‘A devastating self-own’: How Project 2025 became Trump’s worst nightmare

These days, “Project 2025” is nothing but a dirty word (or pair of words) to staffers on Donald Trump’s third bid for the presidency. After months of negative coverage and attacks from Democrats, Trump and his top aides are both engaged in a conscious effort to distance the former president from the project whenever possible. That effort drew to a heated pitch this summer as top Trump campaign officials Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles released a statementcrowing over the resignation of a top Project 2025 operative and declaring the various groups involved with the plan to be speaking on the former president’s behalf without his permission.

This wasn’t supposed to be how the election went at all. The question remains: How did the Heritage Foundation and the other conservative groups behind Project 2025 fumble the bag this badly?

The answer seems obvious: Donald Trump. But that wasn’t obvious to anybody working on the effort.

Trump himself has made his own attempts at creating daylight between himself and a plan that was fundamentally crafted by his allies with the express purpose of streamlining his second presidency and addressing a number of his (supposed) priorities. Those include clearing the way for the weaponization of the Justice Department, among other changes to other agencies, which would allow Trump to direct his long-threatened crusade against Joe Biden and his family.

And therein lies the problem. All of Trump’s escapades occurred out in the open — his worst impulses laid bare by a series of damning tell-all interviews, book deals and instances of congressional testimony submitted by former aides and staffers. America’s political establishment and media are well-accustomed to the former president’s more