Trump Is Still Lying About Project 2025. New Revelations Expose Even Deeper Ties.
After the DNC put a spotlight on Project 2025, some fact-checkers gave false credence to Trump's efforts to distance himself. But new revelations continue to spotlight Trump's ties to Project 2025.
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From a comically giant book showcasing its plans to serious warnings about the authoritarian future it envisions, Project 2025 was heavily featured at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) last week.
The attention Project 2025 has been receiving is justified. Many of us have been warning about this authoritarian plot to reshape the federal government into a tool of the far-right for a year now. As warnings of this Heritage Foundation-backed policy and personnel operation began to finally hit the mainstream this Summer, Donald Trump started to lie about his ties to the effort - and he continues to lie about it, claiming he has nothing to do with it.
Most of the mainstream media has been crystal clear in fact-checking Trump’s efforts to distance himself from Project 2025, but some have given false credence to those claims. We saw that again during the DNC.
In reviewing Vice President Kamala Harris’s speech at the DNC, well-known fact-checker Politifact published an article that went out of its way to try and validate Trump’s claim that he has nothing to do with Project 2025:
“What Harris describes is Project 2025. Although the 900-page policy manual makes such recommendations, it isn’t Trump’s plan. The project, led by conservative Heritage Foundation, contains proposals for the next Republican administration, and got input from dozens of Trump allies. But Trump and his campaign have repeatedly said they were not involved in the project and Trump is not listed as an author, editor or contributor.”
That fact-check is devoid of all nuance and context. It simply takes the word of a notorious liar, Donald Trump, as gospel and doesn’t do anything to outline the extensive ties between Trump and Project 2025 or how many of its policies are directly aligned with Trump’s agenda.
USA TODAY previously published a fact-check in July that also presented an oversimplified separation between Donald Trump and Project 2025. That article put the onus solely on the Heritage Foundation and its 110 right-wing partner organizations. But, of course, it’s not that simple.
When Trump began lying about his ties to Project 2025 in July, I wrote an extensive article outlining those ties, and I also discussed my reporting in an appearance on MSNBC.
As I wrote in the article at the time, Trump's Agenda 47 directly aligns with Project 2025, and dozens of former Trump officials are behind it—including Russell Vought, a Project 2025 architect who was named the RNC platform committee's policy director. And Trump’s pick of J.D. Vance as running mate also solidifies his commitment to Project 2025 goals. Vance wrote the foreword to the Heritage Foundation President’s upcoming book and was the VP pick the Heritage Foundation was rooting for.
Since I wrote that article, there have been several other developments that put a spotlight on Trump’s ties to Project 2025 that I felt warranted a follow-up article.
Hundreds of policy proposals in Project 2025 directly match Trump’s policies, and over one hundred people who worked for Trump are involved in Project 2025.
Let’s dive in.
The New Reporting Exposing Trump’s Ties To Project 2025
The policy and people parallels between Donald Trump and Project 2025 are numerous and unmistakable.
Among the news organizations that are doing fantastic reporting on Trump’s ties to Project 2025 are CBS News, CNN, and ProPublica. They helped bring us new insights into the sheer scope of this authoritarian partnership.
Last week, CBS News published a fantastic analysis piece that examined Project 2025’s 922-page policy playbook line-by-line. CBS found that at least 270 proposals in Project 2025's playbook “match Trump's past policies and current campaign promises.”
CBS News is correct. As I’ve written in my articles over the past year, Project 2025 and Agenda 47 directly outline the same key agenda items. For example, Trump also explicitly outlines a plan to re-implement his previously attempted Schedule F executive order, which will purge tens of thousands of civil servants and replace them with trained GOP loyalists. The plan to consolidate power in the executive branch by dismantling multiple departments, like the Education Department, and bringing independent agencies, like the FCC and FTC, under direct White House control is also on both agendas.
Both Project 2025 and Trump’s official agenda also list plans to roll back environmental regulations, weaponize the DOJ, execute mass deportations, build detention camps for migrants, use the military against civilians, end federal protections for LGBTQ+ people, push “Christian Nationalist” ideals, and undo all progress made in diversity, equity, and inclusion within the federal government under the guise of religious freedom.
So even if Trump officials had nothing to do with the planning of Project 2025 (of course, they did), it wouldn’t matter. The key policy goals are identical.
Other new reports have put a spotlight on the deep connections between those involved in Project 2025 and Trump’s world.
Last month, CNN reported that “at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025.” I got more specific in my reporting on this last month, spotlighting Trump officials like Stephen Miller, Mark Meadows, Russell Vought, Paul Dans, John McEntee, Rick Dearborn, Ken Cuccinelli, Christopher Miller, and Peter Navarro, who were all either authors of Project 2025’s playbook or led one of the right-wing organizations on Project 2025’s advisory board.
To add to the depth of these ties, ProPublica and Documented received and published 23, totaling over 14 hours, of Project 2025 training videos. These videos were sourced from Project 2025’s “Presidential Training Academy,” which is training thousands of Trump loyalists so they’re ready on day one of a second Trump term to replace the over 50,000 civil servants Trump plans to purge. The goal is to remove all the guardrails that restrained Trump’s worst impulses in his first term and to abuse executive power to pursue an unchecked radical right agenda. I reviewed this footage and wrote about it in this newsletter.
According to ProPublica’s review, 29 of the 36 speakers in Project 2025’s training videos have worked for either the Trump transition team, the Trump administration, or Trump’s presidential campaigns:
“..The links between the speakers in the videos and Trump are many. Most of those served Trump during his administration, working at the White House, the National Security Council, NASA, the Office of Management and Budget, USAID and the departments of Justice, Interior, State, Homeland Security, Transportation and Health and Human Services. Another speaker has worked in the Senate office of J.D. Vance, Trump’s 2024 running mate.”
The ties are undeniable, and one particular Trump official involved in Project 2025 made news this month that was absolutely damning for Donald Trump.
CNN published a secret recording of Russell Vought, Trump’s former acting OMB Director, which showcased him discussing his work preparing for a second Trump administration and that Trump is supportive of that work. From CNN:
Vought said his group, the Center for Renewing America, was secretly drafting hundreds of executive orders, regulations, and memos that would lay the groundwork for rapid action on Trump’s plans if he wins, describing his work as creating “shadow” agencies. He claimed that Trump has “blessed” his organization and “he’s very supportive of what we do.”
You read that right. Vought explicitly said Trump is very supportive of the work he’s doing. Vought’s Center for Renewing America is a partner organization of Project 2025, but that’s not where Vought’s involvement with the project ends.
The reason I always spotlight Vought is not only because he’s a dangerous self-proclaimed Christian Nationalist, but he’s also a key focal point between Project 2025 and Donald Trump. Vought is in charge of crafting Project 2025’s first 180-day plan and authored Project 2025’s chapter on executive power. This is where the connection gets even stronger.
In May of this year, the Republican National Committee and the Trump Campaign released a joint press release that announced the appointment of Russell Vought as the policy director of the RNC’s platform writing committee. Vought is also reportedly in the running to be Trump’s next Chief of Staff.
Given those ties, Vought’s word is noteworthy. In that same video obtained by CNN, Vought went on to basically say that Trump is distancing himself from Project 2025 as a political tactic. “I see what he’s doing is just very, very conscious distancing himself from a brand,” Vought said. “It’s interesting; he’s, in fact, not even opposing himself to a particular policy.”
Compounding this revelation is reporting from Rolling Stone that claimed, “Trump has been directly briefed by confidants and close aides on Project 2025’s substance and progress.”
So there you have it. Donald Trump’s claims seeking to distance himself from Project 2025 are just as untrue today as they were when he first uttered them. No credible journalist should give them any credibility.
If you liked this article, consider checking out my other Project 2025 articles. I’ve been warning about Project 2025 since last November, extensively writing about it and making media appearances. I recently organized all of the nearly 40 articles I’ve published on the topic in a new section of my newsletter. Thanks for reading and for supporting this work!
ProPublica is incredible.
As always, I’m totally impressed by your ability to keep track of all the dissembling. Thank you, Ahmed, for devoting your time to saving us all.