Claim:
A video captured on April 21, 2022, shows former U.S. President Donald Trump praising the formation of plans for Project 2025 at an event for the initiative's leaders, The Heritage Foundation.
Rating:
True ( About this rating? )
An online rumor claims video of former U.S. President Donald Trump attending an event for the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation in Amelia Island, Florida, on April 21, 2022, shows him praising the foundation's plans for its just-announced 2025 Presidential Transition Project – commonly known in the months leading up to the 2024 presidential election as Project 2025.
This rumor was true. We contacted the Trump campaign by email to ask about the resurfaced comments from April 2022 and will update this story if we receive a statement in response.
Project 2025
Project 2025 refers to a conservative coalition's policy plan for a future Republican U.S. presidential administration. The Heritage Foundation is leading the initiative.
As Snopes previously reported , people across the political spectrum expressed fears the initiative's proposed actions are precursors to authoritarianism. Further, the plan proposes recommendations to reverse protections for LGBTQ+ people, limit abortion access and stop federal efforts to mitigate climate change. In addition, many authors of "Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise" – the 2023 book outlining Project 2025's policy proposals – have connections to Trump.
The Heritage Foundation's website formally announced Project 2025 – again, then mainly referenced as the 2025 Presidential Transition Project – on April 14, 2022, exactly one week before Trump's speech at the Heritage Foundation event.
Trump on Project 2025: 'A Colossal Mandate'
Both video and a transcript of Trump's April 21, 2022, Florida speech show him praising The Heritage Foundation and Project 2025's forthcoming "Mandate for Leadership" plans.
Around 20 minutes into Trump's speech, just after referencing the upcoming 2024 election, he said of Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, "Already we have shown the power of our winning formula, working closely with many of the great people at Heritage over the four incredible years that we've worked with you a lot and we were just discussing it with Kevin (inaudible), they're going to work on some other things that are going to be very exciting, I think, Kevin, I think maybe the most exciting of all."
Then, about 41 minutes into the speech, Trump called The Heritage Foundation a "great group." He also referred to The Heritage Foundation's plans as a "colossal mandate" and said it would "lay the groundwork for exactly what our movement will do" in order to "save America":
Because our country is going to hell. The critical job of institutions such as Heritage is to lay the groundwork. And Heritage does such an incredible job at that. And I'm telling you, with Kevin and the staff, and I met so many of them now, I took pictures with among the most handsome, beautiful people I've ever seen. I didn't like that picture. If you could lose that picture, please would you Kevin? But this is a great… No, he says I won't do that. But this is a great group. And they're going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America and that's coming. That's coming. Because nobody can stand what's happening right now. Only a fool, only a fool or somebody that hates our country can like what's happening right now. Never been in this position before and already we know a very big part of our agenda.
CNN , Mediaite , MeidasTouch , MSNBC , NBC News , NBC News correspondent Vaughn Hillyard , Occupy Democrats and others highlighted Trump's April 2022 remarks in July 2024. Some reports also noted the fact Trump delivered a prior speech to The Heritage Foundation during his presidency in 2017.
In stark contrast with Trump's April 2022 remarks about The Heritage Foundation and its plans, he posted on his Truth Social platform on July 5, 2024, "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. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them."
YouTube Removed Original Heritage Foundation Video
In our research, we noted that, in May 2022, YouTube removed the original live video of Trump's speech broadcast on The Heritage Foundation's channel. Page archives showed the original video received at least around 537,000 views before removal. The link originally hosting the video now reads, "This video has been removed for violating YouTube's Community Guidelines."
In a May 9, 2022, article scolding "Big Tech," The Heritage Foundation reported YouTube said it removed the video because it "[violated] policies pertaining to election misinformation."
For further reading, we previously published the article , "The Facts About Project 2025: The Pro-Trump Proposal To 'Reshape America.'" We also reported on a rumor claiming Trump's name appears in Project 2025's book 312 times.
Sources:
Allen, Hugh. "Trump Keynote Speech in Florida 4/21/22 | Transcripts." Rev.com , 24 Apr. 2022, https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/donald-trump-delivers-keynote-speech-in-florida-4-21-22-transcript .
"Donald J. Trump at the Heritage Foundation Annual Leadership Conference - 4/21/2022." Rumble , 21 Apr. 2022, https://rumble.com/v11w4eo-donald-j.-trump-at-the-heritage-foundation-annual-leadership-conference-421.html .
Gancarski, A. G. "Donald Trump Speaks at Heritage Foundation Gathering in Amelia Island, Talks of 'When We Get Back In.'" Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government. , 22 Apr. 2022, https://floridapolitics.com/archives/518510-donald-trump-rallies-heritage-foundation-at-amelia-island-meeting/ .
"Heritage Announces 2025 Presidential Transition Project, Hiring of Paul Dans to Direct New Initiative." The Heritage Foundation , 14 Apr. 2022, https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-announces-2025-presidential-transition-project-hiring-paul-dans-direct-new .
"Heritage Foundation Blasts YouTube's Censorship of President Trump Speech." The Heritage Foundation , 9 May 2022, https://www.heritage.org/press/heritage-foundation-blasts-youtubes-censorship-president-trump-speech .
Hillyard, Vaughn, and Alexandra Marquez. "Trump Disavows Project 2025, but He Has Long-Standing Ties to Some Key Architects." NBC News , 11 July 2024, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/project-2025-trump-heritage-foundation-what-know-rcna161338 .
Ibrahim, Nur, and Aleksandra Wrona. "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/ .
"Internet Archive TV News." Internet Archive , https://archive.org/details/tv .
"Policy." Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project , https://www.project2025.org/policy/ .
Swenson, Ali. "A Conservative Leading the Pro-Trump Project 2025 Suggests There Will Be a New American Revolution." The Associated Press , 3 July 2024, https://apnews.com/article/project-2025-trump-american-revolution-6e02a297fb91b55de01ba7e86615bb08 .
"Watch Trump's Full Speech to the Heritage Foundation." YouTube , The Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsgGJQDBIiM .
Wrona, Aleksandra, and Nur Ibrahim. "The Facts About Project 2025: The Pro-Trump Proposal To 'Reshape America.'" Snopes , 11 July 2024, https://www.snopes.com//news/2024/07/11/project-2025-explained/ .
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