Former President Donald Trump said Project 2025’s abortion policy recommendations go “too far,” marking the latest attempt by Trump to distance himself from the plan drafted by many former members of his administration.
In an interview with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner that aired on Monday as the Republican National Convention got underway in Milwaukee, Trump said Project 2025 was written by a “group of extremely conservative people” with whom he disagrees.
“From what I’ve heard, it’s not just too far, it’s way too far,” he said. “They really have gone too far.”
Project 2025 is the conservative movement’s blueprint for how the next Republican president should wield power. It was created by the Heritage Foundation, which is independent of the Trump campaign, with input from more than 100 conservative groups.
This is a highly specific agenda of policy proposals that the next president can implement using only his executive power, and it will be written by people who held key positions in the previous administration and who may return to those positions if Trump wins in November.
As Democrats try to use Project 2025 as a liability, President Trump has distanced himself from the project, claiming he knows nothing about it.
He also recognizes the political fragility of abortion and is trying to balance the reality of presenting a more moderate stance on the issue with appealing to his right-wing base.
Although President Trump has firmly established that abortion policy is up to each state, he still takes credit for ending Roe v. Wade and eliminating the constitutional right to abortion.
“I was instrumental in repealing Roe v. Wade,” the former president said in an interview. “I was able to get it reinstated in the states.”
Project 2025’s plan for the Department of Health and Human Services, written by Roger Severino, who served as the department’s civil rights administrator under the Trump administration, calls for revoking the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone, which is used in more than half of all abortions in the United States.
“The abortifacient is the greatest threat to the unborn child in the post-Roe world,” the document states.
The plan also allows the FDA to impose restrictions on the pills by reinstating the requirement that patients obtain them in person, rather than by mail.Number The Comstock Act, enacted in the 19th century, prosecuted anyone who sent abortion pills or other abortion supplies through the mail.
