Staffers at the Heritage Foundation are reportedly feeling the heat for their work on Project 2025, the highly controversial right-wing blueprint for governance under a second Trump administration.
NOTUS reports that "Republicans have been tearing their hair out over the best way to handle the Project 2025 controversy," which the publication writes has become "politically radioactive."
The fear about Project 2025 became more acute in recent weeks when former President Donald Trump tried to completely distance himself from it, despite the fact that the 900-plus page policy document was written by many of his own former administration officials.
Now one source tells NOTUS that Trump may be so angry about Project 2025 that they fear it will harm the Heritage Foundation's ability to influence policy in a second Trump White House.
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“There came a point at which people realized, ‘Oh, you might have actually done something that jeopardizes Heritage’s influence in the next administration,'" this source explained. "People are legitimately worried."
Brian Darling, a GOP operative and former Heritage director of government relations, was struck by how stridently Trump has tried to shield himself from the project.
“I was not surprised that he didn’t want to be associated with it,” he said. “But I didn’t understand why the tone was so harsh and over the top.”
NOTUS notes that Democrats have also succeeded in putting Republicans on the defensive on the project, which calls for eliminating executive agencies' independence and putting them under the direct control of the president, among other controversial measures.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) told NOTUS that making Project 2025 politically toxic with voters has been a breeze because they don't have to exaggerate anything about the document's radical proposals, such as having the Food and Drug Administration rescind authorization of the abortion drug mifepristone.
“We’re not trying to mislead anyone,” Huffman further explained. “We’re showing them the 920-page radical blueprint that these guys were stupid enough to publish.”
