| “Watch what I do, not what I say” is a familiar formula for discounting lying and deception in political life. No one is surprised when politicians say one thing and do another. |
| Because the public is so inured to lying in politics, calling out a politician for lying may not gain much traction. But sometimes a lie is so craven and consequential that ignoring it is impossible. |
| Think about Ronald Reagan’s lies about funneling military supplies to the so-called Contras in Nicaragua or George W. Bush’s lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They fell into that category. |
| We can now add to that rogue’s gallery of consequential presidential deceit, Donald Trump’s repeated denials that he knew anything about or endorsed the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 Report during the last presidential campaign. As the Boston Globeobserves, “Trump repeatedly insisted he knew nothing about the group or who was behind it, despite his close ties with many of its authors.” |
| In the summer of 2024, Trump said, “I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. 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.” |
| Moreover, “Top Trump campaign leaders spent much of 2024 livid at The Heritage Foundation for publishing a book full of unpopular proposals that Democrats tried to pin on the campaign to warn a second Trump term would be too extreme.” |
| They knew that Project 2025 was an election albatross. As NBC News reported in September 2024, “Project 2025 is broadly known and severely unpopular with voters.” |
| Eighty-five percent of Democrats said they did not like it, as did fifty-two percent of independent voters. Around one-third of Republicans did not like Project 2025 either. |
| No wonder Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, his campaign managers, insisted that “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.” |
| Demise? Hardly. |
| That Project 2025 has provided a playbook for the Trump administration has been apparent from what it has done since day 1. A January 25 Washington Post article said that “Since his inauguration Monday, President Donald Trump has signed more than 50 presidential directives, from scrubbing references to diversity, equity, and inclusion out of federal policy to pardoning those convicted of crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.” |
| “Many of the directives,” the Post continued, “mirrored the priorities of Project 2025, the plan for a second Trump term that was spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation and written largely by alumni of the first Trump administration. A Washington Post analysis identified more than two dozen presidential directives containing language that resembled text published in Project 2025—that amounts to more than half his directives since taking office, excluding pardons and appointments.” |
| Soon after Trump returned to the White House, the BBC called Project 2025 a “right-wing wish list for Trump’s second term.” One of its key goals was “to dramatically expand presidential power and reduce the size of the federal workforce. They include efforts like the Department of Government Efficiency and budget rescission packages, which have led to billions of dollars being stalled, scrapped or withheld by the administration so far this year.” |
| Former Vice President Kamala Harris got it right last week when she suggested, “This was always the plan…. Project 2025 was Donald Trump’s blueprint to seize unchecked power within the federal government and restrict Americans’ freedoms. And he is implementing it right in front of our eyes.” |
| On Thursday, the president finally turned his actions into words, going out of his way to acknowledge his admiration for Project 2025. |
| He posted to Truth Social the following: “I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.” |
| Talking about the government shutdown, Trump did not hide his pleasure that “the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” |
| In Project 2025 fashion, President Trump openly acknowledges he will use the shutdown to target programs and federal government agencies favored by the Democratic Party. He has already paused or terminated funds that were directed to states that voted for Harris in 2024. |
| Moreover, the New York Timesnotes that “In a series of social media posts, Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director, said the administration had paused or moved to cancel the delivery of about $26 billion in previously approved funds across a range of programs, describing the money as wasteful or in need of further review.” |
| “The timing,” it added, “seemed to be no mere coincidence, nor were Mr. Vought’s choices of location. He said the administration was terminating one tranche of funds, totaling about $8 billion, because it was 'Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda,’ a move that affected projects in 16 states, most of which are led by Democrats.” |
| This is the latest instance in which the president has acted as if he could Make America Great Again by dividing the country and governing as if he were the leader of the Red States of America. His hide-and-seek approach to Project 2025 is also the latest example of the shell game Trump has played with the American people about both his words and his actions. |
| It is one of the most consequential. It is unlikely that the president would have been elected if he had come clean about Project 2025 and the role it would play in his administration. |
| Now, as he looks for new ways to dismantle the federal government and cripple the support it provides for millions of Americans and with the 2028 election in the distance, he is relying on a plan that was “years in the making.” President Trump is treating Project 2025 as if it were the holy book of a religious movement. |
| Writing about the nature of modern politics, the great political theorist Michael Walzer once asked whether political leaders could “govern innocently.” He answered that he did not believe they could. |
| Walzer argued that deception was a necessary part of the repertoire of even our most revered politicians. We live with that fact, he argued, because they “hustle…and lie…for us.” |
| We live with it if we believe that political leaders have “scruples” and know they are doing a morally suspect thing to advance the interests of the people they serve. It is hard to believe that such a description fits Donald Trump. |
| Right from the start, the president’s Project 2025 gambit has had little to do with the American people and everything to do with his authoritarian ambitions. Whatever motivated it, his lies about Project 2025 belong in the category of the most infamous lies, and they will shape the course of American history for years to come. |
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