Claim:
Former U.S. President Donald Trump said he would appoint Tom Homan, an author for Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy handbook, as part of his potential next administration.
Rating:
Mostly True ( About this rating? )
What's True:
Trump said, "We are bringing back Tom Homan," who was acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in his administration, while discussing immigration during a July 2024 campaign speech.
What's False:
Homan was not listed as an author on a chapter in Project 2025’s policy handbook titled "Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise." He was instead listed as a "contributor" and reportedly assisted the authors in the development and writing of the handbook.
Ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Democrats attacked former U.S. President Donald Trump over his purported connection to a conservative plan to overhaul the U.S. government, known as Project 2025. While Trump repeatedly disavowed ties to Project 2025, many observers noted the links between the initiative and his allies and former administration officials.
X accounts that frequently post supportive messages for U.S. President Joe Biden claimed that Trump promised to bring back one of his former administration officials who also happened to be an author for Project 2025.
One post stated ( archived ):
BREAKING: After claiming to know nothing about Project 2025, Donald Trump just announced if he wins he will bring back Project 2025's author Tom Homan. Retweet so every American sees this and knows Trump will implement the disastrous Project 2025 plan.
Tom Homan was acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the Trump administration, and Trump has said he will bring him back. He is also listed as a "contributor" to Project 2025's policy handbook titled "Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise" though he did not author a chapter himself. The above accounts are "Mostly True."
In a July 2024 campaign speech in Florida, Trump accused migrants of committing violent crimes in the U.S. and said : "By the way, we are bringing back Tom Homan, we are bringing back all of the guys that did such a great job with the border. We had the greatest border in history."
Homan was named among a long list in the Project 2025 handbook, on Page 28 of the section titled "Contributors" (the full document can be found here). However, contributors are not listed as authors of the 30 chapters in the handbook. According to the section introduction , contributors assisted in developing and writing various chapters:
The contributors listed below generously volunteered their time and effort to assist the authors in the development and writing of this volume's 30 chapters. The policy views and reform proposals herein are not an all-inclusive catalogue of conservative ideas for the next President, nor is there unanimity among the contributors or the organizations with which they are affiliated with regard to the recommendations.
Homan, who was acting ICE director from 2017 to 2018, is a visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that led the charge on developing Project 2025.
The extent of his contributions to Project 2025 are unclear. We reached out to Homan to learn more about his role in Project 2025 and whether he would join a new Trump administration, and we will update this story if we get more information.
What Policies Did Homan Contribute?
Homan said in 2018 that politicians who run what are commonly referred to as sanctuary cities — per CNN , a broad term applied to jurisdictions with policies that limit cooperation with or involvement in federal immigration enforcement actions — should be charged with crimes and that the Department of Justice needs to hold back funding to these cities. He also said separating migrant parents and children at the border was "sad" but part of the job. In 2018, before departing as ICE director, he described the logistical challenges of keeping migrant families together: "A child can't go to U.S. Marshals' custody with the parents being charged with the crime of entering the country illegally."
According to a report from online news platform Semafor , Homan said in a July 2024 panel on immigration policy: "Trump comes back in January, I'll be on his heels coming back, and I will run the biggest deportation force this country has ever seen. … They ain't seen s*** yet. Wait until 2025."
We have previously reported that Project 2025's chapter on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the executive-branch department that oversees ICE, makes a number of recommendations, including:
- Dismantling DHS.
- Deprioritizing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, the program that temporarily delays the deportation of immigrants without documentation who came to the U.S. as children.
- Phasing out temporary work-visa programs that allow seasonal employers to hire foreign workers.
- Imposing financial punishments on "sanctuary cities" that do not follow federal immigration laws.
- Diverting tax dollars toward security at America's border with Mexico.
The chapter also calls for stronger enforcement of laws governing the detainment of immigrants with criminal records and restricting an existing program that tracks people in deportation proceedings instead of incarcerating them. We noted in our Project 2025 report that those changes , in some cases, could possibly play a role in Border Control agents detaining a parent while their child continues with immigration proceedings.
Ken Cuccinelli, who served as deputy DHS secretary in the Trump administration, wrote the Project 2025 chapter on the department.
What Are Trump's Ties to Project 2025?
We should note that Trump denied any ties to Project 2025. In a July 2024 post on Truth Social, he wrote: "I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they're saying and some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal."
His claim was met with skepticism because many of the people who worked on Project 2025 have met or worked with Trump, as illustrated in this story. We even fact-checked an authentic video from 2022 of Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts shaking hands with Trump.
Sources:
Conradis, Brandon. "Trump ICE Pick: Politicians Who Run Sanctuary Cities Should Be Charged with Crimes." The Hill, 3 Jan. 2018, https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/367167-trump-ice-pick-politicians-who-run-sanctuary-cities-should-be-charged/ . Accessed 11 July 2024.
"Former President Donald Trump Holds Rally in Doral, Florida." C-SPAN.Org. https://www.c-span.org/video/?536809-1/president-donald-trump-holds-rally-doral-florida . Accessed 11 July 2024.
Jackson, David. "Donald Trump Challenges Joe Biden to Another Debate, Attacks Immigrants: 4 Takeaways from Miami Rally." USA TODAY, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/07/09/donald-trump-miami-rally-debate-joe-biden/74344647007/ . Accessed 11 July 2024.
Kasprak, Alex. "Video Shows Trump Shaking Hands with Head of Group Behind Project 2025?" Snopes, 9 July 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/trump-project-2025-roberts/ . Accessed 11 July 2024.
"Ken Cuccinelli." The Heritage Foundation, https://www.heritage.org/staff/ken-cuccinelli . Accessed 11 July 2024.
Kopan, Tal. "What Are Sanctuary Cities, and Can They Be Defunded? | CNN Politics." CNN, 25 Jan. 2017, https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/25/politics/sanctuary-cities-explained/index.html . Accessed 12 July 2024.
"Outgoing ICE Director Says Separating Parents and Children Is 'sad' but Part of the Job." PBS News, 31 May 2018, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/outgoing-ice-director-says-separating-parents-and-children-is-sad-but-part-of-the-job . Accessed 11 July 2024.
"Tom Homan." The Heritage Foundation, https://www.heritage.org/staff/tom-homan . Accessed 11 July 2024.
"Trump's 'National Conservative' Allies Plot a Revenge Administration." Semafor. 9 July 2024, https://www.semafor.com/article/07/09/2024/trumps-national-conservative-allies-plot-a-revenge-administration . Accessed 11 July 2024.
Wrona, Aleksandra and Nur Ibrahim. "What's Project 2025? Unpacking the Pro-Trump Plan to Overhaul US Government." Snopes, 3 July 2024, https://www.snopes.com//news/2024/07/03/project-2025-trump-us-government/ . Accessed 11 July 2024.
Most Popular
Comments / 0