JD Vance Pens Foreword for Project 2025 Leader’s New Book

The Republican senator and vice-presidential nominee JD Vance has written the foreword to a forthcoming book by the head of Project 2025, the extensive right-wing plan for a potential second Trump administration. This plan has raised alarm among Democrats who see it as an authoritarian threat. Donald Trump himself has tried to distance his campaign from Project 2025.

In promotional material for the book, Vance praises Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation. He describes Roberts as “a figure with [his] depth and stature within the American Right” who is trying to “articulate a genuinely new future for conservatism.” The material also identifies Roberts as the head of Project 2025.

Roberts’ book, titled “Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America,” is scheduled for release in September. Orchestrated primarily by the Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 spans over 900 pages and includes radical proposals aimed at reforming various aspects of government and public life. Democrats have voiced concerns that these proposals threaten essential freedoms, including reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights. Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the issue recently, emphasizing the perceived dangers of the initiative.

Harris stated, “Can you believe they put that in writing? This represents an outright attack on our children, our families, and our future. These extremists want to take us back, but we are not going back.”

In light of such critiques, Trump and his top aides have strived to distance the administration from Project 2025. Vance told NBC, “What the media and the Democrats are trying to do is attach its most unpopular elements to the Trump administration. It’s a 900-page document. I guarantee there are things that Trump likes and dislikes . . . but he is the person who will determine the agenda of the next administration.”

Despite these efforts, skepticism persists. There are significant links between figures in Trump’s circle and the authors of Project 2025. According to promotional materials, Roberts’ book outlines a vision of a “peaceful ‘Second American Revolution’ for voters looking to shift the power back into the hands of the people.”

Roberts has made controversial statements in line with these themes. He told former Trump aide Steve Bannon, “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” Previously, Roberts’ book was promoted under the more dramatic subtitle: “Burning Down Washington to Save America.”

This combative rhetoric is gaining traction. At a recent Trump-Vance rally in Ohio, a speaker warned of civil war if the Republican ticket fails. Vance himself employs violent imagery in promoting Roberts’ book, saying, “We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.”

Reed Galen, a Republican operative who now directs JoinTheUnion.us, a coalition of pro-democracy organizations, commented on the issue. He told the Guardian, “Project 2025 is Maga’s endorsed blueprint for turning America into an authoritarian state. That Trump’s running mate is introducing [Roberts’] book personally only proves that his protestations [of no links to Project 2025] are an indication of how unpopular they know the plan is.”

Source: The Guardian