‘Their biggest regret is releasing it on the internet’: No one’s buying the claim that Project 2025 is going away

Former President Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign distanced itself even further from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 on Tuesday, putting out a statement in response to the news the project’s director Paul Dans will be leaving in August and the group would be winding down its policy project.

“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,” said top Trump adviser Susie Wiles and campaign manager Chris LaCivita in the statement. “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 Heritage Foundation’s program has come in for increasing criticism in recent weeks as Democrats have trained their messaging on the 900-page, mega-conservative policy document and executive branch job recruitment file.

Trump himself has also gone after the program hard, posting on Truth Social on July 5 that he knows “nothing” about it.

Is Project 2025 really being disavowed by the Trump campaign?

Not everybody’s convinced that Trump’s disavowal of the project is anything more than a political calculation, with Trump recognizing that the program is politically toxic and not playing well with moderates.

“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,” Trump wrote as backlash grew. “Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

Trump went after the program again during a campaign appearance with his vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), at a rally in Georgia last week, calling some of the proposals in the project “seriously extreme” and reiterating that he doesn’t know anything about it.

But that’s at odds with the fact that Vance wrote a foreword to a book coming out in September by the Heritage Foundation’s president Kevin Roberts. The Heritage Foundation announced on Tuesday that with Dan’s departure, Roberts would run Project 2025’s operations.

Roberts has attracted controversy in recent weeks for fiery comments about the project, calling it part of a “second American revolution” that will be bloodless only “if the left allows it to be.”

And given it's been dubbed the most important political project of the new American century and talked about in messanic terms, that a well-funded think tank would just bail on it didn't pass muster to people online.

“Project 2025? Nooo, that was shut down. This is ‘Strategy MMXXV,’ it’s totally different,” joked one user on BlueSky, using the Roman numerals for 2025. 

“Project 2025, page 329: FIRE A PATSY AND PRETEND THAT PROJECT 2025 DOESN’T EXIST,” joked another. 

“Project 2025 shuts down" is what the headlines are gonna be and absolutely will not reflect what's actually happening." added a third.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign also quickly pointed to a radio interview Roberts did this year to claim that Trump’s opposition to Project 2025 is essentially smoke & mirrors.

Other people questioned the July 30 statement from LaCivita and Wiles, asking how Trump could have no involvement in the project but also play a role in forcing the head of the project out.

“Nothing says ‘I have nothing to do with Project 2025’ like having the power to fire the director of Project 2025,” tweeted the AFL-CIO’s account in reaction to a Daily Beast story that LaCivita “put the screws” on Dans to force him out.

Others flagged a statement from Roberts who noted that the organization would still be working to staff the government. In praising Dans leadership, Roberts wrote, “Project 2025 will continue our efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels—federal, state, and local.”

And those staffers, regardless of a specific defined group existing, would still be working to push the exact same ideology.

“Project 2025 isn’t going away. It’s going into hiding,” posted @kdnerak33. “Their biggest regret is releasing it on the internet before 2025. Keep reading it. Keep spreading it. Pay attention.”

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