Trump Wants to Distance Himself From Project 2025. Democrats Are Trying Not to Let Him.

Kenan Thompson, the longest-tenured cast member in “Saturday Night Live” history, strode on to the stage on Wednesday night with an oversize book and thumped it heavily onto the lectern: an exaggerated version of Project 2025, a controversial set of conservative policy proposals outlining an agenda for the next Republican president that Democrats have brandished all week.

“Y’all remember this big old book, from before?” Mr. Thompson asked to roars of laughter from the auditorium. “You ever see a document that could kill a small animal and democracy at the same time? Here it is.”

Former President Donald J. Trump himself is not behind Project 2025, and he and his running mate, JD Vance, have been seeking to distance themselves from the specifics inside the 900-page plan.

But that has not stopped Democrats from wielding it as cudgel. Speaker after speaker has referenced the blueprint in Chicago this week, underscoring its sweeping proposals to reshape the federal government, curb abortion rights and climate protections, and drastically reduce immigration into the United States.

“If Donald Trump has his way, he’s going to push through their extreme agenda — Project 1825,” Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey said on Wednesday, joking about what Democrats have called its backward policy. “I mean — I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I roll that back. I got that wrong. Project 1925 — oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Project 2025.”

Onstage later, Mr. Thompson took calls from several regular Americans who appeared on a screen behind him. He riffed about how their lives would fare under the policy proposals in the book. The bit got off to a bumpy start when Matt, an A.V. tech from Nevada was, perhaps ironically, muted.