Judd Legum has put together a definitive primer on Trump’s connections to Project 2025. These are his people and this is his plan, don’t allow him to pretend otherwise. If the press lets him get away with that it will be the worst dereliction of duty in the US media’s history.
On July 5, Trump posted on Truth Social that he knows “nothing about Project 2025,” has “no idea who is behind it,” and has “nothing to do with them.”
This is false.
The co-editors of Project 2025, Paul Dans and Steven Groves, both held high-ranking positions in the Trump administration. Under Trump, Dans served as Chief of Staff at the Office of Personnel Management, the agency responsible for staffing the federal government, and was a senior advisor at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Groves served Trump in the White House as Deputy Press Secretary and Assistant Special Counsel.
Project 2025’s two associate directors, Spencer Chretien and Troup Hemenway, are also tightly connected with Trump. Chretien was Special Assistant to President Donald J. Trump and Associate Director of Presidential Personnel, “helping to identify, recruit, and place hundreds of political appointees at all levels of government.” Previously, Trump appointed Chretien to a position at HUD. Hemenway also served as an Associate Director of Presidential Personnel and previously worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign and Trump’s 2016 transition team.
Project 2025’s 922-page policy agenda has 30 chapters and 34 authors. Twenty-five of Project 2025’s authors served as members of the Trump administration. Another Project 2025 author, Stephen Moore, was nominated by Trump to the Federal Reserve but forced to withdraw “over his past inflammatory writings about women.” Further, William Walton, the co-author of the chapter on the Department of the Treasury, was a key member of Trump’s transition team.
All told, of the 38 people responsible for writing and editing Project 2025, 31 were appointed or nominated to positions in the Trump administration and transition. In other words, while Trump claims he has “nothing to do” with the people who created Project 2025, over 81% had formal roles in his first administration.
The chapter on the Executive Office of the President of the United States, for example, is written by Russ Vought. As president, Trump appointed Vought to his Cabinet as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. In that role, Vought authorized the rerouting of billions from the Pentagon to fund Trump’s border wall. In his Project 2025 chapter, Vought — a “self-described Christian nationalist” — calls for the abolishment of the Gender Policy Council, an entity focused on “economic security, health, gender-based violence and education—with a focus on gender equity and equality, and particular attention to the barriers faced by women and girls.” Vought is also drafting Project 2025’s “playbook” for the first 180 days of a Trump administration, which will not be shared publicly.
Trump appeared at a Mar-a-lago fundraiser for Vought’s non-profit group, Center for Renewing America, in August 2022, and declared that Vought would “do a great job in continuing our quest to make America great again.” In addition to his key role in Project 2025, Vought is the policy director Republican National Committee’s platform writing committee and a top candidate for White House Chief of Staff if Trump wins in November.
Gene Hamilton, a top aide to Trump Attorney General Jeff Sessions, wrote the Project 2025 chapter on the Department of Justice. During the Trump administration, Hamilton drafted Trump’s infamous child separation policy. Hamilton currently serves as Vice-President and General Counsel of America First Legal Foundation, an organization run by top Trump advisor Stephen Miller.
In Hamilton’s Project 2025 chapter, he advocates for the deployment of active-duty military to the southern border. Hamilton also calls for an elimination of the Department of Justice’s independence from the White House, saying a new Trump administration should “end immediately any policies, investigations, or cases that run contrary to law or Administration policies.” (This would presumably include any cases against Trump himself.) He also proposes using the Office of Civil Rights exclusively to prosecute “state and local governments, institutions of higher education, corporations, and any other private employers” who have diversity initiatives.
The Project 2025 chapter on the Agency for International Development was written by Max Primorac, the acting Chief Operating Officer for the same agency under the Trump administration. During a 2019 State Department conference on religious freedom, Primorac generated controversy by promoting Trump’s reelection. After Trump lost to Biden in November 2020, Primorac told agency staff not to cooperate with the transition.
In his Project 2025 chapter, Primorac argues against providing international aid to combat hunger and starvation. Primorac says the key to ending poverty is encouraging more oil and gas production. He advocates renaming “the USAID Office of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) as the USAID Office of Women, Children, and Families” and putting an “unapologetically pro-life politically appointed Senior Coordinator” in charge of the office.
Here is the complete list of the 31 authors and editors of Project 2025 that have formal connections to the Trump administration.
I know it’s probably repetitive and boring to hear about this over and over again but it’s the single most important piece of information that we must all have at our fingertips going into this election.
The reason the forces of fascism have not been able to get over in countries around the world is because the people were aware of the danger and they formed coalitions of resistance and voted in vast numbers. It’s the only way to stop this.