'Mask coming off': Dem celebrates as Trump's Project 2025 gambit comes back to haunt him

Former President Donald Trump scrambled last week to distance himself from Project 2025, the radical right-wing plan to dramatically expand the powers of the executive branch under a second Trump term.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump confusingly said that he knew nothing about Project 2025 while also saying that he disagreed with many of its tenets.

However, that post has only helped draw more attention to the controversial project, which among other things calls on a Trump-led Food and Drug Administration to ban the abortion pill mifepristone.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) on Wednesday spiked the football and taunted Trump for helping Democrats put Project 2025 on the mainstream media's spotlight.

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"Front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 'Project 2025 Author To Be Sponsor Of RNC,'" wrote Pocan on Twitter, while also posting a photo of the paper's front page. "Horrible news for Trump, GOP. The mask is coming off. Project 2025 is Trump’s agenda for a second term. And YOU are targeted. All of you. Get to know how you and your family will be hurt."

David Weigel, a reporter for Semafor, cited Pocan's tweet and argued it appeared to be an example of Trump's poor impulse control coming to bite him.

"The narrative is 'Trump has been quiet and let Biden hurt himself since the debate,' but Trump's bizarre Project 2025 post really helped Democrats message around it," he wrote. "Too clever by half. Trump didn't just say that Project 2025 was a think tank project, not his own (which had been the campaign line). He said he had 'no idea who is behind it' (some worked for his admin!) and that 'some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal' (which?)"