Donald Trump has lately made clear he wants little to do with Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for the next Republican president that has attracted considerable blowback in his race for the White House.

“I have no idea who is behind it,” the former president recently claimed on social media.

Many people Trump knows quite well are behind it.

Six of his former Cabinet secretaries helped write or collaborated on the 900-page playbook for a second Trump term published by the Heritage Foundation. Four individuals Trump nominated as ambassadors were also involved, along with several enforcers of his controversial immigration crackdown. And about 20 pages are credited to his first deputy chief of staff.

In fact, at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025, a CNN review found, including more than half of the people listed as authors, editors and contributors to “Mandate for Leadership,” the project’s extensive manifesto for overhauling the executive branch.

  • iAmTheTot
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    4 months ago

    To play Devil’s advocate for a moment, I don’t know everything that everyone I used to work with is up to at all times. Just because they all worked for him doesn’t mean he was aware that they were the ones behind it.

    To stop playing Devil’s advocate for a moment, Trump is incapable of telling the truth, so…

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      If 140 of the people, including many I still work with, were up to this and I didn’t know about it, there would be no more proof necessary for my lack of fitness to lead.

    • Vaquedoso@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      It also wouldn’t be okey if he wasn’t aware of what his top people were doing. Any respectable leader would at least be aware of their tasks.
      In any case, yes, he is lying though.

      • ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        It also wouldn’t be okey if he wasn’t aware of what his top people were doing. Any respectable leader would at least be aware of their tasks.

        i think that’s the very point the fella above you is trying to make?

        • Vaquedoso@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          No, what he is trying to say, playing devil’s advocate, is that he genuinely may not have known what his subordinates did, which is right. It is a possibility. What I said in my comment is arguing that even if that were the case, not knowing the underdoings of his closest people is not a sign of a strong leader. In any case, I personally believe that he is lying and that he knows very well on what his people were working.

    • TurnpikeRangers@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I understand where you are coming from, but there is no reason to defend a twice impeached, 34 time felon, treasonous rapist. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Xi, Kim, and Pol Pot don’t deserve a devil’s advocate argument, and neither does Donald Trump. There is no grey area. Trump and his lackeys are the greatest threat to American democracy and world stability, and playing devil’s advocate validates them just enough to turn someone apathetic at best and into a Trump voter at worst.

      • iAmTheTot
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        4 months ago

        I like thinking about things. In case I didn’t make my actual opinion clear, Trump is a lying liar.

    • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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      4 months ago

      Project 2025 can both be something that Trump never worked on and something that gets implemented is he becomes President.