Written by Michael Thompson.
The Harris campaign has been under fire from multiple sources after its repeated attempts to link President Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
During a rally in Wisconsin, Harris criticized Trump and “his extreme Project 2025 agenda.” She declared, “Can you believe they put that thing in writing? Read it. It’s 900 pages. But here’s the thing. When you read it, you will see Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare. He intends to give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and make working families foot the bill. They intend to end the Affordable Care Act. And take us back, then, to a time when insurance companies had the power to deny people with pre-existing conditions.”
Despite these claims, Trump himself has publicly distanced himself from Project 2025 and emphasized that his platform is called Agenda 47.
On his platform Truth Social, Trump stated: “I have nothing to do with, and know nothing about, Project 25. The fact that I do is merely disinformation put out by the Radical Left Democrat Thugs. Do not believe them! DJT”
Media Scrutiny and Rebuttals
CNN, among others, fact-checked the Harris campaign and noted that it had “made a deliberate decision to brand all of Trump’s policies” as “Project 2025.”
From CNN: “Facts First: One of Harris’ claims about Project 2025 is false, while another is at least misleading. The Project 2025 document does not show that Trump intends to cut Social Security; the document barely discusses Social Security at all and does not propose cuts to the program. In addition, contrary to Harris’ suggestion, Project 2025 does not call to “end” the Affordable Care Act or eliminate its protections for people with pre-existing conditions. The document does criticize the Affordable Care Act, especially the law’s expansion of Medicaid, but makes clear it is advocating changes to the law rather than terminating the law entirely.”
A Harris campaign official admitted that the campaign has “made a deliberate decision to brand all of Trump’s policies” as “Project 2025” since they believe “it has stuck with voters.” After the initial publication of this article, Harris campaign spokesperson Joseph Costello added, “Project 2025 is a blueprint for many of the dangerous policies we know that a second Trump term would include, and it is indisputable that in his first term, Donald Trump repeatedly tried to cut Social Security and end the Affordable Care Act.”
Additional Fact-Checks
Rob Bluey at The Daily Signal highlighted another fact-check article published by VERIFY, which debunked a myth that Project 2025 called for the elimination of individualized education plans, commonly known as IEPs.
USA Today also fact-checked the Harris campaign, noting, “Project 2025 is a political playbook created by the Heritage Foundation and dozens of other conservative groups, not Trump, who said he disagrees with elements of the effort.”
