GOP said to be 'tearing their hair out' trying to contain 'radioactive' Project 2025
Story by Brad Reed • 23h • 2 min read
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump listens as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks during a press conference at Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on April 12, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
© provided by RawStory
Staffers at the Heritage Foundation are reportedly feeling the heat for their work on Project 2025, the highly controversial right-wing blueprint for governance under a second Trump administration.
NOTUS reports that "Republicans have been tearing their hair out over the best way to handle the Project 2025 controversy," which the publication writes has become "politically radioactive."
https://www.notus.org/2024-election/how-proje...ical-loser
The fear about Project 2025 became more acute in recent weeks when former President Donald Trump tried to completely distance himself from it, despite the fact that the 900-plus page policy document was written by many of his own former administration officials.
Now one source tells NOTUS that Trump may be so angry about Project 2025 that they fear it will harm the Heritage Foundation's ability to influence policy in a second Trump White House.
“There came a point at which people realized, ‘Oh, you might have actually done something that jeopardizes Heritage’s influence in the next administration,'" this source explained. "People are legitimately worried."
Brian Darling, a GOP operative and former Heritage director of government relations, was struck by how stridently Trump has tried to shield himself from the project.
“I was not surprised that he didn’t want to be associated with it,” he said. “But I didn’t understand why the tone was so harsh and over the top.”
NOTUS notes that Democrats have also succeeded in putting Republicans on the defensive on the project, which calls for eliminating executive agencies' independence and putting them under the direct control of the president, among other controversial measures.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) told NOTUS that making Project 2025 politically toxic with voters has been a breeze because they don't have to exaggerate anything about the document's radical proposals, such as having the Food and Drug Administration rescind authorization of the abortion drug mifepristone.
“We’re not trying to mislead anyone,” Huffman further explained. “We’re showing them the 920-page radical blueprint that these guys were stupid enough to publish.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-s...&ei=26
“Anybody that has heard President Trump for even one second knows that when he speaks, he goes all in, so I don’t really put all that much stock in a powerful response,” said a person who formerly held a leadership role at Heritage. “I don’t think somebody like Kevin Roberts at Heritage Foundation, who’s got that Texas hide, is really too bothered by it.”
But there’s one problem with that theory: Democrats are counting on the same thing.
The idea that the clock will time out on his Heritage frustration after November is just one more blitz in the Democrats’ playbook to convince people that a vote for Trump is a vote for Project 2025.
“Nobody believes them at this point when they try to act like they don’t know each other,” said Huffman. “There’s just too many receipts.”
A collective of contributors with strong ties to Trump dot the author’s page for the “Mandate for Leadership.” Some names are well known. Dans, Russ Vought, Peter Navarro, Ben Carson — each cut from the cloth of Trump’s previous administration, laying out ideas that largely align with the Trump campaign’s official plan for his potential presidency.
The presence of Trump-flavored politicos wasn’t limited to the pages of the mandate, however. Within the virtual hallways of the Presidential Administration Academy is a teaching staff of lesser-known appointees, handpicked straight from Trump’s vineyard.
***
The academy is an online Project 2025 program created to train potential lower-level appointees. Over 14 hours of recorded lectures, obtained and published by ProPublica earlier this week, the outlet identified 29 of the 36 speakers in the videos as people who previously worked for Trump in some capacity.
Among them is current Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, a former assistant press secretary in the Trump White House, who was tasked with distancing the Trump campaign from Project 2025 in the official comment for the ProPublica story.
But the speakers in the training videos weren’t exclusively Trump-affiliated. Some also served under Presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. Previous iterations of the “Mandate for Leadership” also included contributions from former administration appointees, but sources noted Heritage was particularly successful in engaging people with experience under Trump to help with Project 2025.
Despite the project’s troubled time in the spotlight, each source defended its vision, saying it’s important for conservatives to have established policy ideas that can be discussed and considered. They also argued that the policies Democrats and the media have been highlighting aren’t indicative of the entire book, pointing out that most who critique the project have not read it. Pinned atop the project’s X account is a fact-check of a post from actor Mark Hamill, whose viral post claimed a litany of Project 2025 offenses that weren’t actually in Project 2025.
“There are a lot of people who think that Kevin is doing everything right, and that the project is doing everything right, and that Heritage needs to burn down Washington to save America,” the person familiar with the organization said. “And then other people are like, ‘Well, maybe we should ask ourselves if we did something wrong here. You know, maybe the Trump campaign is upset for a reason.’”
Whether Trump and his campaign are upset by Project 2025’s hubris or its polling impact is the real question. The former president’s first statement, released during the turmoil following Joe Biden’s debate performance, at least wished Heritage luck as he sought distance from what was then one of the only political weapons in the Democrats’ arsenal.
But a later statement, issued by Trump’s campaign managers after Dans’ departure, had a sharper bite, welcoming the project’s demise and serving notice to anyone “trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you.”
That hasn’t exactly been great news for those who hoped for future jobs through Project 2025.
One local Republican official, who requested anonymity to speak openly, enrolled in the Presidential Administration Academy after hearing about Project 2025 last year.
“I thought, ‘This is amazing,’” the official told NOTUS.
But after all the consternation, this GOP official stopped the course.
“Why am I going through this if it’s not an on-ramp into the administration?” this person asked.
—
Ben T.N. Mause is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
Story by Brad Reed • 23h • 2 min read
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump listens as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks during a press conference at Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on April 12, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
© provided by RawStory
Staffers at the Heritage Foundation are reportedly feeling the heat for their work on Project 2025, the highly controversial right-wing blueprint for governance under a second Trump administration.
NOTUS reports that "Republicans have been tearing their hair out over the best way to handle the Project 2025 controversy," which the publication writes has become "politically radioactive."
https://www.notus.org/2024-election/how-proje...ical-loser
The fear about Project 2025 became more acute in recent weeks when former President Donald Trump tried to completely distance himself from it, despite the fact that the 900-plus page policy document was written by many of his own former administration officials.
Now one source tells NOTUS that Trump may be so angry about Project 2025 that they fear it will harm the Heritage Foundation's ability to influence policy in a second Trump White House.
“There came a point at which people realized, ‘Oh, you might have actually done something that jeopardizes Heritage’s influence in the next administration,'" this source explained. "People are legitimately worried."
Brian Darling, a GOP operative and former Heritage director of government relations, was struck by how stridently Trump has tried to shield himself from the project.
“I was not surprised that he didn’t want to be associated with it,” he said. “But I didn’t understand why the tone was so harsh and over the top.”
NOTUS notes that Democrats have also succeeded in putting Republicans on the defensive on the project, which calls for eliminating executive agencies' independence and putting them under the direct control of the president, among other controversial measures.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) told NOTUS that making Project 2025 politically toxic with voters has been a breeze because they don't have to exaggerate anything about the document's radical proposals, such as having the Food and Drug Administration rescind authorization of the abortion drug mifepristone.
“We’re not trying to mislead anyone,” Huffman further explained. “We’re showing them the 920-page radical blueprint that these guys were stupid enough to publish.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gop-s...&ei=26
“Anybody that has heard President Trump for even one second knows that when he speaks, he goes all in, so I don’t really put all that much stock in a powerful response,” said a person who formerly held a leadership role at Heritage. “I don’t think somebody like Kevin Roberts at Heritage Foundation, who’s got that Texas hide, is really too bothered by it.”
But there’s one problem with that theory: Democrats are counting on the same thing.
The idea that the clock will time out on his Heritage frustration after November is just one more blitz in the Democrats’ playbook to convince people that a vote for Trump is a vote for Project 2025.
“Nobody believes them at this point when they try to act like they don’t know each other,” said Huffman. “There’s just too many receipts.”
A collective of contributors with strong ties to Trump dot the author’s page for the “Mandate for Leadership.” Some names are well known. Dans, Russ Vought, Peter Navarro, Ben Carson — each cut from the cloth of Trump’s previous administration, laying out ideas that largely align with the Trump campaign’s official plan for his potential presidency.
The presence of Trump-flavored politicos wasn’t limited to the pages of the mandate, however. Within the virtual hallways of the Presidential Administration Academy is a teaching staff of lesser-known appointees, handpicked straight from Trump’s vineyard.
***
The academy is an online Project 2025 program created to train potential lower-level appointees. Over 14 hours of recorded lectures, obtained and published by ProPublica earlier this week, the outlet identified 29 of the 36 speakers in the videos as people who previously worked for Trump in some capacity.
Among them is current Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, a former assistant press secretary in the Trump White House, who was tasked with distancing the Trump campaign from Project 2025 in the official comment for the ProPublica story.
But the speakers in the training videos weren’t exclusively Trump-affiliated. Some also served under Presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. Previous iterations of the “Mandate for Leadership” also included contributions from former administration appointees, but sources noted Heritage was particularly successful in engaging people with experience under Trump to help with Project 2025.
Despite the project’s troubled time in the spotlight, each source defended its vision, saying it’s important for conservatives to have established policy ideas that can be discussed and considered. They also argued that the policies Democrats and the media have been highlighting aren’t indicative of the entire book, pointing out that most who critique the project have not read it. Pinned atop the project’s X account is a fact-check of a post from actor Mark Hamill, whose viral post claimed a litany of Project 2025 offenses that weren’t actually in Project 2025.
“There are a lot of people who think that Kevin is doing everything right, and that the project is doing everything right, and that Heritage needs to burn down Washington to save America,” the person familiar with the organization said. “And then other people are like, ‘Well, maybe we should ask ourselves if we did something wrong here. You know, maybe the Trump campaign is upset for a reason.’”
Whether Trump and his campaign are upset by Project 2025’s hubris or its polling impact is the real question. The former president’s first statement, released during the turmoil following Joe Biden’s debate performance, at least wished Heritage luck as he sought distance from what was then one of the only political weapons in the Democrats’ arsenal.
But a later statement, issued by Trump’s campaign managers after Dans’ departure, had a sharper bite, welcoming the project’s demise and serving notice to anyone “trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you.”
That hasn’t exactly been great news for those who hoped for future jobs through Project 2025.
One local Republican official, who requested anonymity to speak openly, enrolled in the Presidential Administration Academy after hearing about Project 2025 last year.
“I thought, ‘This is amazing,’” the official told NOTUS.
But after all the consternation, this GOP official stopped the course.
“Why am I going through this if it’s not an on-ramp into the administration?” this person asked.
—
Ben T.N. Mause is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
