'I know nothing': Trump claims ignorance over Project 2025 that his ex-staffers crafted
Former President Donald Trump disavowed Friday a controversial policy agenda causing a MAGA "freakout" by claiming he didn't know the authors — two of whom served in his administration.
Trump denied any connection to the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, which powerful conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation calls a "presidential transition project," in a Truth Social post.
"I know nothing about Project 2025," said Trump. "I have no idea who is behind it."
Project 2025 Director Paul Dans served as Trump's chief of staff at the office of Personnel Management and Associate Director Spencer Chretien was once Trump's special assistant, a U.S. News and World report released Thursday notes.
In contradiction to Trump's claim that he knows nothing about the policy platform — which calls for mass federal firings and the dismantling of the Education department — the former president also claimed he disagreed with parts of it.
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"I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal," Trump wrote. "Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them."
U.S. News and World also reported "Trump has echoed several of the policy priorities during rallies and campaign appearances" and his team has not disavowed it.
“The efforts by various non-profit groups are certainly appreciated and can be enormously helpful," Trump campaign operatives said last year. “Any personnel lists, policy agendas, or government plans published anywhere are merely suggestions."
Trump's own policy platform Agenda 47 is a series of videos Washington Post columnist Philip Bump describes as "a pastiche of promises and rhetoric that centers heavily on the things Republican primary voters wanted to hear in 2023."
The former president's campaign has not published another video since December.
Bump argues that while Trump finds Project 2025 to be "an annoyance" because he does not want to discuss policy specifics, it represents the best projection of his presidential ambitions.
"It is a book-length presentation of a sweeping overhaul of government and governance," writes Bump. "It gives Trump’s opponents something to point to and elevate to voters as unacceptable, even though it isn’t actually offered by Trump himself."
The Guardian notes that the Heritage Foundation claimed credit for a many Trump administration policy proposals.
"The group calculated that 64% of its policy recommendations were implemented or proposed by Trump in some way during his first year in office," according to the report.
On Friday, Salon writer Amanda Marcotte noted news of the policies in Project 2025 has started to spread, and more importantly, disturb. Actress Taraji P. Henson told viewers of the BET Awards they'd better "look it up."
"They are attacking our most vulnerable citizens," Henson said in her viral speech. "The Project 2025 plan is not a game."