President Donald Trump's former campaign manager revealed the operation was oftentimes surprised at some of Project 2025's boldest ideas. The comments reveal inside knowledge at the initiative despite the campaign constantly trying to distance itself from the ultra-conservative movement.
Project 2025 is the 922-page blueprint for a second Trump administration prepared by conservative Heritage Foundation and published in April 2023. As soon as it was made public, then-candidate Trump tried to distance himself from it. "I know nothing about Project 2025," he wrote in a post on his Truth Social network last July. "I have no idea who is behind it."
But evidence suggests otherwise, even that Trump may have been involved in the process from the start. At a 2022 Heritage Foundation dinner, Trump thanked the organization for preparing the report, saying it was "going to lay the groundwork and detailed plans for exactly what our movement will do... when the American people give us a colossal mandate."
LaCivita's recent comments, which were made during Politico's "Playbook" podcast, hosted by Dasha Burns, further illustrate the campaign's awareness on the project despite previous claims. He explained that though they agreed with many outlines of the document, they opted to not explain themselves in the campaign trail, as it would allow them to shape the narrative around the candidate.
Nevertheless, he— and the rest of the campaign— was surprised at some of the project's most radical ideas, LaCivita explained.
"A ton of stuff in Project 2025 is your standard Republican fare... But there was some stuff in there where we were like, 'Where the hell did that come from?'" he said.
LaCivita mentioned a story from The New York Times that detailed how Trump would reinstitute nuclear testing should he win the election. The former campaign manager said that that idea actually came from Heritage's initiative, but was never publicly discussed by the campaign operation. However, he didn't further detail other plans from the document or his reactions.
Conversely, other proposals like tax cuts and cutting down government spending, he said, aligned seamlessly with the campaign strategy and future goals.
Project 2025 is not mentioned or reported on now as prominently as it was during the campaign trail, when Democrats attacked the GOP over the document and its content. However, key authors of the initiative are still working closely with the administration, likely advancing Heritage's goals.
Many of the key players of Project 2025 are now in the administration, leading key agencies across the federal government.
Most notably, Russell Vought, a principal author of the document, is Trump's pick to direct the Office of Management and Budget in his first and second terms. He wrote a chapter outlining plans to overhaul the executive branch and refocus federal agencies to serve the president's agenda.
Similarly, Peter Navarro, a longtime former aide, was selected to be Trump's senior counselor for trade and manufacturing. Navarro spent four months in prison last year after he was found in contempt of Congress for not complying with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots. In his section of the initiative, Navarro outlined a plan to raise tariffs on the E.U., China and India to balance the U.S. trade deficit.
Other contributors include Brendan Carr, Trump's pick to lead the Federal Communications Commission, Adam Candeub, the newly anointed general counsel for the FCC, border czar Tom Homan and more.
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