EXCLUSIVE: Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s initiative aimed at creating a “better nation for all Americans” under a conservative presidential administration, is set to publish a response to critics who have labeled the project as extreme and far-right.
Although former President Trump has continuously denied any connection to Project 2025, officials from the Heritage Foundation stated on Wednesday that most of its critics hail from the left.
In an exclusive share with Fox News Digital, the foundation revealed a series of fact checks they are preparing to counter falsehoods surrounding the project’s framework.
Established by former congressional aide Ed Feulner, who envisioned a market-oriented research organization for conservatives, the Heritage Foundation has produced similar frameworks in election years stretching back to the 1980s.
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The Heritage Foundation flag flies over a building July 30, 2024, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Despite warnings from Trump’s campaign that associating him with the overall framework could lead to consequences, several figures on the left have targeted the 900-plus pages of proposals.
Regarding the GOP nominee, those behind Project 2025 will point to various media fact checks verifying that Trump is not linked to the initiative.
Referred to as the “Presidential Transition Project,” the framework asserts its independence from the Trump campaign, with Heritage Foundation officials consistently emphasizing “conservative” aspirations rather than aligning with “Republican,” “Libertarian,” or other clearly partisan goals.
However, many individuals involved in Project 2025, including recently departed director Paul Dans, have ties to the previous Trump administration, with Dans having served as a senior staffer in the Office of Personnel Management.
The project’s declared aim is to “rescue the country from the grip of the radical left.”
One example of the mischaracterizations Project 2025 intends to counter is Vice President Kamala Harris’s claim during her first rally as the presumptive Democratic nominee that the framework advocates for cuts to Social Security.
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Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts addresses delegates during the second day of the National Conservatism conference at the Emmanuel Centre May 16, 2023, in London. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
In response to Harris’s comments, Project 2025 will highlight CNN’s fact check, which indicates that the term “Social Security” is mentioned only a few times in the extensive document and never in relation to proposed cuts.
Heritage Foundation spokesperson Mary Vought clarified that Project 2025 includes “no changes to Social Security.”
She advised Harris to “read the book instead of spreading lies and misinformation.”
Project officials also plan to address claims that vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, is involved in the framework amid criticisms from his potential superiors.
Vance contributed a foreword to Kevin Roberts’ forthcoming book, in which he asserts that the nonprofit is not “just another random outpost on Capitol Hill,” but rather the “most influential engine of ideas for Republicans from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump.”
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JD Vance, U.S. senator from Ohio and 2024 Republican vice presidential candidate, greets attendees alongside his wife Usha Vance on the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, July 15, 2024. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
Project 2025 also plans to counter another claim from Harris stating that the framework suggests restrictions on IVF and contraception. Citing PolitiFact, Project 2025 will emphasize that the term IVF (in-vitro fertilization) does not appear in the document at all.
In response to Harris’s assertions, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts called the presumptive Democratic nominee’s statements “breathtaking in [their] dishonesty.”
“It’s so evident that even media outlets like CNN are tackling her lies. She lacks a policy record to run on, except for her disarrayed role as border czar,” Roberts stated.
Roberts further stated that Project 2025 is facing “two sets of lies. First, that Project 2025 is tied to the Trump campaign; it is not. Second, that Project 2025 advocates unreasonable, extreme policies; it does not. Numerous independent fact checks validate that [Harris] is lying, along with a brigade of paid influencers online. Ultimately, the truth will prevail.”
Trump has voiced his disagreement with some factions on the right that oppose IVF, especially following a ruling by an Alabama court recognizing frozen embryos as children under state law.
Nonetheless, Project 2025 does recommend measures to restrict access to abortion.
The initiative also aims to address critiques regarding a satirical post that falsely claimed it wanted to enforce “period passports” to monitor women’s menstrual cycles under legal penalties.
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An official associated with the project pointed Fox News Digital to a Reuters fact check, confirming that the assertion was mistakenly taken seriously online.
Other fact checks that Project 2025 officials plan to launch include responses to claims that the framework seeks to abolish gay marriage and references to “valid family” structures, although it does advocate for “stable and thriving married families.”
Project 2025 also intends to propose modifications to the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, countering claims that it seeks to dismantle the organization.
In a related aspect, Starbucks’ decision to serve coffee to first responders at the Republican National Convention provoked backlash from patrons who accused the coffee giant of supporting Project 2025 and called for boycotts.
Project 2025 spokesman Noah Weinrich labeled the claim as “purely misinformation.”
