As the political press obsessed over President Joe Biden’s reelection plans earlier this summer, a curious phenomenon developed on TikTok and other social media outlets. Fueled by a new generation of online activists, everyday people began poring over Project 2025, a then-obscure document from conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation.
Despite receiving almost no coverage from the mainstream press, the extensive blueprint for an autocratic government produced by more than 140 current or former members of Donald Trump’s campaign and White House staff went viral. The result: People were so terrified and the electorate found Project 2025 so repulsive that Trump has spent the past two months running away from it.
The Heritage Foundation is now pretending to shut down the project, and Trump is pretending that the issue is going to go away. It’s not.
