MILWAUKEE — On the edge of the cordoned-off area surrounding the Republican National Convention, hundreds of conservatives packed the ornate Milwaukee Symphony building on Monday to listen to a parade of dignitaries speak about policy and Project 2025.
Project 2025 is the term for the nearly 1,000-page report from the Heritage Foundation handbook for the next Republican administrationthat has become a weapon Democrats are using against former President Donald Trump, who officially became the GOP’s presidential nominee on Monday. That’s because the book proposes sweeping changes to the federal government, including changing personnel rules to ensure that government workers are more loyal to the president.
The Heritage event was called “Policy Fest” and technically not part of Project 2025, but the endeavor came up in conversation throughout. Speakers downplayed it and hyped it up. Heritage President Kevin Roberts called it “unprecedented in the history of the conservative movement” but also tried to tone down his rhetoric from earlier this month when he promised it would lead to a “second American revolution.”
“How many of you are willing to take back our country very quietly, calmly and peacefully?” Roberts asked the crowd on Monday.
Tom Homanwho oversaw U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Trump administration, told reporters not to blow the project out of proportion. He said think tanks in Washington often prepare plans for new administrations — and indeed, Heritage’s project is modeled after previous projects it has conducted for decades.
“I know the president pretty well,” said Homan, who contributed to the project’s immigration proposals. “He’s not going to read any plan and say, ‘OK, I’m going to do this.’ … He’s going to do what he’s going to do.”
Trump has distanced himself of the project, which is run by several top appointments from his previous administration. But he has also spoken warmly about it, and the connection was further cemented by Trump’s selection of Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate
Roberts said he is “good friends” with Vance and that the Heritage Foundation had secretly encouraged him to become the vice-presidential pick. The Ohio senator, Roberts said, recognizes that “we have a limited window of time to do policy.”
Democrats reacted strongly to Vance’s earlier praise for Project 2025.
“JD Vance embodies MAGA — with an extreme agenda that is out of touch with reality and plans to help Trump impose his Project 2025 agenda on the American people,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison said in a statement, referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and former GOP primary candidate who has since become Trump’s deputy, said on stage that conservatives are not entirely in agreement about what should happen during a second Trump term.
“Do we want to replace the leftist nanny state with a conservative nanny state?” he asked. “Or do we want to dismantle the nanny state?”
Some of the project’s recommendations include cuts in fees or further taxes on tipsconflict with some of what Trump promised during the campaign. Trump’s campaign has stressed that he will make decisions about what to do when he returns to office.
Roberts said it doesn’t bother him: “It’s impossible for every individual conservative to agree with everything in the document,” he said.