With President Donald Trump’s radical rehaul of America well underway, right-wing policy engineer Russell Vought wants you to believe Project 2025 was never meant to be his road map.
During Sunday’s episode of “State of the Union,” CNN moderator Dana Bash got an icy answer when she asked Vought if the overlap between Trump’s agenda and the hyper-conservative political program meant that Project 2025 was coming to fruition.
Though the president repeatedly distanced himself from Project 2025 during his campaign, second-term Trump achievements like eliminating DEI, banning transgender troops and sending the military to crack down on the southern border were all detailed in the far-right policy wish list, for which Vought served on the advisory board.
But Vought, who is now Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, shot down the idea that the Heritage Foundation-helmed initiative inspired any of the president’s actions.
Claiming Trump was “very public” about his plans during his campaign, the political operative told Bash it is “delusional” to think the president was not the sole architect of his executive strategy.
“I’m not suggesting that he’s not in charge,” Bash countered. “I’m just saying that now it’s pretty clear that what he wants to do and what you planned are dovetailing.”
Vought still refused to acknowledge the influence of Project 2025, which also laid out tactics for shuttering the Department of Education, banning abortion medication and imposing work requirements for Medicaid recipients in a 900-plus page blueprint titled “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise.”
“I think the president was very clear with his agenda and he is going forward with that agenda and he has been at the helm and the originator of all of these ideas,” he told Bash.
“What’s on the agenda is what the president has put on the agenda, most of which he ran on,” Vought continued. “And you will continue to see the things that he’s interested in doing and those people like me will be executing that vision.”
Though Trump’s policies seem to be in sync with what was outlined by Project 2025, he told voters during his campaign he had “nothing to do” with the program.
“I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it purposely. I’m not going to read it,” he claimed during his first and only debate with Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris.