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Despite claiming to know “nothing” of Project 2025, or the people behind it, former president Donald Trump has long-held connections to authors of the conservative presidential transition plan and at one point reportedly took a private flight with its leader.
In April of 2022, Trump took a 45-minute private flight with Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation – a right-wing think tank group responsible for Project 2025 – to attend a conference in Florida for the group,The Washington Post reported.
A photo, obtained by The Post, depicts Trump and Roberts smiling beside one another while riding the private jet.
According to a press release published on the group’s website, Trump served as the keynote speaker at the April 2022 event attended by “top Heritage Foundation supporters”.
“During his four years as president, his administration worked closely with Heritage on a number of policy initiatives. In addition, dozens of Heritage staff and alumni worked in the Trump administration; several of whom have since returned to Heritage,” a statement from the press release says.
The discovery contradicts Trump’s statement from July where he claimed to “know nothing about Project 2025” and “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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last month.
The former president’s statement arrived amid negative attention about Project 2025, a 900-page plan crafted by former Trump administration officials and right-wing individuals that serves as a blueprint for the next Republican president.
Some of the plans in the document include replacing civil servants in the executive branch with loyalists, expanding executive authority by consolidating power, restricting access to the abortion pill, imposing strict anti-immigration policies and more.
Trump insists he has nothing to do with the plan and a campaign spokesperson previously said that Project 2025 does not represent Trump’s formal agenda and any policy proposals are “merely suggestions.”
But history shows that the Trump administration had closely connected to the Heritage Foundation and adopted many of its suggested policies.
At least 70 former Heritage employees worked in Trump’s presidential transition team or were part of his administration, the organization said in 2018. Heritage boasted that its executive branch relations staff “met with senior officials” in “several agencies” and briefed Trump administration officials on recommendations they had.
Out of the 334 unique Hertiage policy recommendations, the Trump administration implemented, budged for or considered 64 percent of them.
Even after Trump left office, he remained in contact with the group.
Sources familiar with the 2022 flight told The Post that Trump took the trip with Roberts because his jet was being refurbished.
At the time, Heritage was in the early stages of planning Project 2025. Roberts brought it up to the former president but Trump wasn’t interested in speaking about it, sources told the newspaper.
But discussions have seemingly picked up since then. Roberts told The Post earlier this year that he “personally” spoke to Trump “about Project 2025” and briefed him on the plan.
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign told The Post Roberts never briefed the former president.
