The art of the lie: Donald Trump says ‘I know nothing about Project 2025’ despite 80% of its authors being his aides and advisors

One of the most terrifying things to come out of the 2024 presidential race is a little unassuming proposal by Donald Trump‘s most ardent right-wing followers, which, in case of his re-election, would allow him to consolidate the office’s executive power and essentially preside over an authoritarian theocracy.

Project 2025, proposed by the Heritage Foundation, seeks to promote mainstream conservative ideologies at a simple glance, but one of the main priorities discussed in the document is to give the president-elect absolute control over the entire executive branch. It goes so far as to attempt to reclassify tens of thousands of federal workers as “political appointees,” allowing Trump to replace them with people loyal and dedicated to him and his cause. And that might not even be the worst part. Project 2025 aims to cut funding for climate research, reduce regulations over fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions, reject abortion as health care, limit the use of contraceptives, and terminate the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programs.

Naturally, the very thought of pursuing any of these policies, and through a clear abuse of the Constitution, no less, has led to a public outcry. We all know that Donald Trump on the best of days can’t be trusted not to undermine the democratic process and accuse federal government agencies of lying, so the idea of entrusting him with even more power and control over policymaking is terrifying.

And as you’d expect, the former cheeto-in-chief is playing dumb and denying any association with the Heritage Foundation, even though more than 80% of the people who drafted the long document were former Trump aides and advisors.

Indeed, Don the Con had recently taken to his Truth social media page to write, “I know nothing about Project 2025, I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it.” But of course, we weren’t going to let him off that easily.

It’s very characteristic of Trump to distance himself from something that could damn him at this tumultuous point, and make the prospects of his re-relection even more bleak than they are right now. But the language used here is very fallacious — which again, is very on-brand for Trump. How does he “know nothing about Project 2025” yet feels the need to address it? And how would he not know who is in charge of it when most of those people worked closely with him during his tenure? But I guess in asking these questions we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. Always the no. 1 rule of dealing with Trump is knowing that: Trump lies.