WASHINGTON — As the Trump-Vance ticket attempts to pivot toward the middle to try and convince independent voters they’re not as radical as portrayed, Donald Trump is doing all he can to distance himself from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.

But that’s just on the surface.

Dig a little deeper and you’ll find the Republican Party — including Trump and vice presidential running mate J.D. Vance — is all in on some of the proposal’s more drastic recommendations, especially when it comes to slashing the federal workforce and then reshaping it in the GOP’s own image. ...

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) isn't happy with Donald Trump choosing Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) to join the presidential ticket.

While Vance brings "youth" to the table, the former governor wasn't supportive of his "lacking in executive experience." In fact, Vance's only political experience is less than two years as a senator.

"But the question is, the Nikki Haley supporters, the independent voters out there, how are they going to react to it?" he asked. "And right now he really doesn't have the national profile as many others."...

An unnamed attendee at the Republican National Convention this week told Reuters that they are harboring secret fears about what former President Donald Trump will do in a second term.

The attendee, whom Reuters described as a "senior Republican from a southern state," said they worried Trump would be a lawless president who stuffed government bureaucracies with yes men and would go after his political enemies.

"That effort will be horrendous," this Republican said....

Nobody is digging the Democratic National Committee (DNC) dancing after former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson bid adieu to the 2024 presidential race.

The DNC's National Press Secretary Sarafina Chitika almost came after Hutchinson like a has-been whose political journey to win the White House croaked long ago.

"This news comes as a shock to those of us who could've sworn he had already dropped out," the official statement reads....

Donald Trump's attempts to label Vice President Kamala Harris as an extremist met a roadblock Wednesday when a Democratic strategist revealed Gov. Tim Walz was once a Trump appointee.

Walz (D-MN) was among 10 governors appointed in 2019 to serve on the Trump administration's bipartisan Council of Governors, as a press release from that year shows.

Walz was joined by Govs. Steve Bullock (D-MT), Doug Ducey (R-AZ), Mike DeWine (R-OH), David Ige (D-HI), Ned Lamont (D-CT), J.B. Pritzker (D-IL), Michael Lynn Parson (R-MO), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), and Asa Hutchinson (R-AR), the press release shows. ...

A former Republican governor Monday believes conservative attacks on the nation's judicial system after former President Donald Trump's criminal conviction will only lose them key allies and voters in swing states.

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson made this argument to Anderson Cooper on CNN Monday night, days after a New York City jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to cover up hush money paid ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

"The Republican party right now, they're in a bind," Hutchinson said. "Their answer to it is to say...the charges and the convictions are not legitimate — that's a hard case to make."...