Project 2025, an initiative by the conservative Heritage Foundation to put forward policy suggestions for a Republican administration and prepare staffers for it, has come under intense fire from Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign. That criticism has resulted in Trump distancing himself from the project, having no direct involvement in it previously.

He took this distancing a step further after his team began blacklisting some figures associated with it, two former Trump officials familiar with the discussions told Politico.

Among the people blacklisted were some of those linked to Project 2025, some who resigned from Trump’s administration after the Jan. 6 riot, and others perceived as disloyal to Trump.

The focus on loyalty could have played a major part in the decision to blacklist Project 2025 figures as the Trump campaign was angry the project appeared to imply that it was linked with the former president.

Myron Ebell, who led Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency transition operation in 2016, said such “naughty and nice” lists are common and that one was used in 2016. He voiced skepticism over the scope of the Project 2025 blacklist, arguing that a total boycott would exclude “many highly qualified pro-Trump people.”

“It shrinks the pool considerably,” he said.

The large number of people who authored sections of the “Mandate for Leadership — the Conservative Promise” were Trump loyalists, such as former Deputy Assistant to the President Peter Navarro.

Ebell suggested that the blacklist of Project 2025 figures could be simply a nonbinding optical move.

He said that after “the election or after the inauguration, they can change their mind about that. I see it as a political tactic, not as a permanent ban.”

Earlier this month, Howard Lutnick, the Trump transition team co-chairman, told the New York Post that Project 2025 is “radioactive,” so recruits tied to it won’t be considered.

Donald Trump Jr., the head of the transition team, told the Wall Street Journal that the main goal of the transition team was to prevent “RINOs” and disloyal people from getting in.

“There’s a lot of people that put the R next to their name, but then they do whatever the swamp wants because they’re looking for the next consulting gig or something like that,” he said. “We’re doing a lot with vetting. My job is to prevent those guys more so than actually picking people.”

Project 2025 has become a focus of the Harris campaign, with Harris, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), and campaign surrogates attempting to connect Trump with the effort in nearly every public appearance.

Most accusations made by Democrats and campaign surrogates were found to be false. In one viral list of alleged proposals, only five of the 31 items listed were found to be true or partially true.