Outside RNC, conservative group behind Project 2025 goes on the defense

At the edge of the cordoned-off perimeter around the Republican National Convention on Monday, hundreds of conservatives filed into the ornate home of the Milwaukee Symphony to hear a parade of luminaries talk policy and Project 2025.

Project 2025 is the term for the Heritage Foundation's nearly 1,000-page handbook for the next Republican administration, which has become a cudgel Democrats are wielding against former President Donald Trump, who on Monday officially became the GOP's presidential nominee. That's because the book proposes sweeping changes in the federal government, including altering personnel rules to ensure government workers are more loyal to the president.

The Heritage event was called “Policy Fest” and was not technically part of Project 2025, but the endeavor constantly came up. Speakers both downplayed it and pumped it up. Heritage's President Kevin Roberts called it “unprecedented in the history of the conservative movement,” but also tried to tone down his rhetoric from earlier this month when he promised it would lead to a “second American revolution.”

“How many of you are ready to very steadily, calmly and peacefully take our country back?” Roberts asked the crowd Monday.