MIAMI (AP) — Donald Trump distanced himself on Friday from Project 2025, a massive overhaul proposal federal government drafted by longtime allies and former officials in his administration, days after the head of the think tank responsible for the program suggested there would be a second American Revolution.
“I don’t know anything about Project 2025,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “I have no idea who is behind it. I don’t agree with some of the things they say and some of the things they say are absolutely ridiculous and appalling. Whatever they do, I wish them well, but I have nothing to do with them.”
The 922-page plan describes a spectacular expansion US President Joe Biden announced Monday that he would seize presidential power and plan to fire up to 50,000 government workers and replace them with Trump supporters. President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has sought to draw more attention to the plan, particularly as Biden tries to keep fellow Democrats on board after his disastrous debate.
Trump has laid out his own plans He plans to overhaul the government if he wins a second term, including staging the largest deportation operation in U.S. history and imposing tariffs on potentially all imports. His campaign has already warned outside allies against pretending to speak for the former president and suggested that their pending transition efforts are not helpful.
Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation Republican Sen. Steve Bannon said Tuesday on the “War Room” podcast that Republicans are “taking back control of this country.” Former U.S. Rep. Dave Brat of Virginia hosted the show for Bannon, who is serving a four-month prison sentence.
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“We are in the midst of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” Roberts said.
The comments were widely shared online and criticized by Biden’s campaign, which issued a statement saying Trump and his allies “dream of a violent revolution to destroy the very idea of America.”
Some of the members of Project 2025 are former senior administration officials. The project’s director is Paul Dans, who served as chief of staff for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management under Trump. Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt was featured in one of Project 2025’s videos.
John McEntee, a former director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel during the Trump administration, is a senior adviser. McEntee told conservative news site The Daily Wire earlier this year that the Project 2025 team would integrate much of its work into the campaign after the summer, when Trump announces his transition team.
Trump’s comments on the 2025 plan come ahead of Republican Party meetings next week to begin drafting its platform.
The 2025 Project has prepared its own 180-day agenda for the next administration, which it plans to share privately, rather than as part of its public book of priorities for a Republican president. A key Trump ally, Russ Vought, who contributed to the 2025 Project and is writing this latest pillar, is also on the Republican National Committee’s platform writing committee.
A spokesman for the plan said the 2025 project was not tied to a specific candidate or campaign.
“We are a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups advocating for policy and personnel recommendations for the next conservative president,” a statement said. “But it is ultimately up to that president, who we believe will be President Trump, to decide which recommendations to implement.”
The Democratic National Committee said the plan and the Trump campaign are part of the same “MAGA operation.” A Biden campaign spokesperson said Project 2025 staffers also run the Republican policy platform.
“Project 2025 is the extreme policy and personnel manual for Trump’s second term that should scare the American people,” said Ammar Moussa.
On Thursday, as the country celebrated Independence Day and Biden prepared for his televised interview after his faltering debate performance, the president’s campaign posted an image from the dystopian TV series “The Handmaid’s Tale” on X-rated social media, showing a group of women wearing the show’s signature red dresses and white hats standing in formation near a reflecting pool with a cross at the end where the Washington Monument would be. The story revolves around women who are stripped of their identities and forced to give birth to children for other couples in a totalitarian regime.
“July 4th according to Trump’s 2025 plan,” the message read.
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Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.
