Trump claims he has 'nothing to do' with Project 2025. Voters don't buy that.

Donald Trump insisting that he has no connection to Project 2025 sounds like your angry old uncle showing up hungry for Thanksgiving dinner while proclaiming that he has nothing to do with the family as he prepares to eat.

Sure, he probably didn't lift a finger to help prepare the meal. That doesn't mean Trump won't pile his plate high with it if he wins a second term as president in November.

Trump has a strong motivation to put as much distance as he can between his campaign and the controversy swirling around Project 2025, a 922-page government policy wish list from the hard-right Heritage Foundation . A new poll shows swing voters seriously dislike the plan. And they don't believe Trump when he claims "I have nothing to do" with it.

Trump repeated that claim during Tuesday's debate after Vice President Kamala Harris went on the attack, calling Project 2025 "a detailed and dangerous plan" that Trump "intends on implementing if he were elected again."

Trump tried to cast Project 2025 as full of "some ideas, I guess, some good, some bad," while also claiming "I haven't read it. I don't want to read it."

That part rang true. Does anyone believe Trump would read 922 pages of policy? He'd use it, sure. But read it? No chance.

How has Project 2025 done with voters? Apparently not well.

I'm surprised a dense policy paper has such resonance in a presidential election. But the Harris campaign, the Democratic National Committee and their allies have been banging away at messaging on the dangers of Project 2025 , which would expand the power of the presidency while eliminating federal agencies like the Department of Education, scaling back the Affordable Care Act, curtailing access to abortion and undoing LGBTQ+ civil rights.

Matt Canter, a pollster from Global Strategy Group, on Wednesday briefed Democratic campaign staffers, political consultants, advocacy organizations and journalists about a poll conducted from Aug. 22 to Aug. 28 in 27 states, focusing on 63 "battleground" congressional districts up for grabs in November's election.

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Canter said Project 2025 "has penetrated the electorate in a very difficult and noisy environment."

And that's bad news for Trump and Republicans running down ballot from him for congressional seats. The poll touched on congressional districts in six swing states – Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – expected to determine who wins the presidency.

The poll was sponsored by the advocacy groups End Citizens United , Third Way and MoveOn as a road map for making sure Project 2025 doesn't just stick to Trump but also gets linked to Republicans seeking House seats.

Canter called that "an exciting opportunity to play offense."

"Nearly two-thirds of voters report hearing or seeing something about Project 2025, and the disdain runs deep," he said. "And it's not just Democratic base voters driving animosity. We see a majority of the swing voters that have heard are familiar with Project 2025 are deeply unfavorable as well."

How much do voters know about Project 2025?

The poll of 1,212 likely voters found that 75% of them closely associate Project 2025 with Trump, and that 79% believe he supports the policies in the plan. Roughly the same number of those polled believe Republicans in Congress support Project 2025's proposals.

The poll found, in a generic question about political parties without naming candidates, that Democrats held a 4 percentage point lead over Republicans in battleground districts but that jumped to 18 points when the race was framed as Democrats opposing Project 2025 and Republicans supporting it.

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Swing voters from both parties don't like Project 2025. But they come at it from different directions. Canter said the plan "does a better job motivating Democratic voters" than traditional negative advertising. But Republicans know less about Project 2025 than other voters.

"That makes sense," Canter said. "Because voters that are on a higher diet of conservative media are getting less information about Project 2025."

If you're watching Fox News, you're probably not up to speed on the controversy. Fox News earlier this month complained that Project 2025 has been "turned into a right-wing-'boogeyman.' "

We all know Trump and Vance will sprint to use Project 2025 if they win

Trump on Friday, speaking at a news conference in California, grumbled that the ABC News moderators at Tuesday's debate did not correct Harris for linking him to Project 2025.

But we know Trump relied on The Heritage Foundation for policy during his one term in office. The think tank, during the term, bragged that Trump "embraced" and implemented 64% of its recommended policies. And CNN in July reported that at least 140 people who worked in Trump's administration helped craft Project 2025.

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Speaking at a Heritage Foundation event in April 2022 , Trump said, “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."

Trump's running mate, Republican U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, wrote the forward for a new book written by one of the Project 2025 coordinators. That book's release was stalled until after the election amid this controversy.

But to hear Trump and Vance tell it now, Project 2025 is just concept of a plan out there engineered by others with no influence over their campaign. Clearly voters don't buy that.

Trump and Vance may not have written Project 2025. They may not have even read it. But the odds are strong that, if elected in November, they won't hesitate to put it in action.

Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump claims he has 'nothing to do' with Project 2025. Voters don't buy that.