Donald Trump disavowed any knowledge of Project 2025 throughout his 2024 presidential campaign. He may have been afraid that the detailed plan for his second term, commissioned by the right-wing Heritage Foundation, would alienate voters who saw it for what it was: an authoritarian scheme to consolidate power around the commander in chief and exclude those who did not support his agenda.

“I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump posted on Truth Social in July 2024. “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. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

Either Trump was dissembling at the time, or he and the Project 2025 writers were able to cha

See Full Page