Donald Trump has a message for conservative pedestrians: I call the shots, not you.
It’s not a new edict, after a condensed, Trump-centric platform at the GOP convention that softened the party’s long-standing positions on abortion and undermined its orthodoxy on trade and rights. But it was amplified loudly this week when Trump’s campaign announced the resignation of the head of the Heritage Foundation’s controversial Project 2025, warning others seeking to engage with Trump: It should “serve as a notice … good for you it will not end.”
A campaign obsessed with owning its own message drives home a key point: This is not a coalition campaign, and anything that deviates from Trump will be swiftly neutralized. Now the broader conservative movement is trying to figure out what that means for a potential second Trump administration.
Some expressed concern that Trump would have it so easy after such a strong show of loyalty throw aside people who labored to ensure that he never again faced one of his chief complaints about the presidency: that he continuously disappointed people chose to obstruct the instructions he employed. Others saw it as a necessary effort to put to bed a group that was talking out of turn enough to become a problem in the election.
And then there’s the fact that Project 2025’s work product is still ready for use, if that and other political concerns don’t prevent Trump from returning to office.
In his resignation letter as head of Project 2025, Paul Dans told Heritage Foundation colleagues that their staff base for the next administration had reached nearly 20,000 applicants and they would “deliver” their policy products and recommendations for possible use as needed. “Our course remains unchanged,” he said.
Former Trump official and former Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff Mark Short, who has since denied Trump, said Trump’s attacks. the group is running a campaign “based on personality, not on a set of principles that we fight for.”
“If ever there was any group aligned with the president’s stated goal of destroying the “deep state,” this is supposedly the focus of Project 2025,” Short said.
Dans and members of his team have been in contact with all the major Republican campaigns, including Trump’s, about their work. A source familiar with the dynamic said the relationship continued after Trump won the GOP primaries. Dance did not respond to a request for comment.
Danielle Alvarez, Trump’s top adviser, said in a statement that the campaign has emphasized for nearly a year that Trump and his campaign are talking about his agenda for a second term.
“Since the fall of 2023, President Trump’s campaign has made it clear that policies for a second term are represented solely by President Trump and the campaign, NOT another organization or former staffer.” “President Trump has personally led efforts to build 20 promises to forgotten men and women across our country, as well as the RNC Platform — the only policies President Trump has endorsed for a second term.” He described efforts linking Trump to Project 2025 as “fearmongering” by his Democratic rivals.
It may be too early to tell if it’s had a lasting impact, but for now, a former Trump policy adviser said, “a lot of people feel bruised.” “I don’t think anyone is confusing Trump with movement conservatives, but in his first term he relied on them to get a lot of things done.”
Instead of going after the Heritage Foundation, this former aide questioned why the campaign hasn’t talked about its platform or plans for the next administration. While Trump and those around him began formal transition planning during his last campaign as a non-incumbent in the spring of 2016, naming former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as a transition chair, Trump has made no such public move this time around.
The start of the pre-election transition effort is coming later this time, but could begin three days after Democrats formally name their nominees during the party’s convention this month. At this time, office space for federal resources and employees will be availableaccording to a spokesman for the General Services Administration, which oversees the process.
Trump’s unofficial adviser, Stephen Moore, who is not part of the transition plan but has discussed future appointments with him, named three people he expects to be involved in the effort: Heritage Foundation founder Edwin Feulner, Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., and business executive Linda McMahon. , chairman of the board of the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute.
Two other sources also named McMahon, a close ally of Trump’s cabinet, as someone expected to play a key role in the official transition plan. Feulner and Hagerty joined in 2016, with Hagerty as director of presidential appointments, and Feulner’s arrival bolstered Trump’s conservative bona fides.
The campaign said it only had personnel or policy announcements from Trump or his campaign should be considered official.
“If you want to see a plan for the next Trump administration, look at the party platform,” Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump said in a post Thursday. An article was published in The Washington Times. “The Republican party is the party of common sense. Project 2025 has little, if any, of this.
Trump allies say they are fielding applications for administration jobs from a number of top candidates in the meantime, what one former official called a “constant drumbeat” of potential top appointees. Two people said it was a departure from 2016, when Trump was not expected to win.
While some are wary of people trying to hitch their wagons to Trump, one person said there is confidence the Trump team will know how to handle appointments with four years of experience in office.
“We know where the talent is. “We know where the talent is,” one of the people said.
Still, administration staffing may be the main place where Project 2025’s work turns into the Trump administration, even if the Trump campaign sidesteps the effort.
“If Trump is reelected, as we hope, there will be thousands of appointments,” said Stephen Groves, who helped draft the policy book Project 2025. “He and his team will make these appointments. What 2025 hoped for was to collect the names of personnel who hoped to serve.
Project 2025, cooperation Over 100 conservative groups, outlined his proposed management agenda in a more than 900-page mandate that promises to reshape the federal government. Many of its chapters were written or edited by former Trump officials. And the project is being worked on by Republicans trying to strengthen Trump’s power in the waning days of his administration by rooting out officials. is considered quite loyal.
A flagship effort A $22 million transition transactionProject 2025 helped attracting record donations Heritage — which in turn has led some in Trump’s orbit to label it a longtime conservative think tank. like “red”. It also allowed Democrats to sharpen their attacks on Trump by sounding the alarm about what the incoming Trump administration promises.
Moore, who co-authored the section, said people should lower expectations. “I think many of the recommendations will be implemented and others will fall by the wayside,” he said, as the foundation grew into an influential behemoth, as it did under Ronald Reagan.
Trump, who distanced himself from the draft last month, called it “a document where a lot of things are good” and “a lot of things are absolutely ridiculous.” He said he had “nothing to do” with the mandate, but said it offered fodder to his political rivals by drawing increased attention to it from the project and changing the nature of the race heading into the general election. . “People are outraged by it,” he told Fox News.
In recent posts on Truth Social, Trump said any reported connection between himself and Project 2025 was “misinformation”. “I wish them luck in whatever they do, but I have nothing to do with them.” he aAlsoid.
Groves, who helped put together the Project 2025 policy framework, said: “I understand politics. I understand the campaign policy. The president said only the truth. This is not his project. And it’s not.”
Groves, who was part of Trump’s transition in 2016, continued, “The Trump campaign has focused on what it needs to focus on, which is winning the race. And the project will continue.”
Others see an irreversible break.
“The reality is that nobody but Trump is making these decisions,” said a former senior official involved in the policy work of Project 2025, as well as other groups’ efforts. “But make no mistake: Trump hits them like a ball of yarn.”
While acknowledging this limitation, Groves urged critics to step back. “The project is not the decision-maker,” he said. “We are suffering from an unstable election period. We are all on the same team and we must not lose sight of that. As conservatives, we must unite around the same agenda.”