Sen. Marco Rubio, who is reportedly a finalist for Donald Trump‘s running mate, tried to create distance between the Republican nominee and Project 2025, a conservative agenda concocted by The Heritage Foundation.
“Think tanks do think tank stuff. They come up with ideas. They say things,” Rubio said on CNN’s State of the Union, denying involvement with the 887-page policy agenda the group has written as guidelines for the next Republican president. It’s worth noting that as president, according to the foundation itself, Trump enacted approximately two-thirds of Heritage’s policy agenda during his first year in office alone. Heritage officials told Axios in 2023 that they had briefed both Trump’s and Rubio’s campaigns.
“I can assure you, I don’t have them with me today,” Rubio told Dana Bash after she showed him a clip of Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts saying, “We are in the process of the second American revolution, which will remain bloodless, if the left allows it to be.”
Project 2025 is an extremist conservative policy agenda drafted at least in part by people in Trump’s orbit, including former Trump administration aide John McEntee, Trump’s former director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought, former Trump Office of Personnel Management Chief of Staff Paul Dans. Former Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller has denied involvement, despite multiple outlets reporting he is providing input. According to Reuters, Miller is leading a legal group that is on Project 2025’s advisory board. Miller, who spearheaded Trump’s harsh immigration policy, also appears in an ad for the Project 2025 Presidential Administration Academy.
“A while back I made a video for students on how to build skills,” Miller said. “I have never been involved with Project 2025, not one word. But keep hoaxing, losers. Hoaxes are all you have.”
The project recommends actions for the first six months of a Republican presidency, including wide restrictions on abortion access, extensive expansion of presidential powers, and “dismantl[ing] the administrative state” in order to replace much of the federal workforce with conservative loyalists and eviscerate the power and independence of federal agencies.
In the CNN interview, Rubio did signal support for leaving abortion law to voters and the states rather than imposing federal restrictions.
Trump has tried to deny knowing anything about Project 2025, even though many of his allies are involved. “I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social. “I have no idea who is behind it. 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.”