Trump Buries Project 2025

The Heritage Foundation learns a hard lesson in Trumpism.

You almost have to feel sorry for Kevin Roberts, the ambitious president of the Heritage Foundation. He steered the venerable think tank away from some of its longtime conservative principles to court Donald Trump, only to be spurned by the temperamental former President he and his institution courted.

Paul Dans, the director of Project 2025, resigned from Heritage on Tuesday as the think tank appears to be winding down, or at least muting, the 900-page policy plan it hoped would influence the next Trump Administration. Democrats targeted Project 2025 as if it were the guide to Trump II, and Mr. Trump responded by tossing aside Heritage and its policy recommendations like so much junk mail.

In case there was any political doubt, Trump campaign officials Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita shot the wounded in a joint statement on Tuesday. “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,” they wrote. “It will not end well for you.” Bang, bang, bang, bang.

Mr. Roberts explains in a letter to the editor nearby that Project 2025 was an attempt to offer ideas to debate and govern. But his mistake was thinking that Mr. Trump cares about anyone’s ideas other than his own. He governs on feral instinct, tactical opportunism, and what seems popular at a given moment.

The Democratic attacks on Project 2025 were laughable because Mr. Trump is never going to have a governing platform. Oh, and anyone who becomes a political liability to Mr. Trump is expendable.

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