Donald Trump on Friday sought to distance himself from a closely-aligned conservative group’s plans to radically reshape the federal government and American life should the former president win a second term.

In a post to his social media site, Trump claimed, “I know nothing about Project 2025,” the name given to a playbook crafted by the Heritage Foundation to fill the executive branch with thousands of Trump loyalists and reorient its many agencies’ missions around conservative ideals.

“I have no idea who is behind it,” Trump continued on Truth Social. “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.”

. . . Trump’s campaign has sought for months to make clear that Project 2025 is not its official policy platform amid an intensifying effort by President Joe Biden and Democrats to tie Trump to its more controversial policies.

Yet those efforts are complicated by Trump’s extremely close relationship with many of the people who launched Project 2025 or helped contribute to it. Paul Dans, the head of Project 2025, was chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management during the Trump administration, and the group’s roadmap for the next administration includes contributions from others who have worked for the former president, including

  • his former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson,
  • former acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli
  • and former deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn.
  • John McEntee, Trump’s former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office and one of his closest aides while in office, is also a senior adviser for the project.

Yeah he has NO IDEA WHO IS BEHIND IT. Odds that the demented rapist himself wrote that . . . shit? 0%.

And “Abysmal”? No. Man wouldn’t know an abyss if it bit him in the girdle.

  • ArbitraryValueEnglish
    3·
    6 months ago

    Trump seems to admire Putin and there is reason to think that Putin wants Trump to be elected, but despite all the accusations there is no evidence that Putin has any sort of control over Trump. And I haven’t even heard anyone else claim that Salman or Kim control him.

    • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
      1·
      6 months ago

      Besides all the obvious things, you’re right. There is no hard evidence that putin controls trump.

      Trump announced, on stage with putin, that he rejects the entirety of the United States Intelligence Apparatus’ conclusions that russia interfered in the election, and instead believes putin.

      Sure.

      • ArbitraryValueEnglish
        1·
        6 months ago

        Trump also rejects the conclusion that he lost the 2020 election. I think he would reject any conclusion that implied he wasn’t actually as popular and admired as he claims to be. The conclusion about Russian interference isn’t unusual in that context.

        • Optional@lemmy.worldOP
          1·
          6 months ago

          It’s hard evidence he is manipulated by putin.

          I mean, one of many examples. The collusion is old. There’s a mountain of circumstantial evidence. If one wants to hew close to “no amount of coincidences will constitute proof”, well then, there’s still direct connections. The meeting at trump tower, the mayflower hotel meeting jeff sessions perjured himself over. Mike flynn admitted to twice and was convicted of lying to the FBI about putin’s influence. Influence is control.

          Jared’s $2B sweetheart deal is payment for services rendered by MBS. You think trump isn’t going to get a huge chunk of that? That’s controlling interest.

          The first time Trump paid attention to any of this was when he read about it in the newspaper. The story revealed that Trump’s very own transition team had raised several million dollars to pay the staff. The moment he saw it, Trump called Steve Bannon, the chief executive of his campaign, from his office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower, and told him to come immediately to his residence, many floors above. Bannon stepped off the elevator to find Christie seated on a sofa, being hollered at. Trump was apoplectic, yelling: You’re stealing my money! You’re stealing my fucking money! What the fuck is this?

          Seeing Bannon, Trump turned on him and screamed: Why are you letting him steal my fucking money? Bannon and Christie together set out to explain to Trump federal law. Months before the election, the law said, the nominees of the two major parties were expected to prepare to take control of the government. The government supplied them with office space in downtown DC, along with computers and rubbish bins and so on, but the campaigns paid their people. To which Trump replied: Fuck the law. I don’t give a fuck about the law. I want my fucking money. Bannon and Christie tried to explain that Trump couldn’t have both his money and a transition.

          Shut it down, said Trump. Shut down the transition.