The Trump campaign issued a very weird statement yesterday disavowing the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 — again. As campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita point out, they've been trying to get them to shut up for some time:

President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the President in any way, Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you.

The Trumpian threat at the end was a nice flourish but they do mean it. The professional campaign's frustration with the group has been obvious ever since the Democrats jumped on the 900-page manifesto and made it into another Trump-branded product. No matter how hard the Trump campaign tried they couldn't get people to stop talking about Project 2025.

No matter how hard the Trump campaign tried they couldn't get people to stop talking about Project 2025.

Trump has personally tried to distance himself from the project, calling it "appalling" and "extreme" at different times and claiming he didn't know anything about it, even though his own running mate, JD Vance, has extensive ties to the organization and has even written the foreword to Heritage President Kevin Roberts' upcoming book, Dawn's Early Light, Taking Back Washington to Save America. As has been thoroughly documented, most of the people associated with Project 2025 are Trump administration alumni, such as his former Housing Secretary Ben Carson, trade adviser Peter Navarro, White House adviser........

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