The Trump campaign is trying (and failing) to distance itself from Project 2025

Plus, the former president's National Association of Black Journalists debacle.

With the growing unpopularity of Project 2025, the Trump campaign is attempting to distance itself from the far-right policy paper — and some of its key authors. In a press release published yesterday, campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita dissociated the former president from the Heritage Foundation initiative.

“President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the President in any way,” the pair wrote. 

"Reports of Project 2025's demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you," the statement concluded.

Prior to the Democratic Party’s strategy around highlighting Project 2025, Trump seemed more on board with their messaging. In 2018, the Heritage Foundation said that the then-president was on board with most of its agenda. 

The Trump campaign also appears to have played a role in removing Paul Dans — who helmed the Project 2025 endeavor and was also Chief of Staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management during the Trump administration — from his position at the Heritage Foundation, who published the Project 2025 manifesto. “Our work is presently winding down, and I plan later in August to leave Heritage,” Dans wrote. “Electoral season is upon us, and I want to direct all my efforts to winning, bigly!”

These developments come after Trump had previously stated he knew “nothing about Project 2025” and had “no idea who is behind it”. However, as the Harris campaign pointed out, 30 of the paper’s authors were directly involved with the Trump administration.  

Additionally, Trump’s vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), appears to have not been given notice of this pivot. Reports show that Vance has written the foreword to Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts’ upcoming book, “Dawn’s Early Light.” In the text obtained by The New Republic, Vance praises Roberts' conservative vision. 

“In these pages, Kevin is trying to figure out how we preserve as much of what worked in his own life, while correcting what didn’t. To do that, we need more than a politics that simply removes the bad policies of the past. We need to rebuild,” Vance writes.

“We need an offensive conservatism, not merely one that tries to prevent the left from doing things we don’t like.”

This would seem to include ideas germinated in Roberts’ robust think tank. Furthermore, there is plenty of overlap between Trump’s agenda and the policy proposals of Project 2025. Both parties would like to engage in mass deportations, dramatically cut or remove federal institutions like the Department of Education, disrupt efforts to combat climate change and behave hawkishly towards China.

And, most troubling, both Trump loyalists and Project 2025 would like to subvert the democratic procedures needed to assign political appointments. Per Project 2025’s text, “the President-Elect should choose a Deputy Director who, without needing Senate confirmation, can immediately begin to implement the President’s agenda.”

Trump’s contention with Project 2025 is then less ideological and more political: He knows that hard-right, reactionary language scares voters. Additionally, the project voices opinions on abortion — like a federal ban on abortion pills — that the former president has tended to abscond from. But despite his best efforts, Trump may not be able to untangle himself from a platform that alienates moderates, independents and low-engagement voters.

Such is the nature of making a deal with the devil.

But not to be undone by his recent Project 2025 antics, Trump’s speaking engagement with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Chicago went about as well as you’d expect. The former president made uncomfortable remarks about Vice President Kamala Harris’ race, was combative with his interviewer and abruptly left the stage as soon as Project 2025 was mentioned. Here are some of the more egregious moments from Trump’s appearance at the NABJ conference: