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Donald Trump is at his best (for a lack of a better term) when he can be on the offense. Lies, false accusations, childish nicknames — that’s where he feels most comfortable. Conversely, he performs worst when he is on the defensive… like during his criminal or civil trials. Now that Americans are being alerted to the GOP’s “Project 2025,” he once again finds himself in that situation.
For the second time in a week, Trump claimed to “know nothing” about the document compiled by his allies. Put together by the Heritage Foundation and other radical organizations, it outlines how he could turn the US into an authoritarian theocracy if he wins in November.
Congressional Democrats and the campaign of President Joe Biden have spent the past several weeks highlighting the parts of Project 2025 that they believe will be most unpalatable to Americans.
For example, the right-wing governing blueprint wants the US to “maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family” and limit insurance coverage for contraception.
While he is not a man of many talents, Trump does have a good sense of what is popular… and he knows that Project 2025 is not a winner for him.
Neither is the rhetoric of Heritage Foundation officials who are openly talking about “weaponized conservatives” and a “second American Revolution.”
That is why he took to social media last week to disavow the document.
Essentially, he was claiming to both know nothing about Project 2025 and to disagree with some of the recommendations it makes. The former president even went as far as claiming that “some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.”
In true Trumpian fashion, he did not specify which of the policies he disagreed with that were outlined in the document that he never read and that was put together by people he allegedly didn’t know.
While it sounds credible that Trump didn’t read the governing blueprint (he is not much of a reader, and that thing is 900 pages long), it does not seem likely that he was not aware of the project and did not know who was involved.
Various news organizations have established links between the authors of the manifesto and Trump’s administration.
For example, CNN found that six of his cabinet secretaries were involved in the project and that there were at least 240 people with ties to both Trump and Project 2025.
In addition, a video has surfaced that shows the former president addressing the Heritage Foundation when it began putting together its “Mandate for Leadership.” At the time, Trump praised the organization, saying it “is a great group and they’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do.”
That doesn’t sound like someone who had no idea what Project 2025 was.
In the face of this evidence, and since the first denial did not appear to have done the trick, he once again took to social media on Thursday to adopt the popular strategy of deny, deny, deny.
“I know nothing about Project 2025. I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, and, unlike our very well received Republican Platform, had nothing to do with it,” he wrote on Truth Social. “The Radical Left Democrats are having a field day, however, trying to hook me into whatever policies are stated or said. It is pure disinformation on their part. By now, after all of these years, everyone knows where I stand on EVERYTHING! DJT”
The gentleman doth protest too much, wethink.
