Trump Running Away From Project 2025, An Autocracy Manual Written By His Own Aides

WASHINGTON — Facing blowback against Project 2025, Donald Trump is now claiming he doesn’t know anything about the right-wing policy and staffing manifesto — even though it was founded by his own former aides to prevent a repeat of the start of his first term when a lack of competent staff led to chaos.

More than half of the authors in the 920-page document, described by critics as an authoritarian playbook , are former Trump White House advisers or current campaign aides. His own campaign press secretary is featured in a Project 2025 recruitment ad, and many of the actual policies have been boiled down and produced into videos Trump has recorded for his Agenda 47. At a Florida rally Tuesday night, Trump publicly praised one of the project’s authors, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during his administration.

“By the way, we’re bringing back Tom Homan,” the coup -attempting former president said to thousands of followers gathered at his golf resort in Doral. “We’re bringing back all of the guys that did such a great job on the border.”

And Trump personally thanked the think tank running Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation, at an April 2022 dinner: “This is a great group, and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.”

The shoutouts belied his Truth Social post from last week , when he denied any knowledge of Project 2025 or the people who created it.

“I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and