Donald Trump and Project 2025 are now inseparable

By Mary Ellen Klas

Donald Trump created a monster, and it lives. 

We heard last week from Trump’s campaign that reports of Project 2025’s demise “would be greatly welcomed.” Campaign co-managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles offered that comment in a statement after news that the Heritage Foundation official leading the project was stepping down. 

The Trump team suggested that the foundation and coalition of 110 organizations behind the manifesto for a new Trump administration had misrepresented “their influence with President Trump and his campaign.” Then, in true Trump style, they issued a threat: “[This] 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.”

Oh, the horror! Trump created the conditions for these ideas to come to life, and now he’s rejecting them. But while Wiles and LaCivita may grab some headlines in the campaign’s effort to temporarily distract voters, Project 2025 isn’t going away.

That’s because many of the ideas outlined in Project 2025 have already taken on a life of their own as extremist policies in Republican-controlled states. And it was Trump who fed them. 

Project 2025 was created from a collection of autocratic ideas from conservative think tanks to serve as the blueprint for what they say will be their next president. Trump has only recently attempted to distance himself from the 900-page document amid intense criticism from Democrats. Vice President Kamala Harris has been highlighting the plan’s extremism by asking audiences, “Can you believe they put that in writing?”

But it’s impossible for Trump to wholly disown a document whose authors previously worked in or advised his administration. These same people not only hope to serve on Trump’s transition team, but they’re also lining up thousands of supporters to work in the administration if he’s elected in November. Vice presidential nominee JD Vance is so closely entwined with the project that he called the Heritage Foundation “the de facto institutional home of Trumpism” and wrote the introduction for a forthcoming book about the project by foundation President Kevin Roberts.

None of this is a surprise to Trump. He has been egging on the populist movement that has turned democracy on its head ever since he entered the national stage as a candidate. By promoting a Christian nationalist worldview amped up with White grievance, anger and racism, Trump energized supporters. He also conditioned them to be loyal to him, not to democratic values such as equality, truth and respect for the rule of law. And he encouraged them to ignore facts. 

As Trump’s cult of personality grew, his acolytes, led by the Heritage Foundation, started lobbying red state lawmakers to implement their policies. The ideas had been incubating for a generation, but Trump, aided by a cult of MAGA followers, created the conditions for them to thrive.  

Project 2025’s priorities include:

• Dismantling the separation of church and state. Christianity would be the nation’s official religion, and it would be infused into every aspect of Americans’ lives. The change is already underway. In Texas, for example, school districts would receive an additional $60 per student in state funding if they adopt a proposed curriculum that mixes Bible teachings in reading and language arts lessons. Louisiana requires all public school classrooms and colleges to display the Ten Commandments. And in Oklahoma, the state superintendent has directed all public schools to follow a detailed plan for teaching the Bible, including the Ten Commandments. School districts and teachers who refuse to comply risk losing their accreditation and certification.  

• Restricting free speech on subjects such as sex, gender and science. According to the project, Americans should distrust science as it relates to vaccines and climate change and conform to the conservative worldview on race and gender. Terms such as “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” would be purged from all federal regulations and documents. In more than two dozen states, including Alabama, Kansas, Iowa, Utah and Texas, legislators have adopted anti-DEI legislation targeting public colleges and universities, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education tracker. And 17 states restrict how racism and sexism are taught in schools.

• Controlling women: Project 2025 wants states to control all aspects of women's lives, from their fertility to dictating the conditions under which they can divorce. It declares that abortions “are not health care” and calls for a ban on the abortion pill mifepristone. It would also ban IVF. Fourteen Republican-controlled legislatures have enacted near-total abortion bans, and Florida and Georgia are among the states that will prosecute women for self-managing abortions. The plan, under the guise of protecting families, wants to eliminate no-fault divorce — an idea being pushed by Republican lawmakers in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas.

• Weaponizing justice: Project 2025 would use the Justice Department to exact revenge on state district attorneys whose policies and practices it disagrees with and halt federal probes into claims of abuse and civil rights violations by local police departments. Trump has frequently said that those who enforce the law are also above it, and in May, he pledged to give police officers “immunity from prosecution” even in cases of excessive force. Project 2025 calls for federalizing the work of state attorneys by authorizing federal prosecutors to “initiate legal action” against any local official who seeks lower sentences or withholds prosecution for any reason. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has already put this idea to work, removing two duly elected state attorneys because he didn’t agree with their approach. 

Most of Project 2025’s policies — including those already enacted — aren’t popular with Americans who are aware of them. Republicans have been able to go against popular opinion because they hold majorities in their state legislatures and thus have the votes to override any opposition. This is a notable demonstration of their authoritarian preference for minority rule. 

Trump’s attempt to distance himself from Project 2025 is unconvincing because he was the catalyst. He has never cared much about details and may not care about these now. Like Vance’s conversion from never Trumper to running mate, Trump’s embrace of these policies was likely an opportunistic way to advance his political fortunes.

Now that Americans are starting to realize that the project could strip them of freedoms, it’s become a liability and Trump is trying to run from it. It’s too late.