Project 2025 architect: Trump has 'raised money for our organization, he’s blessed it'

Russell Vought, a former Trump administration official who is also one of the brains behind the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, was secretly recorded casting doubt on former President Donald Trump's claims that he wants nothing to do with the controversial initiative.

As CNN reports, undercover left-wing activists filmed a meeting with Vought in which he said he was unconcerned by Trump's efforts to distance himself from Project 2025.

"I see what he’s doing is just very, very conscious distancing himself from a brand,” Vought said of Trump's public disavowals. “It’s interesting, he’s in fact not even opposing himself to a particular policy.”

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Vought also boasted of his close connections with Trump and said that he had expressed support for the Center for Renewing America, where Vought and his allies have been drafting executive orders for Trump's second term.

"He’s raised money for our organization, he’s blessed it," said Vought. "He’s very supportive of what we do.”

When asked if Trump had offered him a job for his second administration, Vought said he had not but also added that "I think there’s an expectation that I would go in.”

Trump has denied having any knowledge of Project 2025, even though multiple people who authored sections of the project's manifesto served under his first administration.