Project 2025 Backers Respond to Donald Trump 'Extreme' Attack

Right-wing figures have reacted to Donald Trump distancing himself from Project 2025 after he called the controversial policy proposals "radical," and "seriously extreme."

Speaking in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Saturday, at his first campaign rally since last week's attempt on his life, the Republican nominee said the Democrats were trying to associate him with the Heritage Foundation's policy proposals to make him appear as an extremist.

"And you know the other side's going around trying to make me sound extreme, like I'm an extremist," he said. "I'm not, I'm a person with great common sense, I'm not an extremist at all."

Created by right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 is a 900-page document of proposed policies for a future Republican administration. Many of the proposed policies are unpopular with voters.

Trump said that the contributing authors and the Heritage Foundation were on the "severe right."

"Like some on the right, severe right, came up with this Project 25, and I don't even know, I mean some of them I know who they are, but they're very, very conservative," he said. Some members of the audience booed at this point.

"They're sort of the opposite of the radical left, OK; you have the radical left, and you have the radical right, and they come up with this, I don't know what the hell it is, 'It's Project 25!' 'He's involved in Project,' and then they read some of the things, and they are extreme, I mean they're seriously extreme. But I don't know anything about it, I don't want to know anything about it," he said.

Newsweek has contacted the Heritage Foundation for comment via email.

Utah Senator Mike Lee, a Republican, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he was skeptical Trump was denouncing Project 2025.

"I'm not sure what he's referring to. But I suspect he's reacting not to Project 2025. But to progressive Democrats' unfair characterization of Project 2025," he wrote.

Conservative commentator—and Newsweek opinion writer—Richard Hanania wrote on X that Trump no longer needs to negotiate with other conservative factions.

"Trump gets the crowd to boo Project 2025, puts it in the same category as the radical left. The cult of personality has grown so strong he no longer feels the need to negotiate with other factions," he wrote. "If they cause him inconvenience, he just crushes them." The post had been viewed 3.6 million times by Sunday.

Far-right pundit Nick Fuentes, who once claimed only 200,000 or 300,000 people died in the Holocaust and said of Jewish people "we will make them die in a holy war," denounced Trump's disavowal of Project 2025 as overly moderate, writing "this is not going to be a right-wing government." His post had been viewed 2 million times by Sunday.

Although they appear to disagree about Project 2025, Trump said he was "really impressed" with Fuentes when they dined together in 2022.

The project's proposed policies, which were created by dozens of contributors and authors, aim to remove civil service employment protections for thousands of federal employees.

They then propose to implement sweeping changes to the federal government, including eliminating the Department of Education, reducing the scope of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, rolling back renewable-energy programs to create a regulatory environment that favors the fossil fuel industry, limiting mail-order abortion pills and removing diversity, equity and inclusion hiring policies from federal programs.

Despite Trump distancing himself from Project 2025, a total of 31 of its contributors served in his presidential administration at various levels.