Outside the RNC, conservative group defends its Project 2025 guide as Democrats ramp up criticism

MILWAUKEE– At the edge of the cordoned off perimeter around the Republican National Convention on Monday, hundreds of conservatives filed into the ornate home of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra to listen to a parade of luminaries talking about policy and Project 2025.

Project 2025 is the term for the Heritage Foundation’s nearly 1,000-page report playbook for the next Republican administration, which has become a cudgel that Democrats use against former President Donald Trump, who on Monday officially became the Republican Party’s presidential nominee. That’s because the book proposes radical changes to the federal government, including changing personnel rules to ensure that public employees are more loyal for the president.

The Heritage event was called “Policy Fest” and was not technically part of Project 2025, but the endeavor was constantly emerging. Speakers minimized and magnified. Heritage President Kevin Roberts called it “unprecedented in the history of the conservative movement,” but also tried to tone down his rhetoric from earlier this month, when he promised he would lead to a “second American revolution”.

“How many of you are ready to take back our country steadily, calmly and peacefully?” Roberts asked the crowd Monday.

Tom Homan, who oversaw U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Trump administration, told reporters not to oversell the project. He said Washington think tanks often prepare plans for new administrations — and, in fact, Heritage’s project is modeled on previous projects going back decades.

“I know the president very well,” said Homan, who contributed to the bill’s immigration proposals. “He’s not going to read any plan and say ‘OK, I’m going to do this.’ … He’s going to do what he’s going to do.

Trump distanced himself of the project, which is managed by several senior executives from its previous administration. But he also spoke warmly about it, and the connection was further cemented by Trump’s selection of Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate

Roberts said he is “good friends” with Vance and that the Heritage Foundation was rooting for him to be chosen as vice president. The Ohio senator, Roberts said, recognizes that “we have a limited time to pursue policy.”

Democrats seized on Vance’s previous praise for Project 2025.

“JD Vance embodies MAGA – with an extreme, out-of-touch agenda and plans to help Trump impose his Project 2025 agenda on the American people,” Jaime Harrison, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement referring to Make Trump’s America. Great move again.

Vivek Ramaswamy, pharmaceutical entrepreneur and former Republican Party primary candidate who has since become a Trump surrogate, said on stage that conservatives are not entirely in agreement about what should happen in a second Trump term.

“Do we want to replace the left-wing nanny state with a conservative nanny state?” he asked. “Or do we want to dismantle the nanny state?”

Some of the project’s recommendations, including cuts to rights or tip taxes, conflicts with some of what Trump promised during the campaign. Trump’s campaign has emphasized that he will make decisions about what to do if he returns to office.

Roberts said that doesn’t bother him: “It’s impossible for every conservative to agree with everything in the document,” he said.