Donald Trumps has won the election, and Republicans are now comfortable openly admitting that Project 2025 was the plan all along.
The draconian policy package prepared by The Heritage Foundation in preparation for a second Trump administration was so extremist that in the final months of the campaign the former president took great pains to publicly distance himself from the project. Its contents, which include a broad expansion of executive powers; a de facto national abortion ban, increased restrictions on contraception; brutal policies against undocumented migrants; and the elimination of several federal agencies (including the Department of Education), didn't sit well with prospective voters.
Trump feigned ignorance of the plan, despite his close ties to those involved in crafting it, while Democrats did all they could to warn about the conservative blueprint for a second Trump term.
Sure enough, less than 24 hours after the election was called for Trump, his allies, advisers, and prominent supporters were celebrating the now-open road to Project 2025's implementation.
On Wednesday, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon — who just weeks ago completed a four-month prison sentence on a contempt of Congress conviction — lauded Christian Nationalist Matt Walsh, a commentator at The Daily Wire, on his War Room broadcast.
Walsh had written on X, formerly Twitter: “Now that the election is over I think we can finally say that yeah actually Project 2025 is the agenda. Lol”
“Matt Walsh, I think, is a very smart and funny guy,” Bannon said. “Put that everywhere,” he added, with instructions to his staff to promote the post on his social media.
Right-wing podcast Benny Johnson also gloated about the project. “It is my honor to inform you all that Project 2025 was real the whole time,” he wrote.
In a separate post, Tarrant County GOP Chair Bo French wrote, “So can we admit now that we are going to implement Project 2025?”
Regardless of whether Trump explicitly endorses Project 2025 as a guide for his second administration, the overlap in his proposals, staff, and goals means the two are inextricably linked. Republicans just don't have to pretend anymore.
