The media’s Project 2025 bailout

Hey, here’s Trump flat-out saying that he’s using the government shutdown he engineered to do Project 2025:

President Trump says he is meeting today with Russ Vought, OMB director and "of PROJECT 2025 Fame," to discuss cuts to "Democrat Agencies."

[image or embed]— Shipwreck (@shipwreck75.bsky.social) Oct 2, 2025 at 5:16 AM

I remember Trump saying “uh, I’ve never heard of it” when his party’s meticulously constructed blueprint turned out to poll worse than rectal cancer and the nation’s elite political press saying “well, we have no choice but to take this at face value given Trump’s track record of scrupulous honesty” like it was last year:

I’ve been looking around for the most credulous mid-campaign piece about Trump’s obviously fatuous Project 2025 disavowal, and I think it might be this one from Politico. www.politico.com/news/magazin…

[image or embed]— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw.bsky.social) Oct 2, 2025 at 8:42 AM

A political media apparatus either full of suckers or accomplices willing to gobble up absolute garbage about Trump “distancing himself from” Project 2025.

[image or embed]— Erick Fernandez (@erickfernandez.bsky.social) Oct 2, 2025 at 8:55 AM

The Politico article is particularly remarkable because it contains these paragraphs back to back, in an article about how Project 2025 was a “mirage”:

Which isn’t to say that it will carry no influence with the next Trump administration. Dans may be gone, but the policy book will still be out there ready to be adopted, and the project can still turn over its personnel database and “180-day playbook” to Trump’s transition team. Many of the people who have been closely involved in the project — including Russell Vought, who is leading the work on Pillar IV, and Johnny McEntee, a former top aide to Trump — are likely to hold senior positions in the next Trump White House, and Trump’s vice presidential pick JD Vance remains close with Roberts, having authored the foreword to his new book. Out of sheer necessity, the Trump transition team may end up relying on the project’s resources, especially its personnel database, given Trump’s stated ambition to “dismantle the deep state” and replace it with conservative loyalists.

But in the end, it may have been Heritage’s self-generated hype — which at times exaggerated Project 2025’s scope and overlooked internal fissures — that led to its sidelining.

Sure, the people responsible for Project 2025 would be running policy in the Trump administration. And sure it’s consistent with Trump’s policy agenda. And, oh yeah, the other member of the ticket is a huge fan who has been touting its ideas on various far-right podcasts for years. In conclusion, it is not a thing and was never a thing and voters don’t have to worry about it anymore. And now to adjourn to my oceanfront property in Wyoming.

But at least the political press is really upset about being made to look ridiculous and will make it clear that Trump doesn’t have a mandate for any of this stuff and…haha sorry but without gallows humor what kind of humor would we be left with at this point.