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Robert F Kennedy Jr, the former independent presidential candidate who is now on Donald Trump’s presidential transition team, said Trump told him he’s never read Project 2025 and thinks the author of the document is “a right-wing a******.”
In an attempt to distance Trump from the 900-page far-right agenda, Kennedy told the All-In podcast Friday that Trump had never heard of Project 2025 until Democrats began associating the two together.
“[Trump] brought this issue up to me and he said ‘You know they’re always telling me I’m for Project 2025. I never read Project 2025 until they started accusing me of it’,” Kennedy said.
“[Trump] said, ‘That was written by a right-wing a******’,” Kennedy recounted.
It is unclear who Trump was referring to while speaking with Kennedy. Project 2025 had at least 20 authors and more than 100 contributors.
The Independent has asked the Trump campaign for comment.
The large document was developed by the Heritage Foundation, a far-right think tank. Its plans for a conservative presidency include a dramatic overhaul of the United States government – replacing civil servants with political loyalists, getting rid of key federal agencies and consolidating power to the executive branch.
It was largely drafted under the leadership of Paul Dans, the former chief of staff of the Office of Personnel Management in the Trump administration. Dans no longer works at the Heritage Foundation.
Though Trump has a yearslong relationship with the Heritage Foundation, he has attempted to distance himself from Project 2025, claiming he had “no idea who is behind it” and knows “nothing” about it.
A CNN analysis found that at least 140 people who worked for Trump were part of Project 2025.
The Trump campaign maintains that Project 2025 is not Trump’s agenda and “any personnel lists, policy agendas, or government plans published anywhere are merely suggestions.”
But Trump and some of his allies have repeatedly tried to put distance between the former president and the document.
That is, in part, because Democrats have used Project 2025’s unpopular ideas to campaign against Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign recently released an ad directly correlating Project 2025 with the former president.
At the Democratic National Convention, speakers brought the massive document on stage to point out some of its radical proposals and argue that Trump will implement them if he is elected in November.
Kennedy told the All-In podcast that Trump is listening to a “wider range of voices” and that the presidential transition team, which is responsible for helping the incoming president choose appointees, is a “wide diversity.”
Kennedy is on the transition team as well as former Representative Tulsi Gabbard. Trump’s adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are also part of the team.
