White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was pressed about President Donald Trump seemingly changing his campaign position on Project 2025 amid the government shutdown Friday.
"During the campaign, President Trump said that he did not know anything about Project 2025. Now, he knows about it. Is that the blueprint for shrinking the government?" Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Leavitt during the press briefing Friday afternoon.
Project 2025 is a roughly thousand-page policy proposal crafted by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank during the 2024 election cycle.
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Leavitt made no mention of the policy proposal in her response, arguing any decisions on layoffs of federal government employees or cuts to federal programs are up to what the "president and his team and his Cabinet secretaries ultimately decide."
"And the president trusts his Cabinet secretaries to identify where there is waste, fraud and abuse. We pointed out this morning - or Russ Vought tweeted about this morning - a Chicago rail project that was canceled," Leavitt said. "We paused $2.1 billion in Chicago infrastructure projects, specifically the Red line extension and the Red and Purple modernization projects, and it's because the administration is concerned that the Biden administration was handing out taxpayer dollars to pay for this construction based on DEI."
The Department of Transportation "is reviewing the race-based contracting on unconstitutional grounds," she said. "And in the meantime, the Department of Transportation funds for these projects are on hold. So I guess this answers both of your questions. This would be an example of that."
Project 2025 became a lightening rod of criticism among Democrats during the 2024 election, as the Harris-Walz campaign claimed it was rife with "dangerous" policies stretching from abortion to the economy.
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Trump denied knowing details about the policy blueprint from the campaign trail.
"I know nothing about Project 2025," Trump said in July 2024. "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."
On Thursday, after the government shutdown, Trump posted to Truth Social that he was set to meet with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) chief Russell Vought, describing him as the man of "PROJECT 2025 Fame."
Vought was one of the architects behind the Project 2025 policy proposal.
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"I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent," Trump posted on Thursday, setting of renwewd criticsms of Project 2025.
Leavitt's comments come as Trump and OMB map out a plan to roll out layoffs and cut government programs amid the government shutdown.
