A growing number of conservative organizations have reportedly distanced themselves from Project 2025, a self-described "presidential transition" blueprint that advocates for the criminalization of adult content production and distribution. This follows Donald Trump’s repeated claims that he disagrees with an unspecified number of the project's positions.

Conservative Groups Withdraw Support

The Intercept, an investigative news website, reported on Friday that it has identified seven conservative organizations removed from Project 2025’s advisory board member list. These removals have occurred since the Heritage Foundation first announced the initiative two years ago. The organizations include libertarian groups Competitive Enterprise Institute and FreedomWorks, Stephen Miller’s America First Legal Foundation, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, the Discovery Institute, anti-abortion group Americans United for Life, and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

In late March, the Heritage Foundation added a disclaimer to Project 2025’s webpage. The disclaimer states, “The opinions of Project 2025 and The Heritage Foundation do not necessarily represent the opinions of every one of its advisory board partners.”

Kevin Roberts, President of the Heritage Foundation, addressed the 900-plus-page document, which also calls for outlawing pornography and withdrawing FDA approval for abortion medications. Speaking to reporters outside the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Roberts likened the document to a "menu from Cheesecake Factory." He stated, “It’s every possible thing that somebody might want to take on,” and added, “It is impossible for every individual conservative to agree with everything in the document.”

Trump's Shifting Stance on Project 2025

Donald Trump has recently attempted to distance himself from Project 2025. Earlier this month, in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote, “I know nothing about Project 2025. 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.”

More recently, during a campaign appearance in Michigan on Saturday, Trump told the crowd, “You have the radical left and the radical right and they come up — I don’t know what the hell it is. [They say] ‘It’s Project 25. He’s involved in project’ [sic]. And then they read some of the things and they are extreme, they’re seriously extreme. But I don’t know anything about it, I don’t want to know anything about it.”

However, a keynote speech Trump gave before the Heritage Foundation in 2022 presented a different perspective. During that address, Trump told the Heritage audience, “Our country is going to hell. The critical job of institutions such as Heritage [is] to lay the groundwork. And Heritage does such an incredible job at that. They’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do, when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America, and that’s coming.”

Trump also spoke of collaboration with Roberts, stating, “Already we have shown the power of our winning formula, working closely with many of the great people at Heritage over the four incredible years that we’ve worked with you a lot, and we were just discussing it with Kevin. They’re going to work on some other things that are going to be very exciting, I think, Kevin, I think maybe the most exciting of all.”

Project 2025's Stance on Adult Content

Project 2025’s blueprint document, which the group claimed until this month it was attempting to staff for a potential second Trump administration, explicitly addresses pornography. The document states that pornography “has no claim to First Amendment protection.”

The document, published last year, further asserts, “Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”

Key Facts

  • Seven conservative organizations have been removed from Project 2025’s advisory board member list.
  • The removed groups include Competitive Enterprise Institute, FreedomWorks, America First Legal Foundation, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Discovery Institute, Americans United for Life, and Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
  • The Heritage Foundation added a disclaimer to Project 2025’s webpage in late March.
  • Project 2025 is a 900-plus-page document that calls for the criminalization of adult content and other policy changes.
  • Donald Trump has recently stated he knows nothing about Project 2025 and disagrees with some of its positions.
  • In 2022, Trump praised the Heritage Foundation for "lay[ing] the groundwork" for his movement.