Outside the RNC, a conservative group defends its 2025 Project guide as Democrats step up criticism

MILWAUKEE — On Monday, on the edge of the cordoned-off grounds surrounding the Republican National Convention, hundreds of conservatives gathered at the stately home of the Milwaukee Symphony to hear a parade of prominent figures talk politics and the 2025 Project.

Project 2025 is the term for the nearly 1,000-page Heritage Foundation playbook for the next Republican administration that has become a cudgel Democrats use against former President Donald Trump, who officially became the GOP presidential nominee on Monday. That’s because the book proposes sweeping changes to the federal government, including changing personnel rules to ensure that government workers are more loyal to the president.

Heritage’s event was called “Policy Fest” and wasn’t technically part of Project 2025, but the topic kept coming up. Speakers both downplayed and exaggerated it. Heritage CEO Kevin Roberts called it “unprecedented in the history of the conservative movement” but also sought to temper 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 consistently, calmly, peacefully take back our country?” Roberts asked the crowd Monday.

Tom Homan, who oversaw U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Trump administration, told reporters that they shouldn’t overstate the project. He said Washington think tanks often prepare plans for new administrations — and indeed, Heritage’s project is modeled on previous ones it has implemented for decades.

“I know the president damn well,” said Homan, who contributed to the immigration proposals. “He’s not going to read any plan and say, ‘OK, I’m going to do this.’ … He’s going to do what he’s going to do.”

Trump has distanced himself from the project, which is being led by several top appointees from his previous administration. But he has also spoken fondly of it, and the bond was further strengthened by Trump’s selection of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his vice presidential running mate

Roberts said he was a “good friend” of Vance’s and that the Heritage Foundation was privately rooting for him to be elected vice president. The Ohio senator, Roberts said, recognizes that “we have a limited amount of time to do policy.”

Democrats pounced on Vance’s earlier praise for Project 2025.

“JD Vance epitomizes MAGA — with an out-of-touch, extreme agenda and plans to help Trump impose his Project 2025 agenda on the American people,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said in a statement referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and former Republican primary candidate who became Trump’s running mate, said on stage that conservatives are not entirely in agreement on what should happen during a second Trump term.

“Do we want to replace the leftist welfare state with a conservative welfare state?” he asked. “Do we want to dismantle the welfare state?”

Some of the bill’s recommendations, including cuts to entitlements or further taxes on tips, contradict some of Trump’s campaign promises. Trump’s campaign has stressed that he will make decisions about what he does if he returns to office.

Roberts said that doesn’t worry him: “It’s impossible for every conservative to agree with everything in the document,” he said.