Outside the RNC, a conservative group defends its Project 2025 guide as Democrats intensify criticism

MILWAUKEE (AP) — At the edge of the cordoned-off grounds around the Republican National Convention on Monday, hundreds of conservatives packed into the ornate home of the Milwaukee Symphony to hear a parade of luminaries talk politics and the 2025 Project.

Project 2025 is the term used to refer to the Heritage Foundation’s nearly 1,000-page report. playbook for the next Republican administrationthat has become a cudgel that Democrats are wielding against former President Donald Trump, who officially became the Republican presidential nominee on Monday. Indeed, the book proposes sweeping changes to the federal government, including changing personnel rules to ensure that government employees are more loyal to the president.

The Heritage event was called “Policy Fest” and was not technically part of Project 2025, but the initiative was mentioned repeatedly. Speakers both downplayed and encouraged it. Heritage President Kevin Roberts called it “unprecedented in the history of the conservative movement,” but also tried to tone down his rhetoric from earlier this month when he promised it would lead to a “second American revolution.”

“How many of you are willing to take back our country in a very gradual, calm, peaceful way?” Roberts asked the crowd Monday.

Tom Homanwho oversaw U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Trump administration, told reporters they shouldn’t overstate the project. He said Washington think tanks often prepare plans for new administrations — and indeed, Heritage’s project draws on ones he did decades ago.

“I know the president very well,” said Homan, who helped draft the immigration bill. “He’s not going to read a plan and say, ‘OK, I’m going to do this.’ He’s going to do what he has to do.”

Trump has distanced himself of the project, which is being led by several senior officials from his previous administration. But he has also spoken warmly about it, and the connection has been further strengthened by Trump’s selection of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate

Roberts said he is “good friends” with Vance and that the Heritage Foundation privately supports his candidacy for vice president. The Ohio senator, Roberts said, recognizes that “we have a limited time to get our policy done.”

Democrats seized on Vance’s praise for Project 2025.

“JD Vance embodies MAGA – with an extreme, offbeat agenda and plans to help Trump impose his Project 2025 agenda on the American people,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said in a statement, referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and former GOP primary candidate who has since become a Trump spokesman, said on stage that conservatives aren’t quite on the same page about what should happen in a second Trump term.

“Do we want to replace the left-wing welfare state with a conservative welfare state?” he asked. “Or do we want to dismantle the welfare state?”

Some of the project’s recommendations, including reductions in duties or additional measures, tip taxesin contradiction to some of Trump’s campaign promises. Trump’s campaign team has stressed that he will make decisions about what he will do if he returns to office.

Roberts said he didn’t mind: “It’s impossible for every conservative to agree with everything in the document,” he said.