Video Exhibits Trump Shaking Palms with Head of Group Behind Undertaking 2025?

Following elevated scrutiny in July 2024 of Project 2025 — a venture organized by the conservative suppose tank Heritage Basis to “pave the best way for an efficient conservative Administration” in 2025 — former President Donald Trump tried to distance himself from the hassle on Truth Social:

I do know nothing about Undertaking 2025. I don’t know who’s behind it. I disagree with a number of the issues they’re saying and a number of the issues they’re saying are completely ridiculous and abysmal. Something they do, I want them luck, however I’ve nothing to do with them.

Snopes has written extensively about Undertaking 2025, often known as the 2025 Presidential Transition Undertaking. The declare that Trump had “no thought” who was behind it was met with skepticism, partially as a result of many of the people liable for the venture have met or labored for Trump. In consequence, a video of Trump shaking arms with the president of the Heritage Basis, Kevin Roberts, went viral as a response to his denial:

This video, unearthed by the left-leaning Media Issues for America, is precisely described, and comes from an April 2022 keynote tackle the previous president gave at a Heritage Basis management convention. Within the clip, Trump needs Roberts good luck on his appointment as president of the suppose tank, a tenure that started in October 2021:

I need to thank Kevin. He will be so unimaginable. I do know that for a truth. I do know what he did and the place he got here from, and he’ll be excellent and congratulations to his very thrilling new function and a vital function.

Because the Heritage Basis factors out on its website, it’s the major group behind Undertaking 2025. Roberts described the discharge of one of many venture’s key paperwork this fashion in April 2023:

For over two years, the Left has ignored the voice of on a regular basis People resulting in crippling inflation, organic males dominating ladies’s sports activities, rampant violence, and a disaster in training not seen in many years. Our nation is all however unrecognizable.

For this reason the conservative motion is coming collectively to organize for the subsequent conservative administration. Heritage is convening the conservative motion behind the insurance policies to make sure that the subsequent president has the suitable coverage and personnel essential to dismantle the executive state and restore self-governance to the American individuals.

As reported by The Related Press, the administrators of Undertaking 2025 are Heritage Basis staff who previously labored for Trump:

Among the individuals concerned in Undertaking 2025 are former senior administration officers. The venture’s director is Paul Dans, who served as chief of workers on the U.S. Workplace of Personnel Administration below Trump. Trump’s marketing campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt was featured in one among Undertaking 2025’s movies.

John McEntee, a former director of the White Home Presidential Personnel Workplace within the Trump administration, is a senior adviser. McEntee informed the conservative information website The Each day Wire earlier this yr that Undertaking 2025’s group would combine a whole lot of its work with the marketing campaign after the summer season when Trump would announce his transition group.

Roberts generated further controversy on July 2, 2024, when he informed Steve Bannon — a former White Home strategist below Trump — on his podcast that conservatives “are within the strategy of the second American Revolution, which is able to stay cold if the left permits it to be.” 

As a result of the video in query reveals Trump assembly with Heritage Basis President Kevin Roberts, and since the Heritage Basis is the guardian group behind Undertaking 2025, the declare is “True.” 

Sources