Advocacy groups have rejected attempts by Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, to distance themselves from the far-right policy agenda Project 2025—and they vowed Tuesday that the latest effort to hide the GOP ticket's connection to the plan won't work, either.
Kevin Roberts, the president of the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which spearheaded the drafting of Project 2025, told RealClearPolitics Tuesday that a book he authored, which includes a foreword by Vance, will no longer be published in September.
"There's a time for writing, reading, and book tours—and a time to put down the books and go fight like hell to take back our country. That's why I've chosen to move my book's publication and promotion to after the election," Roberts told the outlet, announcing a new publication date of November 12.
Madeline Peltz, deputy director of rapid response at Media Matters for America, said that even with a delayed publication date, Trump allies wouldn't succeed in hiding the contents of the book, which has already been seen by MMFA, or Vance's foreword.
"Well too bad, I already have a copy of it—[Roberts] rails against childless women, IVF, abortion, and yes, dog parks," said Peltz. "They're trying to hide how extreme JD Vance is by delaying Kevin Roberts' book."
"Well too bad, I already have a copy of it—[Roberts] rails against childless women, IVF, abortion, and yes, dog parks."
In the book, Dawn's Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America, Roberts writes that having children should be considered "a social expectation" rather than an "optional individual choice," and calls contraception a "snake strangling the American family."
As Peltz noted, Roberts also takes aim at Swampoodle dog park in Washington, D.C., saying the area set aside for dog owners and their pets is a result of "the antifamily culture shaping legislation, regulation, and enforcement throughout our sprawling government."
The book echoes comments by Vance that have been the subject of outrage in recent weeks, in which the senator attacked the Democratic Party for being led by "childless cat ladies" and said people should be "punished" with higher taxes for not having children.
In his foreword, which was printed in full by The New Republic last week, Vance calls on conservatives "to circle the wagons and load the muskets."
Vance doesn't explicitly address Project 2025 but praises Roberts for "articulating a fundamentally Christian view of culture and economics" and says his ideas are an "essential weapon" for conservatives.
While Trump has claimed not to know who is behind Project 2025, at least 140 people who worked in his administration helped draft the document.
Vance has downplayed his support for the proposals in Project 2025, saying it contains "some ideas I like and lot of ideas I dislike," but in the foreword, he writes that the Heritage Foundation is "the most influential engine of ideas for Republicans from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump."
Project 2025 calls for the abolishment of the Education Department, the firing of federal employees who would be replaced with Trump loyalists, an end to healthcare protections for people with "pre-existing conditions," and the centralization of power with the president, among numerous other proposals.
As Roberts announced the publication delay, Paul Dans, who directs the project at Roberts' organization, said he was stepping down amid criticism from the Trump campaign—but neither the resignation nor the book delay would fool voters, said Julie Chávez Rodríguez, campaign manager for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.
"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 Chávez Rodríguez. "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."
As Common Dreams reported last month, a poll by Navigator Research found that a majority of Americans believe Project 2025 represents the priorities of both Trump and the Republican Party at large.
While Trump and Vance have sought to ensure they won't be associated with the policy agenda, said Brookings Institution senior fellow Norm Eisen, "delaying the [publication] of Kevin Roberts' book is an admission of guilt."
"Who are they fooling?" Eisen asked. "It won't work."
