Fear over Project 2025 created ‘out of thin air,’ editor argues – Washington Examiner
The article discusses the rising controversy surrounding the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” particularly after a presidential debate between President Biden and former President Trump. Initially low-profile, Project 2025 has been criticized by Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, who argue it outlines severe cuts to social programs and a rollback of progressive policies, suggesting a return to a “dystopian” past under Trump’s influence.
At the heart of the initiative is a substantial document titled “Mandate for Leadership – the Conservative Promise,” which contains conservative policy recommendations. In response to the backlash, Steven Groves, a co-editor of the document, encouraged critics to read its full 900-page text, claiming many criticisms are exaggerated or misrepresented. He noted that a widely circulated graphic inaccurately depicted the project’s agenda and that only a few of the claims against it were accurate.
Despite proponents claiming that Project 2025 does not directly reflect Trump’s platform, Democrats persist in linking it with extreme policy proposals. The article highlights the ongoing political battle over what Project 2025 represents and how it is shaping discussions about the future of American conservatism and governance.
The article examines the ongoing controversy surrounding the Heritage Foundation’s initiative known as “Project 2025,” which gained prominence following a recent presidential debate between President Biden and former President Trump. Originally not widely discussed, Project 2025 has been labeled as a harbinger of a dystopian future under Trump, leading to increased scrutiny and criticism from Democratic leaders, including Vice President Kamala Harris. Critics argue that the project aims to roll back progressive policies and implement severe cuts to social programs.
Central to Project 2025 is a detailed document titled “Mandate for Leadership – the Conservative Promise,” which presents a series of conservative policy suggestions. In response to the backlash, Steven Groves, a co-editor of the document, urged critics to scrutinize the full 900-page text, asserting that many accusations against the project are either exaggerated or inaccurate. He noted that a graphic circulating online misrepresented the project’s agenda, with only a handful of claims being substantiated.
While proponents of Project 2025 assert that it does not reflect Trump’s direct platform, Democrats continue to associate it with radical policy recommendations. The article underscores a wider political struggle as Project 2025 becomes a focal point in the debates over the future of American conservatism and governance.
The article discusses the growing controversy surrounding the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” which has recently emerged in political discourse, particularly following a presidential debate between President Biden and former President Trump. Initially obscure, Project 2025 became associated with a purported dystopian agenda for a Trump presidency, prompting heightened criticism from Democrats, including Vice President Kamala Harris, who described it as a plan to revert America to unfavorable past policies. Critics have accused the project of planning devastating cuts to social programs and enacting extreme social policies.
The project is based on a comprehensive document called ”Mandate for Leadership - the Conservative Promise,” which outlines various conservative policy recommendations. Steven Groves, a co-editor, defended the project against accusations and encouraged critics to read the 900-page document, asserting that many of the claims against it were exaggerated or unfounded. He highlighted that some criticisms stemmed from a viral graphic that misrepresented the project’s agenda, pointing out that only a few of the alleged items were truthful.
Despite denials from project proponents that it represents Trump’s platform, Democrats continue to link it with radical policy proposals. The article reveals a broader political struggle, with Project 2025 being used as a weapon in ongoing debates over the future direction of American conservatism and governance.
Fear over Project 2025 created ‘out of thin air,’ editor argues
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 spent most of the first year of its existence in relative obscurity, known primarily by policy wonks.
This suddenly changed shortly after the presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, after which Project 2025 became synonymous with an alleged dystopian blueprint for a Trump presidency. It has since been featured in nearly every campaign speech by Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Recently, fears over the effort were featured in Harris’s campaign speech at a Thursday speech in Houston.
“And you, I’m sure, have seen their agenda, Project 2025,” Harris said to boos from the crowd. “Can you believe they put this thing in writing? Nine hundred pages in writing.”
“So Project 2025 is a plan to return America to a dark past,” she continued. “Donald Trump and his extreme allies want to take our nation back to failed economic policies, back to union busting, back to tax breaks for billionaires. Donald Trump and his allies want to cut Medicare and Social Security, to stop student loan forgiveness for teachers and other public servants.”
Project 2025 is not a new or novel concept — the Heritage Foundation has produced a list of policy suggestions for every Republican president or presidential candidate, starting with Ronald Reagan. Though the project itself encompasses a variety of things, including education and preparing personnel for a presidential transition, most critics focus on the book it produced — “Mandate for Leadership – the Conservative Promise.”
The Washington Examiner spoke with one of the co-editors of the book, Steven Groves, to discuss the backlash to the project. He encouraged everyone to follow Biden’s oft-repeated advice — to go read the 900-page document.
“Well, the part that everyone’s been talking about, and the Left has been lying about, is our book, very forward. The book is available online. Every word of it can be downloaded for free,” he said. “Every recommendation that Project 2025 has ever made on any topic is right there in those 900 pages. There’s plenty of conservative things in there that the Left and Biden and Harris criticized, but they’ve decided to go a different route, which is to lie.”
“Their interest is not in taking on a conservative think tank project,” he continued. “Their interest is in lying about that project and then attributing extreme policies to their political opponent, in this case, President Trump. So that’s why you saw a spike in activity about the book after the debacle of a debate.”
Steve pointed out that the book was published in April 2023, with work beginning long before any candidate declared their candidacy. It even received largely neutral, if limited, media coverage prior to the debate.
“It wasn’t until it was crystal clear to everyone that Biden was going to lose and lose big that the Left, Biden, and Kamala decided to make a target out of the project, and then, by lying about it… try to tie it to President Trump,” Groves said. “President Trump doesn’t have anything to do with this project.”
Nearly all the criticisms from the Democrats, he argued, were created “out of thin air.”
Groves pointed to one viral graphic that gained widespread traction when shared by actor Mark Hamill.
The graphic includes a list of the supposed agenda of Project 2025, including a complete abortion ban, banning contraceptives, ending no-fault divorce, eliminating labor protections, raising taxes on the working class, cutting Social Security and Medicare, condemning single mothers, banning gay marriage, raising prescription drug prices, ban books and curriculum about slavery, and ending civil rights protections in government.
Of the 31 items listed, Project 2025 said only five were true or partially true — eliminating the Department of Education, using taxpayer money for religious schools, increasing Arctic drilling, deregulating big businesses and big oil, and expediting capital punishment. The rest of the items were labeled false, mostly false, or misleading.
“It’s easy enough to go to our book that’s online,” Steve said. “Do Control F… if you want to put in Control F: abortion; Control F: marriage, you can find everything that we’ve written about those topics.”
Despite the repeated denials, Democrats remain adamant that Project 2025 both includes radical policy proposals and is intricately linked with Trump.
“Trump is so desperate to distance himself from Project 2025 as the American people are grappling with the terrifying truth about his second term agenda that he and his team overhauled the Republican platform process to keep the public and the press in the dark, all caps-ed 20 bullet points behind closed doors, and blasted it out to divert attention from his real plans: a national abortion ban, handouts for his billionaire donors on the backs of middle-class Americans, cuts to Medicare and Social Security, and to be a dictator on ‘day one,’” DNC National press secretary Emilia Rowland said in a statement earlier this month.
Project 2025 also doesn’t serve as a manifesto, often including contradictory policy proposals, with different authors putting forward their beliefs. For the book, the Heritage Foundation “cast a wide net,” with about two-thirds of contributing authors not being a part of the organization.
“Within many of the chapters you’ll see, let’s call them minority views, because there wasn’t just the author for most of the chapters — the author had teams of 10, 20, 30 people also contributing,” Groves said. “And so the views of the chapter don’t always reflect that of the … single author of that chapter. And so you’ll find some … majority and minority views within some of the chapters … the Department of Labor comes to mind. But then there were some issues that really kind of split where conservatives are.”
Though Project 2025 now spends most of its time deflecting criticism, Groves said that they’re sticking “to their guns,” and urged Republicans to disregard Democratic criticisms.
“We’re all on the same team,” he said. “Don’t listen to the Left’s lies about Project 2025, don’t listen to Biden and [Harris’s] lies about Project 2025. If the Left and [Harris] are lying about it, then you have to realize that we’re over the target. We all have the same goals, which is to support the next conservative president.”
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Lies slander, and FEAR by the Lefttard Propoganda Machine is CONFIRMATION that P2025 is over the target.
Yes, we want our Constitutional Republic back.
Great patriotic work Heritage and P2025 partners. THANK YOU!
Project 2025 is dead. The Heritage Foundation, which produced it, claims that it’s just moving onto its next phase with project director Paul Dans stepping down, but let’s state the blatant truth: It’s dead.
President Donald J. Trump killed it, not because it was bad but because it was misrepresented by both corporate media and Democrats as HIS plan. It is not his plan. It was never his plan. He never read the 900-pages of the plan. But that didn’t stop the left from trying to attach it to him and his running mate, J.D. Vance.