The Heritage Foundation, the far right Washington D.C.-based think tank behind Project 2025’s set of ultra-conservative policy proposals, is one of the main sponsors of the Republican National Convention — placing more doubt into GOP nominee former President Donald Trump’s claim that he has no connection to the group.
As the proposals in Project 2025 increasingly make headlines, Trump has attempted to suggest that he is unaffiliated with the nearly 900-page-long document, which serves as an extreme right “wish list” for how the next presidential administration should run, presuming Trump wins the election.
Among other items, the set of policies within the document range from pushing an anti-abortion agenda within the Department of Health and Human Services, advancing inhumane immigration policies, opposing LGBTQ rights (particularly for transgender people), and a drastic reimagining of the federal government, including shifting how the civil service system works and allowing future presidents to hire and fire workers based on their loyalty to them.
That latter policy plan matches almost exactly Trump’s own calls to get rid of the supposed “deep state,” a conspiracy theory pushed by Trump and his allies purporting that a secret cabal of government employees were working against him while he was president to help Democrats.
Despite the similarities between Trump’s views and the proposals within Project 2025, the GOP candidate denies having any connection to it.
“I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it,” Trump said in a recent Truth Social post. “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”
Notably, Trump’s statement is contradictory — while he claims to have “no idea” about the project, he also states he has an opinion on it; while he claims it is “ridiculous,” he also wishes those behind the policy packet good luck.
Heritage has also said it is not connected to Trump in any way, with a spokesperson saying on X that, “Project 2025 does not speak for any candidate or campaign.”
Despite Trump and the foundation arguing that they have nothing to do with one another, Heritage is spending a great deal of money to be a part of the convention, which is set to formally nominate Trump as the presidential candidate for the Republican Party next week.
As one of the main sponsors of the Republican National Convention, Heritage’s name will be plastered everywhere at the event, including in places around the city where the convention isn’t taking place. Images taken at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, for example, already demonstrate this, welcoming travelers to the convention with signage prominently displaying Heritage’s name as people exit their terminals.
Heritage is also set to host a “policy fest” in downtown Milwaukee on Monday — the first day of the Republican National Convention.
Heritage’s connection to Trump goes beyond their sponsorship of the convention. Indeed, 31 people who contributed to the creation of Project 2025 worked in the Trump administration, demonstrating a deeper link than both Trump and Heritage have admitted to. Russell Vought, for example, a former employee of the Trump White House, wrote a chapter on reforms to the office of the presidency.
Vought is another bridge between Heritage, Trump and the Republican National Committee — he was also the policy director of the committee’s platform writing committee, which this year was revamped to be more reflective of the party’s loyalty to the former president.
While Project 2025 has flown somewhat under the radar in news media, a new poll demonstrates that, the more American voters hear about its proposals, the more negatively they feel about the document overall.
According to a Navigator Research poll that was conducted in June, 7 in 10 respondents said they hadn’t heard enough about Project 2025 to have an opinion on it — around 4 in 5 said they had never even heard of it. But when told that the project “is an extreme Republican plan that will give the president new and unchecked powers over federal agencies, eliminate abortion access, and roll back action on climate change, LGBTQ+ rights, and other areas,” a plurality of respondents, 49 percent, said they opposed it, while 31 percent supported the plan.
Given more specifics about the proposal, including details on 19 of the project’s policies, opposition to Project 2025 increased to 63 percent among respondents in the poll, with only 24 percent approving.
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