Trump seeks to disavow 'Project 2025' despite ties to conservative group
July 5, 202411:20 PM UTCUpdated ago Item
1 of 2 Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump speaks while holding a campaign event, in Chesapeake,
Virginia, U.S. June 28, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo
[1/2]Former
U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump
speaks while holding a campaign event, in Chesapeake, Virginia, U.S.
June 28, 2024. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights July
5 (Reuters) - Former President Donald Trump tried to distance himself
on Friday from a conservative group's sweeping plans for the next
Republican presidency, days after its leader claimed a second American
Revolution was underway that would "remain bloodless if the left allows
it to be."
The
Republican presidential candidate renounced any connection with Project
2025, a plan Democrats have been attacking to highlight what they say
is Trump's extreme policy agenda for a second term should he beat
President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election.
Many
people involved in the project lead by the Heritage Foundation,
America's top conservative think tank, worked in the Trump White House
and would likely help fill out his administration if he wins in
November.
But Trump said on his Truth Social platform he had nothing to do with the plan.
"I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it," he wrote.
"I
disagree with some of the things they're saying," he continued, adding
some of their assertions were "absolutely ridiculous and abysmal."
Trump's
post came three days after Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts'
comments on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast about a second American
Revolution. Democrats and others criticized what they viewed as a veiled
threat of violence.
In
a statement provided by a Project 2025 spokesperson on Friday, Roberts
repeated his claim that Americans were carrying out a revolution "to
take power back from the elites and despotic bureaucrats" and said it
was the political left that had a history of political violence.
The
spokesperson said that while Project 2025 provided recommendations for
the next Republican president, it would be up to Trump, should he win,
to decide whether to implement them.
Trump's
move to create distance with Project 2025 could in part reflect an
effort to moderate his message in the final months of the race,
especially with Biden's campaign faltering after the Democratic
candidate's June 27 debate, said James Wallner, a political science
professor at Clemson University.
"Trump is basically now seeking to appeal to a broader audience," Wallner said.
The Biden campaign has stepped up its efforts to tie Trump's campaign to Project 2025.
“Project
2025 is the extreme policy and personnel playbook for Trump’s second
term that should scare the hell out of the American people," campaign
spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in a statement.
The
900-page blueprint calls for drastic reform of the federal government,
including a gutting of some federal agencies and a vast expansion of
presidential power. Trump's statements and policy positions suggest he
is aligned with some but not all of the project's agenda.
The plans have been drawn up by the Heritage Foundation in coordination with a collection of other like-minded groups.
A
number of people who worked on Project 2025 have close ties to the
former president. Russ Vought, who was Trump's director of the Office of
Management and Budget and is heading up a key committee at the
Republican National Convention, authored one of the project's chapters.
Stephen
Miller, a former senior adviser to Trump who is widely expected to be
tapped for a top job in a second Trump administration, heads up a legal
group on Project 2025's advisory board.
Reporting by Nathan Layne
Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Chris Reese