign stump. During a July rally in Michigan, Trump maligned the blueprint as a product of the "radical right." He called some of its policies "seriously extreme" and that any attempts to tie him to it were "misinformation."
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Click here to read Talking Points Memo's full report, and click here to read Rose's remarks in Nashville Scene.
