As you may have heard, the Democrat Party latched on to a Heritage Foundation quadrennial project report outlining the conservative agenda for America. Heritage has produced this mandate template for Republican presidential candidates since Ronald Reagan.

The 900-page Mandate for Leadership is a detailed exposition of the more general terms in the GOP platform, and it is consistent with that platform. The Demos launched their Project 2025 smear campaign because it is the most direct challenge to their overt socialist agenda.

With regard to the Demo vilification of Project 2025, Heritage President Kevin Roberts observed, “You might say that all of this attention means we’re right over the target.”

And indeed, it is on target, which is why Democrats are doing everything they can to burry it.

To do so, they ramped up their “hate and fear” machine, which excels at creating fake bogeymen, and with the assistance of their Leftmedia publicists, they propagated a litany of lies about Project 2025 nationwide, which have been thoroughly debunked.

But apparently, all the Leftmedia’s so-called “fact-checkers” must be on vacation – not one fact check on the larded Demo lies…

Full disclosure: My direct involvement with Heritage goes back to President Reagan’s first administration, and Heritage President Emeritus Edwin Feulner, PhD, was one of The Patriot Post’s earliest endorsers when we launched online in 1996: “The best Websites wield remarkable influence in the marketplace of ideas. The Patriot Post is a ‘must read’ for informed conservatives.” Moreover, our Patriot Foundation Trust is an Advisory Board member organization of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project.

All that is to say, we know the extraordinary history and integrity of The Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 well.

But Demos were not the only ones who vilified Project 2025.

Unfortunately, Donald Trump distanced himself, with prejudice, from the leftist criticism tying him to Project 2025, and in the process, extended his record of doing what he has done notoriously in the past — throwing good people under the bus.

In the case of Project 2025, he slandered the most respectable think tank in America, posting on social media: “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.”

Let me say plainly: That is not true, and unfortunately it falls into the category of the most blatant lies uttered by that infamous “lying dog-faced pony soldier,” Joe Biden.

Digging deeper, Trump campaign officials Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita then piled on with an equally fallacious joint statement: “President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the President in any way. 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.”

Somebody decided the Trump campaign’s disclaimer strategy was necessary to cut off the Leftmedia attacks, and they should be fired. I find it difficult to imagine any political strategy context that justifies the strident language he and his campaign officials used. I may be that some associated with Heritage Foundation were too public in promoting ties between Project 2025 and Trump, but did that warrant the smackdown?

What I do know for a fact is that nothing goes on Trump’s social media pages without his approval.

Moreover, Trump missed a defining opportunity to highlight his exceptional domestic and foreign policy record as an indicator of his upcoming presidential agenda by praising Project 2025 instead of demeaning it. His success stands in stark contrast to the disastrous Biden/Harris record of domestic and foreign policy failures.

What I know for certain is that fratricidal attacks against conservatives significantly undermines the prospect that Trump will defeat Kamala Harris in November.

I regret that Paul Dans, who became the director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project after leaving the Trump administration in 2021, has now resigned. However, Dans’s departure has been planned for many months, as Project 2025 largely completed its mission this month.

A quick review of Paul’s bio reveals no surprises: “Dans served in the Trump Administration as Chief of Staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management where he managed the federal agency in charge of human resources policy for the more than two million federal workers. He also served as OPM’s White House liaison and worked integrally with the White House Office of Presidential Personnel to staff the approximately 4000 presidential appointees across the federal government. In January 2021, President Trump appointed Dans to serve as Chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission.”

Might be a connection there, but no doubt the J6 riot outside the Capitol building put an end to that commission appointment.

In an email to his colleagues ahead of his planned resignation, Paul wrote: “Friends and patriots, to everything there is a season. We completed what we set out to do, which was to create a unified conservative vision, bringing together over 110 leading organizations united behind the cause of deconstructing the administrative state.”

Finally, as the leader of one of those 110 organizations contributing to that vision, let me offer Paul the greatest measure of our gratitude. He is a genuine American Patriot who has spent his entire career fighting for and defending American Liberty.

Thank you, Paul, and thanks to all our friends at The Heritage Foundation.

I suspect we are off the Trump Christmas card list now.

(Updated)

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776

Follow Mark Alexander on X/Twitter.

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