Why is Donald Trump running so hard from the Heritage Foundation’s 920-page Project 2025 document? Why are the Democrats trying to tie him so closely to it?
In a word, abortion.
Yesterday, Trump had the director of Project 2025 — which was also about gathering resumes for a second Trump administration — tossed under the bus. I’m not clear on what that is intended to accomplish as Paul Dans was surrounded by people with close ties to Trump. The fingerprints of Trumpites are all over the document whether Dans is there or not.
But it does go to show how strongly Trump wants to distance himself from the thing. But why? A lot of it is the same kind of Heritage Foundation stuff we’ve seen since Reagan. Less regulation. Fewer regulators, More free markets. That kind of thing.
It does go further, descending into deep state paranoia, but I don’t think that’s what Trump is most worried about. He’s worried about abortion. He understands that abortion is the one issue on which the Democrats have the upper hand. He further understands that that is even more true with Kamala Harris as the nominee, as she has been the leading spokesperson for her party on that issue since the Dobbs decision. If the Democrats can make this election a referendum on abortion, Trump loses.
That’s why he’s worked so hard to sound moderate on the subject. He pretty much had the word banned from the Republican platform. He says he would not sign a national ban. He says he wants to leave it to the states, which in fact was the Republican position until Dobbs.
But Project 2025 is replete with anti-abortion language. It calls for the FDA to rescind its approval of the abortion drug mifepristone. It would make it illegal to mail mifepristone to patients even within states where abortion is legal. And it would make it illegal for women to travel to states where the procedure is legal from states where it isn’t. And there’s more. In fact, the document states that “Dobbs is just the beginning” of national efforts to ban abortion.
So you see the problem for Trump and the opportunity for Democrats. Paul Dans can go away, but trust me, Project 2025 will not.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 