One of President Trump’s most obvious lies of the 2024 presidential campaign was just exposed … by a Republican congressman.
Project 2025, the nearly one thousand page blueprint for a potential Trump administration, became a lightning rod during the campaign cycle when Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris and her allies pointed out it contained a series of shocking and extreme policy proposals designed to aggressively expand the limits of presidential power and impose a right wing social agenda. Faced with the criticism, Trump repeatedly insisted he had “nothing to do with Project 25.”
However, now that Trump is in office, Rep. John Rose (R-TN) has essentially admitted that was not true at all. In fact, Rose credited Project 2025 with helping Trump hit the ground running with a spate of executive orders that mirror many of the authoritarian and retrograde ideas presented in the document.
“How do you think the president was prepared to issue all these executive orders?” Rose said in an interview with the Tennessee publication the Williamson Scene. “How do you think they were prepared to make all of these appointments in such quick succession after he got into office? Project 2025.”
Rose’s comments last week came just before he launched a gubernatorial campaign in his home state. His office and the White House did not immediately respond to TPM’s requests for comment.
Of course, Trump’s efforts to distance himself from Project 2025 were always laughable. The Heritage Foundation-led effort, which included a database of possible hires along with the policy blueprint, was packed with Trump’s associates and staffers from his first administration. Since his victory in last year’s election, Trump has also built out his current team with a bunch of Project 2025 authors and contributors. The roster of Project 2025 alums in the second Trump administration includes Russell Vought, who authored a chapter detailing “a plan for the executive branch” and is now leading the powerful Office of Management and Budget, which was a core part of his vision for the White House.
Naturally, Trump and the many Project 2025 alums in his administrations have, thus far, implemented an agenda that closely matches the right-wing blueprint.
There’s nothing surprising about Rose’s remarks. What’s notable is that he said the quiet part out loud.
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The cats are hiding under the bed. Look for them there.
It sounds like this guy is going to run on Project 2025. I’m not a professional but that doesn’t sound like a good idea, even in Tennessee. As always, your thoughts are welcome.
It’s clear they’ve reached the stage where they think they’ve gotten away with it all and are now proudly taking credit for what they’ve “accomplished.” *&^%$#!
Ah, John Rose. One of those groomers we hear so much about.
Harris: “Trump’s campaign is stuffed with people who are either writing or touting Project 2025 or both.”
Trump: “Lyin’ Kamala is making that up. I have nothing to do with Project 2025.”
Media: Harris claims Project 2025 is his plan. Trump denies it ferociously." (Dusting off their hands and walking away muttering “Our work here is done.”)
This is their great failure. They assume that the two parties both speak in good faith, and that their disagreements are sincere. When one party lies, and the other insists on the truth, the media literally cannot fit that into their model for political reporting. Both the lie and the truth, then, go unreported.
Multiply this pattern by a thousand times, and you’ve got the USA circa 2025. If you turn to our national media today you will find that the GOP claims Project 2025 is a legitimate effort to root out waste fraud and abuse, and that Democrats disagree. The destruction of the federal government, a spectacle of waste and abuse, and MAGA’s fraudulent claims to the contrary, go unreported!
I don’t think they believe that; anyone reasonably objective and not comatose for the last 10 years knows Kraznov is a liar who lies about everything to everyone, everywhere he goes.
They are just too lazy, or too timid, or too browbeaten by their corporate overlords to take the effort to verify what they are being fed.