Republican U.S. Representatives from the states of Texas and Florida spoke to Texas Politics regarding the Democrat’s strategy to link the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 to former President Donald Trump (R). The former president has repeatedly disavowed the plan.
For instance, Representative August Pfluger (R-TX) told Texas Politics that the media is colluding with the Democrat Party to push negative coverage of President Trump.
“It's part of their overall strategy to use the media the hatred for Trump, the hatred for anything that he did. You can look at January of 2021, as the exact example where they reversed every single policy on the border, every single energy policy. It doesn't matter what they call it. They just have a hatred for Trump, and I think we're hitting an act of desperation,” said Rep. Pfluger.
He continued by communicating the notion that Democrats and the media are attempting to play the emotional card despite the popularity of President Trump’s policies.
“I think it's their way of playing on the passions and, you know, the just the hateful message that they have against President Trump, because there's actually a lot of Americans who like his policy,” said Rep. Pfluger. “I would say there's more Americans that like his policy than don't, and they try to tie anything they can to a negative message to play up on those passions calling him a threat to democracy, no different than trying to use 2025 as some sort of evil platform that they can scare people into thinking that whatever it is they care about is going to be gone.”
When asked if Project 2025 is a distraction from the problems at the border, the Texas congressman said it was a “distraction from everything during this election cycle.
“It's a distraction from everything. It's a distraction from reality. Kamala Harris says she's for fracking. She's not for fracking. Her values haven't changed. She told us that she's not. She has no interest in the border. She's never been there. She doesn't know the crisis going on there so it is a distraction and this is the [politically] affiliated people that are running her campaign, or using this as a distraction from all the issues and the entire record that they've had, including the board,” concluded Pfluger.
Moreover, Representative Ronny Jackson (R-TX) reaffirmed the Republican stance that Project 2025 is not a part of Trump’s platform.
“Project 2025 has nothing to do with President Trump’s campaign. He’s made that perfectly clear. He said it over and over and over. I talked to multiple people on the transition team, and they’ve made it very clear, too, that they are taking zero input, they have zero interactions, and they have nothing to do with Project 2025,” said Rep. Jackson.
Furthermore, Representative Byron Donalds (R-FL) said Democrats are hammering this point home because they “don’t have a message” this campaign cycle.
“If they had a message, they’d be talking about that. So they have to demonize about Project 2025 but people don’t really talk about the fact that the UN’s working on Project 2030,” said Rep. Donalds. “Every Democrat I know supports that. Don’t nobody talk about that. You know why? Because Republicans have a message to run on. We are running on actually having strong national security, securing our borders, getting expenses lowered, having a strong economy … that’s what we’re talking about.”
Finally, Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) added that “[The Democrats] have nothing to sell because Trump has disavowed [Project 2025]. I mean, blindly disavowed it. Trump has said that, look, ‘I didn’t read, I didn’t write it.’ That’s different.”
The election between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris (D) will take place on Nov. 5.
