Summary
- White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded Friday.
- Trump previously distanced from Project 2025 on the campaign trail.
- Now he openly embraces its agenda amid shutdown.
- Leavitt deflected detailed questions on Trump’s change.
The conservative Heritage Foundation think group created Project 2025, a nearly thousand-page policy proposal, during the 2024 election campaign.
In her response, Leavitt did not address the policy idea, stating that the "president and his team and his Cabinet secretaries ultimately decide" whether to lay off federal government employees or reduce federal programs.
"During the campaign, President Trump said that he did not know anything about Project 2025. Now, he knows about it. Is that the blueprint for shrinking the government?"
Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Leavitt during the press briefing Friday afternoon.
"And the president trusts his Cabinet secretaries to identify where there is waste, fraud and abuse. We pointed out this morning — or Russ Vought tweeted about this morning — a Chicago rail project that was canceled,"
Leavitt said.
"We paused $2.1 billion in Chicago infrastructure projects, specifically the Red line extension and the Red and Purple modernization projects, and it's because the administration is concerned that the Biden administration was handing out taxpayer dollars to pay for this construction based on DEI."
The Department of Transportation "is reviewing race-based contracting on unconstitutional grounds," she said.
"And in the meantime, the Department of Transportation funds for these projects are on hold. So I guess this answers both of your questions. This would be an example of that."
Project 2025 became a lightning rod of criticism among Democrats during the 2024 election, as the Harris–Walz campaign claimed it was rife with "dangerous" policies stretching from abortion to the economy.
Trump denied knowing details about the policy blueprint from the campaign trail.
"I know nothing about Project 2025,"
Trump said in July 2024.
"I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them."
On Thursday, after the government shutdown, Trump posted to Truth Social that he was set to meet with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) chief Russell Vought, describing him as the man of "PROJECT 2025 Fame."
Vought was one of the architects behind the Project 2025 policy proposal.
How Republicans in Congress reacted to Trump citing Project 2025?
Multiple congressional Republicans assert they don't know much about Project 2025 or label it "a nothing burger." For instance, Rep. Byron Donald (R-Fla) stated that he was mostly oblivious to it and deemed it unremarkable.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) admitted he has not gone through the lengthy plan but said he appreciates the organizations that support concepts that lay behind it.
Senators Bill Cassidy and John Cornynn, for their part, heralded a note of caution, saying policy ideas in the plan shouldn't be interpreted literally and think tanks occasionally want to put forward ideas that will never be enacted into law.