During Tuesday night’s subsequent presidential debate on ABC News, Vice President Kamala Harris criticized the former president Donald Trump for what she says is his involvement in Project 2025a 922-page playbook of controversial policy proposals compiled by the Heritage Foundation intended to guide the next conservative administration.
Trump denied involvement in Project 2025, saying he had “nothing to do with it” and that he has not read it, despite the playbook being written off dozens of former members of his administrationincluding former cabinet secretaries and West Wing aides. Speaking at a Heritage event in April 2022, Trump said: “This is a great group and they will lay the groundwork and the blueprints 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 participate in a presidential debate in Philadelphia on September 10, 2024.
Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
In the debate, Trump said: “I have nothing to do because she knows better than anybody, I have nothing to do with Project 2025. It’s out there. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it, knowingly. I’m not going to read it, he said.
He attributed Project 2025 to a “group of people who got together.”
“They came up with some ideas, I guess, some good, some bad,” he said. “But it makes no difference. I have nothing to do. Everyone knows I’m an open book.”
Tying Trump to Project 2025 has been a big part of Harris’ campaign strategy, and she’s already done it a few times during this debate. Measurements have consistently shown the plan and its proposals are generally unpopularso it’s no surprise that Trump is dismissing it yet again.