During ABC News’ major presidential debate Tuesday night, Vice President Kamala Harris criticized former President Donald Trump for what she said was his involvement in Project 2025, a 922-page playbook of controversial policy proposals developed by the Heritage Foundation and intended to guide the next conservative administration.
Trump has denied any involvement in Project 2025, saying he had “nothing to do with it” and had not read it, although the playbook was written by dozens of former members of his administration, including former Cabinet secretaries and West Wing aides. Speaking at a Heritage event in April 2022, Trump said, “This is a tremendous group and they are going to lay the groundwork and lay out the plans for exactly what our movement will do … when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump attend a presidential debate in Philadelphia, September 10, 2024.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
During the debate, Trump said: “I have nothing to do with the 2025 plan, because she knows it better than anybody. I have nothing to do with the 2025 plan. It’s there. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it, on purpose. I’m not going to read it,” he said.
He attributed Project 2025 to a “group of people who came together.”
“They had ideas, I suppose, some good, some bad,” he said. “But it makes no difference. I don’t have to do anything. Everybody knows I’m an open book.”
Tying Trump to Project 2025 has been a major part of Harris’ campaign strategy, and she’s already done so repeatedly during this debate. Polls have consistently shown that the plan and its proposals are widely unpopular, so it’s no surprise that Trump is once again disavowing it.
