'One of the oldest dictator tricks': Here’s why Trump is lying about Project 2025
One of the most ominous pieces of former President Donald Trump's agenda in a potential second term is a massive playbook dubbed "Project 2025." And one leading scholar of far-right regimes around the world says Trump's recent attempts to distance himself from it is a telltale sign of his authoritarian cult-of-personality leadership style.
Last week, Kevin Roberts — president of the far-right Heritage Foundation, which is the key organization behind Project 2025 — hinted at political violence against anyone who may dissent against a second Trump administration. During a radio interview, Roberts proclaimed that the United States was in the midst of a "second American Revolution" that he promised would be "bloodless, if the left allows it to be."
Later, on his Truth Social platform, Trump posted that he had "nothing to do with" Project 2025 and had "no idea who is behind it," even though he "wish[ed] them luck."
"I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal," Trump wrote, though he did not elaborate on which parts of Project 2025 he found "ridiculous and abysmal."
Read also: 'This is false': Trump's denial of Project 2025 involvement torn to pieces
Project 2025's 920-page playbook, "Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,", has contributions from several former Trump administration officials and advisors. Its section on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the U.S. Border Patrol was chiefly authored by former Trump senior DHS official Ken Cuccinelli — whom a federal judge later found was illegally appointed to his position. Trump immigration advisor Stephen Miller is also one of the key architects of Project 2025, according to Axios.
Its section on "The Executive Office of the President of the United States" was authored by Russ Vought, who was director of the Office of Management and Budget in Trump's White House. Vought is rumored to be a top contender for White House chief of staff should Trump win the November election. Vought is also the head of the Center for Renewing America, which is one of Project 2025's main partner organizations.
Of course, as Slate contributors Norman Eisen and Joshua Kolb reported on Tuesday, Trump has a long record of making far-right, authoritarian promises indicating about how he would wield power in a second term — which have been documented by NYU's Just Security publication's "Autocracy tracker." In addition to Eisen, democracy scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat is also a contributor to the tracker. She wrote that Trump trying to convince voters that Project 2025 is separate from him is "one of the oldest dictator tricks," noting that "gaslighting" is a popular tactic by authoritarian leaders all over the world.
"Dictators sometimes pretend not to know what is happening so they can blame their officials for the destruction and keep their personality cults in good shape," she wrote.
Some of the more controversial proposals in Project 2025's playbook include a total ban on all abortions without exceptions for rape or incest, ending marriage equality, radically expanding oil drilling in federally protected lands, banning books and curriculum about slavery, ending free and reduced school lunch programs, defunding the FBI and packing the federal judiciary with far-right judges, among others.
Click here to read Slate's report in full. And click here to read the full text of Project 2025's policy playbook.