Trump campaign pushes back on Democrats tying him to ‘Project 2025’

Minnesota DFL leaders denounce Project 2025

Democrats keep trying to tie former President Donald Trump to “Project 2025” and no degree of pushback from the Republican candidate will stop them. You can expect it to be a major topic in Tuesday night’s presidential debate between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.

“What we’ll see tomorrow on the debate stage will likely be no surprise to most Americans who’ve been watching very closely,” says St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, speaking at a news conference at the Minnesota State Capitol. He appeared to be talking about the topic of “Project 2025” coming up during the debate. “I fully expect the people of this country to be able to see Project 2025 for what it is. It’s a plan to establish a dictatorship in the White House.”

Carter was joined at the news conference by Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin speaking on behalf of the Harris-Walz campaign.

“We have to stop Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and their extreme Project 2025 agenda,” Flanagan said.

A Trump campaign spokesman rebutted the criticism, saying Trump has repeatedly said he will not use the document as a blueprint for a second term if he’s elected.

“The Democrats are lying,” Tommy Pigott, RNC strategic communications director, told 5 Eyewitness News in an interview from West Palm Beach, FL. “They’re not telling the truth and it’s because they know they can’t run against President Trump’s real agenda.”

Pigott says Trump’s actual agenda for a second term in office is listed in a 20-point plan on his presidential campaign website.

The 900+ page “Project 2025” document was written by the conservative Heritage Foundation, which includes several former Trump administration officials.

“He plans to ban abortion nationwide, to eliminate the Department of Education, to cut taxes for already rich people and to slash services for the poor,” Ken Martin says.

Among many other things, the document calls for eliminating the Department of Education in favor of more local education control, dismantling the Department of Homeland Security and reassigning those duties to other existing agencies, reducing the number of income tax brackets, and further restrictions, but not a federal ban, on abortion.

“All Democrats have to run on are lies,” says Pigott. “They can’t run on Kamala Harris’ record because it’s been a record of inflation and open borders and weakness on the world stage. They can’t run against President Trump’s real agenda because it’s popular.”

Harris and Trump will face-off on “Project 2025” and many other issues on Tuesday night during their debate on ABC News and 5 Eyewitness News.