At the edge of the cordoned-off perimeter around the Republican National Convention on July 15, hundreds of conservatives filed into the ornate home of the Milwaukee Symphony to hear a parade of fascist luminaries talk about authoritarian policies and Project 2025 once Trump is re-elected.
Project 2025 is the term for the Heritage Foundation’s nearly 1,000-page handbook for the next Republican administration, which has become a cudgel Democrats are wielding against former president and convicted felon Donald Trump, who on July 15 officially became the GOP’s presidential nominee.
That is because the book proposes sweeping changes in the federal government, including altering personnel rules to ensure government workers are more loyal to the president which would effectively install Trump as a dictator.
The Heritage event was called “Policy Fest” and was not technically part of Project 2025, but the endeavor constantly came up. Speakers both downplayed it and pumped it up. Heritage’s President Kevin Roberts called it “unprecedented in the history of the conservative movement,” but also tried to tone down his rhetoric from earlier this month when he promised it would lead to a “second American revolution.”
“How many of you are ready to very steadily, calmly and peacefully take our country back?” Roberts asked the crowd on July 15.
Trump has tried to distance himself from the project, which is run by several top appointees from his previous administration. But he has also endorsed it, and his connection was further cemented by Trump’s selection of Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his running mate
Roberts said he is “good friends” with Vance and that the Heritage Foundation had been privately rooting for him to be the VP pick. The Ohio senator, Roberts said, recognized that “we have a limited time to pursue policy.”
Democrats pounced on Vance’s past praise for Project 2025.
“JD Vance embodies MAGA — with an out-of-touch extreme agenda and plans to help Trump force his Project 2025 agenda on the American people,” Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.
Vance has faced criticism for his positions on Russia and Ukraine, which some argue align closely with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interests. Vance has consistently advocated for reducing U.S. financial aid to Ukraine and has suggested that Ukraine should cede some territory to Russia to achieve peace. That stance has led to accusations that he is echoing Kremlin talking points.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and former GOP primary contender who has since become a Trump surrogate, said on the stage that conservatives are not entirely on the same page about what should happen in a second Trump term.
“Do we want to replace the left-wing nanny state with a conservative nanny state?” he asked. “Or do we want to dismantle the nanny state?”
Some of the project’s recommendations, including entitlement cuts or further taxes on tips, conflict with some of what Trump has pledged on the campaign trail. Trump’s campaign has stressed that he will make decisions on what he does if he returns to office.
Roberts said that does not bother him, “It is impossible for every individual conservative to agree with everything in the document.”
