Title: “Trump Comments on Controversial ‘Project 2025’ at Michigan Rally”
In a rally held last Saturday in Michigan, Donald Trump labeled ‘Project 2025,’ a comprehensive political report detailing plans for his potential second term in office, as “seriously extreme”. This critique came a week after a failed assassination attempt at Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, carried out by Thomas Matthew Crooks. One person was killed and two injured in the gunfire exchange, and Trump himself sustained a minor wound from a bullet that grazed his ear.
Addressing the gathering, Trump stated, “Like some on the right, severe right, came up with this Project 25. Some of them I know who they are; they’re very, very conservative…They’re sort of the opposite of the radical left…You have the radical left and the radical right, and they come up—I don’t know what the hell it is, it’s Project 25.‘He’s involved in project — and then they read some of the things and they are extreme, they’re seriously extreme…But I don’t know anything about it, I don’t want to know anything about it.”
Project 2025 is a comprehensive plan led by the influential Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and incorporates input from more than a dozen former Trump administration officials. The 900-page report entails expanding executive authority, appointing loyalists in civil posts, restricting abortion rights, curbing civil rights for LGBTQ+ individuals, and implementing an aggressive anti-immigrant policy, among other dramatic revisions.
Substantial reporting by The Independent on Project 2025 illustrates how this ambitious strategy would serve to amplify Trump’s executive hold over the federal government, significantly more than during his first tenure.
In spite of his claims of ignorance regarding the project, Trump had previously praised the Heritage Foundation and its “plans for exactly what our movement will do” in a statement two years ago. He also hinted at a position in his administration for Tom Homan, a Heritage Foundation member and one of the Project 2025 authors.
Clearly, several directives of the project mirror Trump’s own endorsed policies. For instance, during his Thursday address at the Republican National Convention, he pledged to initiate a mass deportation if re-elected.
Meanwhile, Project 2025 allocates a similar plan, stating, “Prioritizing border security and immigration enforcement, including detention and deportation, is critical if we are to regain control of the border…I [acknowledge] the historic damage done by the Biden Administration, return to a lawful and orderly immigration system, and protect the homeland from terrorism and public safety threats.”
Democratic representatives in opposition to Project 2025 have begun forming a task force dedicated to countering the right-wing movement. Despite this, Kevin Roberts, the President of the Heritage Foundation, dismissed the formation as ‘unserious,’ affirming that “Project 2025 will not be ‘stopped’ by an unserious, mistake-riddled press release or a task force of House Democrats lacking a basic understanding of federal governance.”
