Former President Donald Trump's public distancing from Project 2025 on Friday — a group led by his own advisers and aides — came as some of the group reportedly overstepped — purporting to have more influence than it has.
Project 2025, a massive MAGA plan to overhaul the federal government, is run by top advisers to Trump. However, the former president raised eyebrows Friday when he said he apparently knew nothing about the group, had no idea who was behind it, and insisted he disagrees with many things they've said.
"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," he said on Truth Social.
The group reportedly earned Trump's ire because Project 2025 leaders talked about cabinet-level and sub-cabinet-level positions that they had “zero authority to discuss,” a source close to Trump told Notus. The group was such a headache for Trump that finally they couldn't be ignored.
There are "lots of people out there pretending that they have more influence than they actually have,” the source said, describing most of them as “harmlessly stupid.”
Read also: Project 2025 will rob veterans and active duty troops of billions in benefits
Among those who've irked Trump: Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, who recently appeared on the conservative outlet "Real America's Voice" and proclaimed: “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless ― if the left allows it to be."
“They’re holding themselves out as part of the official or semiofficial transition team, and they’ve been warned to knock it the f--- off. They didn’t. FAFO,” the source told Notus, an abbreviation for “f--- around and find out.”
Project 2025, a coalition of conservative groups, attempted to clarify after Trump's public criticism, that it "does not speak for any candidate or campaign."
Critics quickly pointed out to Project 2025: yes, you "literally" do — Karoline Leavitt, Trump's presidential campaign press secretary, appears in the group's recruitment advertisements.
