Former Trump national security official Kash Patel triggered alarms among experts after he proclaimed that a second Trump administration will "come after" journalists and government critics who acted as "conspirators" against their re-election in 2020 — compounded by the fact that Patel is reportedly a shortlister for a top job in a second Trump administration.
But according to The Washington Post, Trump's camp is starting to worry about all the backlash comments like this from both Trump's allies and the former president himself are generating.
One Trump adviser said of the Patel comments, “Idiotic comments like this have nothing to do with our campaign.”
And yet the problem runs deeper than Patel, with Trump himself refusing to give a straight answer on whether he would govern as a dictator at his town hall in Iowa with Sean Hannity this week, as well as the reports about Project 2025, a Heritage Foundation blueprint for a coming GOP administration that outlines how to implement Christian nationalism and reshape the entire civil service into a loyalist army. Trump's inner circle have begun to try to walk back from that as well, according to Marianne LeVine, Isaac Arnsdorf and Josh Dawsey.
Per the report, media analyses of Project 2025 "prompted Trump campaign senior adviser Susie Wiles to complain to the project’s director, Paul Dans of the Heritage Foundation, saying that the stories were unhelpful and that the organization should stop promoting its work to reporters, according to a person familiar with the call." Meanwhile, Trump adviser Chris LaCivita said of Project 2025, “None of these groups or individuals speak for President Trump or his campaign. These stories are neither appropriate nor constructive.”
Meanwhile, Trump surrogates are also trying to do damage control, with Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) saying, “Donald Trump was president. Did he jail his opposition? No. Did he lock Hillary up? No.”
