In response to new reporting that Donald Trump took a private flight with Project 2025 leader Kevin Roberts and was “personally” briefed by Roberts on Project 2025, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Donald Trump didn’t just know about Project 2025 – he was ‘personally’ briefed on this ‘undeniably’ Trump-driven operation by the agenda’s chief architect. Trump’s deep ties to Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation make it clear that no matter how hard they try to spin it, Trump and Project 2025 posterboy JD Vance are fully connected to this dangerous plan to rip away our freedoms, threaten our democracy, and take our country backward. While Trump and Vance desperately try to distance themselves from their own ultra-MAGA platform, voters are learning more and more about Project 2025’s wildly unpopular proposals every day – and are ready to reject this extreme, far-right blueprint at the ballot box in November.”

NEW: Donald Trump was briefed on Project 2025 by Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts and took a private flight with Roberts in 2022.

Washington Post: “Trump took a private flight with Project 2025 leader in 2022”

“In April 2022, Trump shared a 45-minute private flight with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts… They flew together to a Heritage conference where Trump delivered a keynote address that gestured to Heritage’s forthcoming policy proposals.

“‘They’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do,’ Trump said in the speech.

“Separately, Roberts told The Washington Post in an interview in April of this year that he had previously discussed Project 2025 with Trump as part of offering briefings to all presidential candidates. ‘I personally have talked to President Trump about Project 2025,’ he said in the interview, ‘because my role in the project has been to make sure that all of the candidates who have responded to our offer for a briefing on Project 2025 get one from me.’”

FACT: Trump and his campaign are closely aligned with Project 2025 – it is “undeniably a Trump-driven operation.”

Axios: “This is undeniably a Trump-driven operation. The biggest tell: Johnny McEntee — one of Trump’s closest White House aides, and his most fervent internal loyalty enforcer — is a senior adviser to Project 2025. One of the most powerful architects is Stephen Miller, a top West Wing adviser for the Trump administration.”

Politico: “Many of the authors of the blueprint are former Trump officials, and the Heritage Foundation has spent the past year-plus recruiting people to implement the plans within the administration, Scott said.

“‘So they don’t just have a long, sprawling policy document,’ he said, ‘they also have a growing list of staff who are being tested to see if they are loyal to Trump and if they are willing to administer this in his potential administration.’

“While groups like Heritage have put forward conservative policy proposals in the past, Scott said Project 2025 is distinct in that it’s so comprehensive and far-reaching.

“‘It has so many groups contributing to it. It’s the whole conservative policy movement gathered together,’ he said.”

The Week: “Many of Trump’s indicated plans for a second term fall in line with the Project 2025 outline.”

New York Times: “Roberts told me that he views Heritage’s role today as ‘institutionalizing Trumpism.’ This includes leading Project 2025, a transition blueprint that outlines a plan to consolidate power in the executive branch, dismantle federal agencies and recruit and vet government employees to free the next Republican president from a system that Roberts views as stacked against conservative power. The lesson of Trump’s first year in office, Roberts told me, is that ‘the Trump administration … simply got a slow start. And Heritage and our allies in Project 2025 believe that must never be repeated.’”

JD Vance also has deep ties to Project 2025 and has praised the extreme MAGA agenda as containing “good ideas.”

Vance: “I’ve reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There are some good ideas in there.”

Axios: “J.D. Vance wrote foreword of upcoming book from Project 2025 architect”

Vox: “Vance is on record supporting these [Project 2025] ideas. Last year, he signed a letter demanding that the Justice Department prosecute physicians and pharmacists ‘who break the Federal mail-order abortion laws.’ In 2022, he said he was ‘sympathetic’ to the idea that the federal government should stop efforts to help women traveling out of their states to get abortions. … The second controversial area where Vance is sympatico with Project 2025 is centralizing presidential power over the executive branch.”

The New Republic: “Project 2025 Leader Is Overjoyed by Trump’s Vice Presidential Pick”

Nick Corasaniti, New York Times: “[Heritage president Kevin Roberts] reacted to the news [of Vance’s VP selection] ‘with a broad smile on my face’ and said that ‘privately, we were really rooting for him.’”

Gram Slattery, Reuters: “Vance is very close to Heritage and even wrote the forward for a book from the think tank’s president. Project 2025 is of course organized by Heritage.”

Vox: “Kevin Roberts, the president of the right-wing Heritage Foundation and the driving force behind Project 2025, told Ward that ‘[Vance] is absolutely going to be one of the leaders — if not the leader — of our movement.’”

Vance: “I want to thank especially Kevin Roberts and all the Heritage Foundation for 50 years of incredible work on conservative policy.”

Vance: “I think that what Trump should do, like if I was giving him one piece of advice, is fire every single mid level bureaucrat, every civil servant… replace them with our people.”

Politico: “The résumés of Vance’s senior staffers read like a phone book for the New Right ecosystem in Washington: the Claremont Institute, American Compass, the Conservative Partnership Institute, Hillsdale College.”

Politico: Project 2025 author and RNC Platform Committee Policy Director Russ Vought is a “close ally of Vance.”

Washington Post: “Vance urged DOJ to enforce Comstock Act, crack down on abortion pills”

Roberts recently warned of potential violence and threatened a “revolution.”

New York Times: “Heritage Foundation Head Refers to ‘Second American Revolution’”

Rolling Stone: “Right-Wing Think Tank Leader Promises Revolution, Warns of ‘Bloodshed’”

“Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, is talking up revolution and the prospect of ‘bloodshed’ in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision placing the president outside the reach of criminal law.

“Later in the broadcast, Roberts predicted that his ‘second revolution’ would be complete by 2050, and that it would coincide with a new ‘great awakening’ that would bring America to God — underscoring the extent to which Heritage and its Project 2025 is entwined with Christian nationalism. Roberts insisted that ‘God’s law can, in fact, be a huge influence on the civil laws.’ And he offered a constrained vision of American liberty: ‘Our definition of ‘freedom’ is not the freedom to do whatever the heck we want, but the freedom to do what we ought.’” 

Americans are learning more and more about the Trump-Vance ticket’s extreme and unpopular Project 2025 agenda – and rejecting this dangerous and out-of-touch MAGA blueprint.

Navigator Research: “Project 2025 Has Become Significantly More Unfavorable Since Trump Attempted to Distance Himself From the Plan”

“Project 2025 has seen a significant increase in both awareness and unfavorability since our last survey in June. 54 percent of Americans report being familiar with Project 2025… Among those familiar with the Project 2025, just 11 percent view it favorably, while 43 percent view it unfavorably.

“When people are asked what negative news they have heard recently concerning Donald Trump, mentions of Project 2025 have dramatically increased. … A plurality of Americans believe Project 2025 accurately represents what Trump stands for.”

Navigator Research: “Americans oppose all the key elements in Project 2025, with the greatest concerns around health care, worker’s rights, and dismantling federal programs. Over four in five Americans oppose an array of policies proposed in Project 2025 such as ‘allowing employers to stop paying hourly workers overtime’ … Additionally, four in five oppose ‘allowing the government to monitor people’s pregnancies to potentially prosecute them if they miscarry.’

“Americans’ overall opposition to Project 2025 increases after reading about its specific policy goals.

“Three in five Americans say Project 2025 would benefit the wealthiest Americans, CEOs, and corporations.”

Miami Herald: “As Americans learn more about Project 2025, they become more opposed, poll finds”