How Team Harris tried to weaponise Project 2025 against Trump at DNC

In the midst of powerful speeches and ambitious policy agendas, the top brass of the Democratic Party sprinkled the mention of “Project 2025” at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. The controversial place was the face of a stark warning given by Democrats about the possibility of Former US President Donald Trump coming back to power.

From US President Joe Biden to Vice President Kamala Harris, the who’s who of the party mentioned “Project 2025,” while unleashing attacks against former US President Donald Trump. Each night at the convention, an elected official has lugged the book back onto the stage to cite an exact page number for a policy that should concern Democrats and the United States.

While Michigan state senator Mallory McMorrow talked about plans to weaponize the Department of Justice, Pennsylvania state representative Malcolm Kenyatta mentioned the plans to stop Medicare from negotiating drug prices. Here’s a look at how Project 2025 became one of the major talking points at the convention.

What is Project 2025?

Project 2025 is touted as a “proposed presidential transition project” which was overseen by the conservative Heritage Foundation. It is called the blueprint for the next Republican president to usher in a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch of the government. The project 2025 is composed of four pillars:

• A policy guide for the next presidential administration.

• A LinkedIn-style database of personnel who could serve in the next administration.

• Training for that pool of candidates dubbed the “Presidential Administration Academy.

• Actions that need to be taken in the first 180 days.

It is associated with Trump because it is led by two former Trump administration officials: Paul Dans, who was chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management and serves as director of the project, and Spencer Chretien, former special assistant to Trump and now the project’s associate director.

Project 2025 has garnered criticism because it plans to cut the Department of Education, which comprises draconian immigration laws and limits abortion rights.

Project 2025: The star of DNC

The massive book was brought out by several political stalwarts of the Democratic party who were addressing the four-day convention. Here’s a look at some of the remarks:

• Kamala Harris: During her address, the Vice President pointed out that the “sum total” of Project 2025 was written by Trump’s friend. She maintained that the plans would “pull our country back to the past.” “But, America, we are not going back. We are not going back. We are not going back,” she said. In the past, Harris has referred to it as “Trump’s Project 2025”  and said: “He and his extreme Project 2025 agenda will weaken the middle class. Like, we know we got to take this seriously, and can you believe they put that thing in writing?”

• Joe Biden: The POTUS’s speech at the conventions was touted as the move to pass on the torch to Harris. However, he also made a small mention of the conservative plan. “Look at their Project 2025, they want to do away with the Department of Education.”

• Tim Walz: The Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz said Trump and his VP pick Vance’s project 2025 is an “agenda no one asked for”. He maintained that the plan serves only the “richest and the most extreme amongst us.” Walz added: “While Trump and Vance spend a lot of time pretending they know nothing about Project 2025, my experience as a school football coach tells me, when somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re going to use it.”

• Cory Booker: The New Jersey Senator went on to reference the document, emphasising that if Trump has his way, “he’s going to push through their extreme agenda”. Brooker also mockingly called it “Project 1825” and “Project 1925.”

• Jared Polis: The Colorado Governor appeared on the stage with the massive version of Project 2025’s 900-page main policy document called “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise” and warned Trump could use “an obscure law from the 1800s” to ban abortion in 50 states. In major theatrics, he tore off page 451 from the document and read that “the only legitimate family is a married mother and father, where only the father works”. Polis promised to show it to undecided voters.

• Debbie Wasserman Schultz: Democratic Representative from Florida also mentioned Project 2025. She insisted that the project “isn’t just a threat…It’s a reality we battle every day,” before attacking Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “for turning the state into a testing ground for the right’s most egregious, dangerous policies.”

• Kenan Thompson: The SNL star also brought out an oversized version of the “Mandate for Leadership” on the DNC stage on Wednesday. He used the book as a prop while performing a live sketch outlining some of its controversial positions. He compared Project 2025 with the terms people have to agree to when downloading a new app on their phone, Thompson joked that Project 2025 is “the terms and conditions of a second Trump presidency.”

How did Trump react to the jabs? 

Just like before, Trump attempted to distance himself from Project 2025. While giving a “play-by-play” reaction to Harris’ address, Trump accused Harris of lying about the matter. “LYING AGAIN ABOUT PROJECT 2025, WHICH SHE KNOWS, AND SO DO ALL DEMOCRATS, THAT I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH!” he wrote on his social media platform TruthSocial.

While conducting a rally at the Arizona-Mexico border, the former president once again defended himself from the series of attacks Democrats have lobbed at him during the Democratic National Convention.

“They’ve been told officially, legally, in every way, that we have nothing to do with Project 25,” Trump said. “They know it, but they bring it up anyway. They bring up every single thing that you can bring up. Every one of them was false,” he said. Meanwhile, Trump’s strongest ally Vivek Ramaswamy also slammed Democrats over the matter.

“They’ve turned Project 2025 into the equivalent of this boogeyman as they had of Russian interference in the 2016 election,” the former Republican presidential hopeful told The Hill. “That’s what they’re trying to create, this false boogeyman. I think it’s falling flat,” he added. Overall, it will be interesting to see whether the Harris-Walz campaign will continue to use the controversial project against Trump.