The impossibility of separating Trump from Project 2025 *no paywall
Analysis by Philip Bump
For more than 40 years before he first ran for president, Donald Trump was in the business of persuading people to buy things. And not in some idealized, best-of-American-capitalism sense: He sold real estate in New York City, which is a bit like selling used cars anywhere else. Eventually, he just sold himself and his name, which was less anchored to reality and a good jumping-off point for seeking elective office.
We can see how he sold real estate and the Trump brand in how he sells his candidacies. He offers few details and sweeping assertions, little in the way of specifics and a lot in the way of promises. He tells people what he thinks they want to hear, often trying to tell people different things at the same time. The goal is to make the sale, dealing with complaints once the money or the vote is in hand.
You can see it at work in his effort to distance his campaign from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a road map for a Republican president to overhaul the federal government that has become a point of attack for Trump’s critics.
“I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. “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 knows nothing about it … and disagrees with some of it. He thinks they are doing ridiculous things … and wishes them luck. If you are a Trump supporter, you see this as a way to slice off problematic components of the project’s proposals. If you are an undecided voter, (Trump presumably hopes) you will see this as Trump putting the plan at a distance from his campaign — so all those news reports about the extreme components of Project 2025 get bucketed at some distance from Trump himself.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/08/trump-project-2025-policy-staff/
Really excellent analysis. I encourage you to read it all.
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