Gavin Newsom finally said the thing that everyone was thinking but no one was speaking out loud. The California Governor and the leader of the Democrats is pointing out President Donald Trump for getting close to one of the main people behind Project 2025—the far-right plan that aims to help Trump win another term as president.
On Thursday, Trump posted on Truth Social that he was meeting with Russell Vought, who is the head of the Office of Management and Budget, to figure out which of the many Democrat agencies, most of which he called a political scam, should be shut down during the current government shutdown.
“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, who is known for PROJECT 2025, to figure out which of the many Democrat agencies he suggests should be cut, and whether those cuts should be temporary or permanent,” Trump posted on Thursday. I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats offered me this rare and special chance. They aren’t stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, make America great again.
Project 2025, created by the conservative Heritage Foundation, is a detailed plan for a second Trump administration.
It outlines how to cut back on federal agencies, bring more power to the president, and remove civil service workers who aren’t seen as loyal enough. Vought’s role in the project focuses on cutting costs and reorganizing federal programs to match Trump’s plans. Last year, while running for office, Trump kept saying he wasn’t part of the initiative. Some people criticized him and used that initiative as evidence that he wanted to create an authoritarian government, and he kept trying to separate himself from it.
For example, Trump said Project 2025 was “seriously extreme” and “absolutely ridiculous” on Fox & Friends. He also said “I have nothing to do with Project 2025” during the ABC News presidential debate when he was facing off against Kamala Harris. But Newsom isn’t letting Trump’s contradictions slide.
On Thursday, his press office shared a screenshot of a message from Trump on Truth Social, along with Project 2025’s official policy tracker. This tracker shows that 48 percent of the agenda has already been carried out since Trump started his job in January. Trump tried to separate himself from Project 2025. After 9 months, he has already put 48 percent of it into action,” the caption says. Now, with his decision to shut down the government, he’s fully committed—backing the plan’s harmful cuts and splitting the country with its policies.
In response, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement to the Daily Beast: “Democrats are trying to focus on anything other than their choice to harm Americans by closing the government and asking for free healthcare for illegal immigrants.”
Her statement shows the new and misleading argument that Republicans have been repeating since the government shutdown on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Vought seems to be acting on Trump’s threats—before the president even speaks them aloud. On Wednesday night, he shared on X that almost $8 billion worth of clean energy projects would be canceled. He boasted about pulling back money from what he referred to as the “Green New Scam,” which he claimed was supporting the left’s climate plans. Every project was in a state that Trump lost in the 2024 election and is colored blue on the map: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. All of those states are represented by Democratic senators—each of them voted against the short-term GOP funding bill that Trump supported to prevent a government shutdown. The White House did not quickly reply to the request for comment.
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