Project 2025 winding down policy work following criticism from Trump

The Heritage Foundation official leading Project 2025 is stepping down and the group is winding down its policy work following sustained criticism by former President Donald Trump and his campaign.

Trump’s campaign said in a statement Tuesday that the announcement should put on notice others trying to link themselves to Trump and that it “welcomed” reports of the group’s “demise.”

“Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you,” co-campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said.

Project 2025 is a collaboration of more than 100 conservative groups launched by the Heritage Foundation. Many of those groups are staffed by former Trump administration officials. Its work has provided fodder for Democrats targeting Trump, drawing from the group’s book of policy proposals aimed at informing a future GOP administration. The effort also includes a personnel database aimed at staffing a future White House team.

Democrats have used Project 2025’s 900-plus-page book to raise the alarm about what a future Trump administration could set out to accomplish. The group’s director, Paul Dans, was a senior Trump official at the Office of Personnel Management. Other advisers with the group include former Trump administration personnel official John McEntee.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign said in response to the announcement that Trump is misguided if he thinks he can distance himself from Project 2025 and the policies it said the group promises to “inflict” on the country if he takes office.

“Project 2025 is on the ballot because Donald Trump is on the ballot. This is his agenda, written by his allies, for Donald Trump to inflict on our country,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Harris’ campaign manager. “Hiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn’t make it less real — in fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding.”

Russ Vought, who was a top aide to Trump in his first term and now leads the Center for Renewing America, a key adviser to Project 2025, is the Republican National Committee’s platform policy director. Stephen Miller, a former Trump White House adviser who now runs America First Legal, has also been closely involved.

Miller insisted otherwise Tuesday. "I have never been involved with Project 2025 in any way whatsoever. Period," he said in a statement.

In remarks, Trump has come out against the policies as crafted by “some on the right — severe right,” describing other policies as “absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.” Wiles and LaCivita have also been critical in statements.

“It’s been an ongoing battle for over a year,” a senior official with the Trump campaign told NBC News. The source said Trump has been outspoken about efforts to distance himself from the group and called it “a grifting operation.”

“They are grifters, 100% grifters,” the person said. “It’s a grifting operation.”

Project 2025 itself is not shutting down, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a statement that under Dans, Project 2025 “has completed exactly what it set out to do: bringing together over 110 leading conservative organizations to create a unified conservative vision, motivated to devolve power from the unelected administrative state, and returning it to the people. This tool was built for any future administration to use.”

“Our collective efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels—federal, state, and local—will continue,” said Roberts.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com