Trump Touts His Administration’s Ties to Project 2025 After Claiming He Had ‘No Idea’ Who Was Behind It on the Campaign Trail

President Donald Trump is now openly acknowledging his administration’s connection to Project 2025, a year after claiming he had no involvement with it.

On Thursday, Oct. 2, Trump posted on Truth Social about meeting with Russ Vought, a central figure behind Project 2025 — the Christian nationalist policy blueprint that drew widespread attention during Trump’s 2024 campaign.

Vought, 49, previously served as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget during both of Trump’s presidential terms.

“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump wrote.

“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” he continued. “They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Project 2025 is shorthand for the Heritage Foundation’s Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, a 900-page manifesto created by the conservative think tank in collaboration with more than 100 other right-leaning organizations.

Although Trump’s recent post highlighted Vought’s role in the initiative, he spent much of 2024 distancing himself from it. On the campaign trail, he labeled the plan “extremist” after polls showed it was widely unpopular among voters.

In a Truth Social post on July 5, 2024, Trump insisted, “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 abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

Later that month, during a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he repeated his denial.

“Some on the right, severe right, came up with this Project 25,” he said. “They’re very, very conservative. They’re sort of the opposite of the radical left… You read some of the things, and they are extreme. I mean, they are seriously extreme. I don’t know anything about it. I don’t want to know anything about it.”

Despite those remarks, many individuals involved with Project 2025 previously worked in Trump’s administration, and several of the plan’s architects now hold positions in his second term.

Trump was also familiar with the Heritage Foundation well before his denial. In 2016, the group provided him with a similar Mandate for Leadership, from which he implemented nearly two-thirds of its recommendations within his first year in office.

Since Trump returned to the presidency in January 2025, the website Project2025Tracker.org has been monitoring how his administration is pursuing 318 objectives outlined in the document. These include proposals to cut Social Security and Medicare, ban books about slavery and gender studies, eliminate marriage equality, pack courts and committees with Trump loyalists, and revoke birthright citizenship.

According to the tracker, about 48% of those objectives have been completed, with many actions taking place in the first few days of Trump’s second term.

The ongoing government shutdown, which began at 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1, could further advance those goals. Politico reported that Vought instructed federal agencies “to use this opportunity to consider Reduction in Force,” effectively calling for mass layoffs rather than temporary furloughs during the shutdown.

Following those directives, multiple agencies began preparing for widespread cutbacks. On Sept. 26, the Department of Labor issued a Plan for the Continuation of Limited Activities During a Lapse in Appropriations, outlining which offices — including the Bureau of Labor Statistics — would halt operations entirely.

Vought has also expanded on efforts first initiated by Elon Musk during his brief stint with the Department of Government Efficiency earlier in the year.

As director of the Office of Management and Budget, Vought has rolled back hundreds of regulations related to the environment, health, transportation, and food and worker safety. He has also curtailed the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and sought to cancel billions in foreign aid.

According to The New York Times, “At the heart of Mr. Vought’s plan, associates say, is the intentional engineering of a legal battle over Congress’s power to decide how government money is spent, potentially creating a new legal precedent for the president to block spending on any programs and policies he dislikes.”