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kamala harris
Media Faces Reckoning After Helping Trump Downplay Project 2025 on Campaign Trail
"A Trump denial is not a fact," said one media critic.
Oct 03, 2025
As President Donald Trump openly embraces Project 2025, mainstream media outlets are facing criticism for their role in helping him downplay his ties to the wildly unpopular far-right governing playbook in the lead-up to his reelection last year.
After she became the Democratic nominee in July, former Vice President Kamala Harris made the Heritage Foundation's over 900-page manifesto for “the next conservative president” central to her case against Trump during the 2024 election, often referring to it as "Trump's Project 2025."
She and other Democrats warned that if he retook power, he would swiftly enact many of its most extreme and unpopular proposals and dramatically expand executive power while doing it.
Among those proposals were steep cuts to social safety net programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the "mass deportations" of millions of immigrants, the elimination of the Department of Education, new restrictions on abortions, the gutting of climate protections, and the replacement of career civil servants with political appointees, among many others.
Democrats amplified the plan's danger at the Democratic National Convention and in campaign ads, and Trump began to distance himself from the platform. Despite the fact that as many as 140 people who'd worked in his first administration—including Paul Dans, Heritage's director of Project 2025—had a hand in its creation, Trump said: "I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it."
This was demonstrably untrue, even at the time. Media Matters for America dug up a clip from as far back as May 2023 of Dans stating that "President Trump's very bought in with this," speaking of the program.
Project 2025 was almost inconceivably unpopular. An NBC News poll from September 2024 showed that while 57% of registered voters viewed the plan negatively, just 4% viewed it positively.
But in the critical months leading up to the election, many media outlets took Trump's denial at face value, publishing fact checks and other commentary that painted Democrats' warnings about his connection to the plan as alarmist or misleading.
Responding to a social media post in July stating that "Trump has made his authoritarian intentions quite clear with his Project 2025 plan," a fact check by USA Today rated the statement "false," because, as the headline said, "Project 2025 is an effort by the Heritage Foundation, not Donald Trump."
In September, after Harris confronted Trump about Project 2025 at the first and only debate between the two, the paper published another fact-check with the headline: "Harris repeats claim that Project 2025 is Trump's plan. That's still not right."
In response to Harris' claim during the debate that Project 2025 was "a detailed and dangerous plan... that the former president intends on implementing if he were elected,” Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler, whose coverage received a fair bit of criticism during the 2024 cycle, reported in bold text that "Project 2025 is not an official campaign document."
A CNN fact check of the Harris campaign's social media in September remarked that one account "frequently invokes Project 2025," before caveating that "Project 2025 is not Trump’s initiative, and he has said he disagrees with some of its proposals."
In an October interview on CBS's "Face the Nation," anchor Norah O'Donnell, Harris attempted to warn about Project 2025, before O'Donnell responded: "You know that Donald Trump has disavowed Project 2025. He says that is not his campaign plan."
After nine months back in power, the website Project 2025 Tracker estimates that Trump has already implemented approximately 48% of the objectives outlined in the policy document.
In addition to his key campaign promises many of his second administration's policies are highly specific to Project 2025, such as his pledge to abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), his efforts to privatize the National Weather Service (NWS), his reconfiguration of Title X funding to promote pregnancy, and his elimination of the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Trump is no longer hiding his connection to Project 2025, having brought in many of its hiring picks and authors to staff his administration almost immediately after his victory last November.
This week, he began to boast about it openly. As his Office of Management and Budget (OMB) director, Russ Vought, one of Project 2025's architects, began using the current government shutdown to unilaterally cut off funding to infrastructure projects in blue states and cities, Trump lauded him as "he of PROJECT 2025 Fame."
"This was always the plan," Harris responded on social media.
While many commentators expressed outrage that Trump blatantly lied about his connections to Project 2025, others dredged up old clips of newspapers and anchors taking him at his word.
"All those 2024 media fact checks that said, 'Donald Trump and the Trump campaign deny any connection to Project 2025' look pretty ridiculous right now," said MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski. "A Trump denial is not a fact. You just used his lies to 'debunk' a reality that was obvious to anyone paying attention."
Mehdi Hasan, the founder of the independent media company Zeteo, highlighted the CBS interview, saying Trump's embrace of Project 2025 was "embarrassing not just for Norah O'Donnell but a whole host of leading American anchors and reporters who echoed Trump’s false denials."
"Nothing showed the difference between mainstream and independent media better than the response to Trump’s obvious lie about not knowing anything about Project 2025," said David Pepper, author of the book Saving Democracy: A User's Manual. "Most mainstream media started fact-checking those who claimed a connection to be somehow false. Others 'both sides'ed' it. Far more in independent media called it out as a whopping lie."
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Missouri Dems Hold Sit-In for 100+ Hours to Protest GOP Assault on Democracy
"We're still on the Missouri House floor because democracy is worth the fight," said state Rep. Ray Reed. "The GOP is trying to rig our maps in the middle of the decade at Trump's demand."
Sep 08, 2025
Three Democrats in the Missouri House of Representatives spent over 100 hours in the chamber protesting Republican efforts to rig the state's congressional map for US President Donald Trump and attack ballot initiatives during a legislative special session.
Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe is pushing a congressional map that targets Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, and a measure that would require any ballot proposal to pass in a statewide vote and all eight congressional districts.
Democratic state Reps. Jeremy Dean (132), Elizabeth Fuchs (80), and Ray Reed (83) began their sit-in Thursday and stayed at the state Capitol throughout the weekend, after signing a letter to GOP House Speaker Jon Patterson (30) requesting a meeting.
"We're still on the Missouri House floor because democracy is worth the fight," Reed said in a social media post at the 100-hour mark. "The GOP is trying to rig our maps in the middle of the decade at Trump's demand. They want us tired, quiet, and invisible."
"Instead, we're louder, stronger, and shining a national spotlight on their corruption," he continued. "This sit-in isn't just resistance, it's a blueprint for the future of the Democratic Party. Young, new, and fresh leaders won't wait our turn. We're here. We're fighting. And we're not backing down."
The trio has shared updates online throughout their sit-in:
Other Democratic political leaders have expressed solidarity throughout the action. Former Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump last November, "lifted our spirits, calling us during our sit-in on the Missouri House floor and sending pizza to keep us going," Reed said early Monday, sharing a clip of their phone conversation.
Sharing that post, Harris said on social media: "Missouri State Reps. Reed, Fuchs, and Dean: You are not in this alone. We are cheering you on, and we are so grateful for your courage as you fight for our democracy."
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin has expressed support for the trio, as has former Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who was part of the progressive "Squad."
Squad member Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) also spoke with them by phone. She said on social media: "Solidarity with the Missouri House Democrats who have spent over 100 hours holding the floor to protest the Republican attempt to taint our democracy, reduce the voice of communities of color, and steal congressional seats. I thanked them for standing up to fascism."
Reed and Dean appeared on MSNBC over the weekend to discuss their protest of the Missouri GOP's effort, which comes after Texas Republicans passed a new congressional map during a special session at Trump's request.
St. Louis Public Radio reported on the Missouri push on Monday:
Republicans hold a commanding majority in the House. And unlike in the Senate, House leaders can easily cut off debate—meaning there's little leverage the Democrats have to stop either measure from moving through the process.
But Democrats have used this special session to accuse their Republican counterparts of being subservient to Trump. State Rep. Keri Ingle [D-36], added that the fact Trump needs GOP states to redraw maps that are already aligned against Democrats shows that they don't expect next year's election to go well for Republican candidates.
"The thing with pendulums is that they swing back," Ingle said. "This is an egregious overreach of power. It's shameless. And I know that a lot of you will feel shame and will text me later about it. And I'm not going to give you absolution."
Other members of the Missouri House returned to the chamber on Monday afternoon to debate the contentious proposals.
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'Another Act of Revenge': Trump Cancels Secret Service Extended Protection for Kamala Harris
"The safety of our public officials should never be subject to erratic, vindictive political impulses," said a spokesman for California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Aug 29, 2025
US President Donald Trump has canceled extended Secret Service protection for former Vice President Kamala Harris just as she was scheduled to go on a multi-city book tour.
CNN reported on Friday that Trump this week sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security that simply read, "You are hereby authorized to discontinue any security-related procedures previously authorized by executive memorandum, beyond those required by law, for the following individual, effective September 1, 2025: Former Vice President Kamala D. Harris."
As CNN explained, former vice presidents are entitled by federal law to six months of Secret Service protection after leaving office.
However, former President Joe Biden late in his term signed a directive that extended Harris' protection past the standard six-month window. The reason for the extension—its existence not reported publicly until Trump moved to revoke it—has not been made clear.
Harris last year was the Democratic Party's presidential nominee after then-President Joe Biden decided against running for a second term.
As California is Harris' home state, both California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass are aware of and have been discussing Harris' security situation, and CNN noted she could get added protection in the future from the Los Angeles Police Department or potentially another state agency.
In a statement given to CNN, Bass delivered a scathing denunciation of the president for revoking his former rival's Secret Service protection.
"This is another act of revenge following a long list of political retaliation in the form of firings, the revoking of security clearances and more," she said. "This puts the former Vice President in danger and I look forward to working with the Governor to make sure Vice President Harris is safe in Los Angeles."
Bob Salladay, a spokesman for Newsom, also ripped the president for his actions.
"The safety of our public officials should never be subject to erratic, vindictive political impulses," he said.
Harris is scheduled to go on tour starting next month in New York to promote her book "107 Days," which reflects on her failed 2024 presidential campaign.
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