Trump backs away from Project 2025. What does that mean for foreign aid?

Former U.S. President Donald Trump is distancing himself from the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a collection of right-wing policy proposals pulled together by the conservative think tank in Washington, D.C. Instead, he’s proposed a platform that has now been adopted by the Republican National Committee — a 16-page document that includes zero mention of U.S. foreign aid. “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” Trump posted on Truth Social, the social media platform the former president launched after being banned from X, then Twitter. “Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.” Project 2025’s flagship report is 922 pages. It’s a stockpile of recommendations for the next conservative president, tackling everything from foreign aid to defense to agriculture. In its chapter dedicated to U.S. foreign aid, the Heritage Foundation proposed deep cuts to humanitarian assistance; a dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; and the rescinding of policies to mitigate climate change, among other ideas. “The Biden Administration has deformed the agency by treating it as a global platform to pursue overseas a divisive political and cultural agenda that promotes abortion, climate extremism, gender radicalism, and interventions against perceived and systemic racism,” the 24-page chapter on the U.S. Agency for International Development states. “U.S. foreign aid has been transformed into a massive and openended global entitlement program captured by — and enriching — the progressive Left.” After distancing himself from Project 2025, a draft began circulating among members of the 2024 Republican convention platform committee, according to reporting from The New York Times. The new proposal — titled “America First: A Return to Common Sense” — was approved during a vote of the Republican National Committee on Monday, and as of Monday afternoon, the Trump campaign was referring to the document as the “Republican Party Platform.” The document seems to be written in Trump’s voice, utilizing many of the erroneous capital letters and campaign slogans that have become a hallmark of the former president’s vocabulary. “America needs determined Republican Leadership at every level of Government to address the core threats to our very survival: Our disastrously Open Border, our weakened Economy, crippling restrictions on American Energy Production, our depleted Military, attacks on the American System of Justice, and much more,” the platform states. There are 10 chapters to the document, each of which is just a page long. There are no mentions of U.S. foreign assistance or USAID. And the only “promises” related to anything international in the proposal include carrying out the “largest deportation operation in American history,” stopping the “migrant crime epidemic” and “foreign drug cartels,” preventing “World War Three,” and restoring “peace in Europe and the Middle East.” Trump’s plan The newest proposal is centered on a number of campaign promises, from protecting senior citizens through Social Security and Medicare to pushing for parents’ rights, prayer, and discipline — and against “gender indoctrination” — in American classrooms. Two of the 10 chapters read like broad strokes of bullets encompassing many different ideas: chapter eight, for example, includes proposals on promoting a “Culture that values the Sanctity of Marriage,” restoring law and order to Washington, D.C., combating antisemitism, and making colleges and universities “sane and affordable.” Chapter 10 titled “Return to Peace through Strength” is the section that touches most on foreign affairs. It states the Biden administration’s “weak Foreign Policy has made [the United States] less safe and a laughingstock all over the World,” and pushes for the country to counter China, defeat terrorism, and rebuild the military, in part by creating an “Iron Dome Missile Defense Shield” that would stretch across the nation. Though there is a mention that “Republicans will end the global chaos and restore Peace through Strength,” there are no additional details on how that ambition will be achieved. “[Trump’s] statement backing away from Project 2025 leaves a huge question mark on what he would do in office on those really serious questions of foreign aid and foreign policy,” said Rachael Dean Wilson, a managing director at the German Marshall Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. “We’ve dealt with a lot of question marks from Donald Trump in the past. Particularly in 2016, we were asking if he would do in the office what he was saying at his rallies — and he did. Now, we’re encountering a different problem, where there’s so much ambiguity that it’s unclear what a Trump Administration would follow through on.” Severing ties The latest set of policy proposals comes after Trump’s Truth Social post sliced away the former president’s ties to Project 2025. “I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump said on his social media platform. “I have no idea who is behind it.” Despite that statement, the last time the Republican was president, he embraced nearly two-thirds of the Heritage Foundation’s policy recommendations. He also hired 70 former Heritage employees to be a part of his team, the foundation reported on its website. That includes Max Primorac, who served as a senior adviser at USAID under Trump, and later wrote Project 2025’s chapter on the agency. “As we’ve been saying for more than two years now, Project 2025 does not speak for any candidate or campaign,” Project 2025 posted on X after Trump’s comments began to pick up headlines. “We are a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups advocating policy & personnel recommendations for the next conservative president. But it is ultimately up to that president, who we believe will be President Trump, to decide which recommendations to implement.” Trump’s distance comes after awareness of Project 2025 has grown, and Kevin Roberts, the Heritage Foundation’s president, made headlines for speaking on a podcast hosted by conservative strategist Steve Bannon, who recently began a four-month prison sentence for defying a congressional subpoena related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Roberts said America was “in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” Those comments were then bolstered by Roberts and Heritage on their X accounts soon after. “Clearly, Trump’s campaign looked at Project 2025 in this moment, and decided it could be a political liability,” Wilson said. “[By backing away,] they are trying to moderate some of Trump’s more extreme positions and present a candidate that would appeal to more voters.” In social media posts and news releases, the Biden campaign blasted Trump and his allies for “dreaming of a violent revolution to destroy the very idea of America.” Biden had already linked Project 2025 to Trump’s plans, drawing comparisons to the recommendations’ views on abortion, for example — which includes a push for Congress to enact “the most robust protections for the unborn … in every jurisdiction in America” — with Trump’s influence on overturning Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that previously protected a woman’s right to abortion. “Donald Trump is trying to hide his extreme Project 2025 agenda,” tweeted U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday afternoon, just hours after Trump’s alternative policy proposals were published. “The only problem? It was written for him — by those closest to him.” Update, July 9, 2024: This article has been updated to reflect comments from Rachael Dean Wilson of the German Marshall Fund.