Donald Trump distanced himself on Friday from Project 2025, a comprehensive plan for a federal government overhaul created by his former officials and long-time allies. This comes just days after the head of the think tank behind the initiative hinted at a potential second American Revolution.
“I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump posted on his social media platform. “I have no idea who is behind it. 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.”
Project 2025 proposes a significant expansion of presidential power and aims to replace up to 50,000 government workers with Trump loyalists. President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has highlighted this agenda, especially as Biden seeks to rally support from fellow Democrats after his poor debate performance.
Trump has his own plans to reshape the government if he wins a second term, which include the largest deportation operation in U.S. history and imposing tariffs on potentially all imports. His campaign has previously cautioned outside allies against presuming to speak for him and suggested that their transition efforts might be unhelpful.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts commented on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast on Tuesday that Republicans are “in the process of taking this country back.” Former U.S. Rep. Dave Brat of Virginia hosted the show for Bannon, who is currently serving a four-month prison sentence.
“We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” Roberts said.
These comments were widely circulated and condemned by the Biden campaign, which issued a statement saying Trump and his allies were “dreaming of a violent revolution to destroy the very idea of America.”
Some key figures involved in Project 2025 include former senior Trump administration officials. The project’s director, Paul Dans, served as chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management under Trump.
Russ Vought, a former director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump, wrote one of the chapters. John McEntee, former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office in the Trump administration, is a senior adviser.
A spokesperson for Project 2025 stated that it is not tied to any specific candidate or campaign.
“We are a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups advocating policy and personnel recommendations for the next conservative president,” the spokesperson said.
“But it is ultimately up to that president, who we believe will be President Trump, to decide which recommendations to implement.”
Biden’s reelection campaign has criticized the plan, stating it would “gut democratic checks and balances and consolidate power in the Oval Office if he wins.”
“Trump’s campaign advisors and close allies wrote it — and are doing everything they can to elect him so he can execute their playbook immediately,” the campaign stated on its website.
On Thursday, as the country celebrated Independence Day and Biden prepared for his television interview following his faltering debate performance, the president’s campaign posted on X a shot from the dystopian TV drama “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
The image showed women in the show’s red dresses and white hats standing by a reflecting pool with a cross at the far end where the Washington Monument should be, symbolizing a totalitarian regime where women are stripped of their identities and forced to give birth for other couples.