Trump again distances himself from Project 2025

The NPR Network will be reporting live from Chicago throughout the week bringing you the latest on the Democratic National Convention.

Earlier today at the Arizona-Mexico border, former President Donald Trump defended himself against a series of attacks Democrats have lobbed at him during the Democratic National Convention.

That includes repeated accusations of Trump ties to Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation blueprint for a second Trump term.

"They've been told officially, legally, in every way, that we have nothing to do with Project 25,” Trump said. “They know it, but they bring it up anyway. They bring up every single thing that you can bring up. Every one of them was false.”

Despite Trump's repeated distancing from the plan, many of its writers and architects worked in the Trump administration and would likely be on the shortlist for appointees in a second Trump term.

Trump himself repeated familiar attacks against Vice President Harris, blaming her for allowing violent criminals to cross the southern border illegally, and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who Trump attacked for stocking Minnesota public school bathrooms – including male-assigned bathrooms – with menstrual products.

But the former president spent the bulk of his time at the border focused on immigration. He was joined by family members of Americans killed by immigrants who've crossed the border illegally, and repeated his claim, without evidence, that many of those crossing the border were released from “mental institutions” and “insane asylums.”

“They make our criminals look like babies. They make our criminals look like babies,” Trump said. “That's about the only thing good. … Our criminals all of a sudden don't look so tough to us,