The Harris campaign has been fact-checked from multiple sources after repeatedly trying to connect President Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
Harris criticized Trump and “his extreme Project 2025 agenda” during a rally in Wisconsin last week.
She said, “Can you believe they put that thing in writing? Read it. It’s 900 pages. But here’s the thing. When you read it, you will see Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare. He intends to give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations and make working families foot the bill. They intend to end the Affordable Care Act. And take us back, then, to a time when insurance companies had the power to deny people with pre-existing conditions.”
This is despite the fact that Trump himself has publically distanced himself from it and pointed out that his platform is called Agenda 47.
On his platform Truth Social, Trump said:
“I have nothing to do with, and know nothing about, Project 25. The fact that I do is merely disinformation put out by the Radical Left Democrat Thugs. Do not believe them! DJT“
TGP reports: CNN, of all places, fact-checked the Harris campaign and noted that the Harris campaign has “made a deliberate decision to brand all of Trump’s policies” as “Project 2025.”
Facts First: One of Harris’ claims about Project 2025 is false, while another is at least misleading. The Project 2025 document does not show that Trump intends to cut Social Security; the document barely discusses Social Security at all and does not propose cuts to the program. In addition, contrary to Harris’ suggestion, Project 2025 does not call to “end” the Affordable Care Act or eliminate its protections for people with pre-existing conditions. The document does criticize the Affordable Care Act, especially the law’s expansion of Medicaid, but makes clear it is advocating changes to the law rather than terminating the law entirely.
A Harris campaign official said the campaign has “made a deliberate decision to brand all of Trump’s policies” as “Project 2025,” since they believe “it has stuck with voters.” After the initial publication of this article, a Harris campaign spokesperson, Joseph Costello, added, “Project 2025 is a blueprint for many of the dangerous policies we know that a second Trump term would include, and it is indisputable that in his first term, Donald Trump repeatedly tried to cut Social Security and end the Affordable Care Act.”
Rob Bluey at The Daily Signal points out, “Another fact-check article, published Wednesday by VERIFY, a website devoted to stopping the spread of false information, debunked a myth that Project 2025 called for the elimination of individualized education plans, commonly known as IEPs.”
USA Today also fact-checked the Harris campaign, saying, “Project 2025 is a political playbook created by the Heritage Foundation and dozens of other conservative groups, not Trump, who said he disagrees with elements of the effort.”
Reporter Ben Domenech took to social media to chastise the Harris campaign for trying to falsely tie V.P. nominee J.D. Vance to Project 2025, ” The Harris campaign is falsely representing this interview, which took place before Vance even announced a run for the Senate and years before Project 2025 existed. I know this because I’m the interviewer.”
