By Andrew Stanton

Copyright newsweek

Amid a government shutdown, President Donald Trump’s announcement that he plans to meet with one of the authors of Project 2025 sparked backlash from critics online who pointed out that he sought to distance himself from the conservative project on the campaign trail last year.

Newsweek has reached out to the White House for comment via email on Monday.

Why It Matters

Trump said he plans to meet with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought, an author of Project 2025, which was a 900-page blueprint developed by conservative groups to reshape the federal government. Trump and Republicans faced criticism over the plan, but Trump dismissed having connections to it, calling parts of it “ridiculous and abysmal.”

Trump wrote on Thursday that he and Vought, who founded The Center for Renewing America (CRA), will discuss cuts to federal agencies. The meeting comes after the administration sent out a memo last week warning that federal workers could be fired amid the government shutdown standoff with Democrats.

Democrats and Republicans have both sought to cast blame on each other for the shutdown. Democrats have accused Republicans of not willing to make any concessions to earn their support, particularly around the extension of health care tax credits set to expire and a rollback of recent Medicaid cuts. But Republicans have said Senate Democrats are to blame for not agreeing to the bill passed by the House.

What To Know

Trump announced the meeting in a Truth Social post in which he noted Vought’s association with Project 2025.

“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent. I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DJT,” he wrote.

Many of his critics were quick to note that he previously distanced himself from the project.

“Oh, so NOW we’re talking about Project 2025!” journalist Yashar Ali wrote on X.

Jessica Tarlov, co-host of The Five on Fox News, wrote, “Remember the good ole days where Trump told us he didn’t know what Project 2025 was?”

Dan Pfeiffer, a former adviser to President Barack Obama’s White House, wrote, “I have this vague memory of everyone in the Republican Party from Trump on down claiming that Project 2025 was a ‘Democratic Hoax.’”

President Donald Trump speaks to senior military leaders in Quantico, Virginia, on September 30.

What Has Donald Trump Said About Project 2025?

The president wrote in a July 2024 post to Truth Social that he knew “nothing about Project 2025.”

“I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, and, unlike our very well received Republican Platform, had nothing to do with it,” he wrote, describing attempts to tie him to the proposal as “pure disinformation.”

He wrote in another post, “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.”

However, in December 2024, after his presidential election victory against former Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump told Time magazine he doesn’t “disagree with everything in Project 2025, but I disagree with some things.”

“I specifically didn’t want to read it because it wasn’t under my auspices, and I wanted to be able to say that, you know, the only way I can say I have nothing to do with it is if you don’t read it. I don’t want—I didn’t want to read it. I read enough about it. They have some things that are very conservative and very good. They have other things that I don’t like,” he said.

What People Are Saying

Progressive commentator Mehdi Hasan wrote to X: “The journalists who produced ‘factchecks’ during 2024 suggesting Trump had nothing to do with Project 2025, or took him at his word (!) that he knew nothing about it, should hang their heads in shame.”

Representative Sean Casten, an Illinois Democrat, wrote to X: “This is illegal, and yes is the same guy who claimed he’d never heard of Project 2025. But there’s a larger point to make here about public service. No one who wins elected office wins 100% of the vote. But everyone who holds public office represents 100% of their electorate.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office wrote to X: “Trump tried to distance himself from Project 2025. But 9 months in, he has already put 48% into action. And now, with his shutdown, he’s all in — embracing the plan’s disastrous cuts and divisive policies.”

Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Republicans must use this opportunity of Democrat forced closure to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud. Billions of Dollars can be saved. MAKE AMERICA GREAT…