The more people learn about it, the more unpopular and politically toxic Project 2025 has proven to be. This has led the Trump and Vance campaign to attempt to distance itself from the effort. Former Trump adviser Stephen Miller now says he had “zero involvement with Project 2025,” despite appearing in a promotional video. And just today, The Intercept discovered two more conservative groups that have quietly bowed out from the controversial 900-page manifesto — including a national anti-abortion organization.
Miller’s group, America First Legal Foundation, was one of the first organizations to jump ship from the Project 2025 advisory board. Last week, America First Legal asked to be removed from the Project 2025 advisory board webpage. The organization was part of Project 2025 since at least June 2022, when the Heritage Foundation first announced the advisory board’s formation.
America First Legal staff were deeply involved in writing and editing the Project 2025 playbook. Its vice president and general counsel, Gene Hamilton, drafted an entire chapter about the Justice Department, which proposes launching a “campaign” to criminalize mailing abortion pills. In a footnote, Hamilton thanked “the staff at America First Legal Foundation,” who he wrote deserved “special mention for their assistance while juggling other responsibilities.”
Last summer, in a podcast with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, Hamilton said that one thing that makes Project 2025 special is the vast coalition of conservative groups that came together to craft it.
“What is so great about this book, and this chapter, and this whole initiative that Heritage is leading,” Hamilton said, “is that we have a coalition of organizations and individuals coming together to say: ‘These are the things, these are the bare minimum things that we expect you to do in this next conservative administration.’”
The Project 2025 playbook list of contributors includes three other America First attorneys: senior vice president Reed Rubinstein, legislative counsel John Zadrozny, and legal counsel Michael Ding, who also co-taught a module in Project 2025’s training academy.
America First Legal did not respond to questions about why it asked to be removed from the Project 2025 advisory board despite its prior participation.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion group, and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Michigan think tank, were among the more than 100 groups listed on the Project 2025 website as part of its advisory board. By Wednesday, Americans United for Life and the Mackinac Center had vanished.
Both organizations were relatively recent additions to the Project 2025 coalition. The Heritage Foundation announced they had joined in February 2024, several months after the massive playbook was released.
Neither organization would elaborate as to why it had joined the Project 2025 board in the first place or why it was exiting it now.
“Americans United for Life has always sought to maintain a non-partisan stance,” said John Mize, chief executive officer at Americans United for Life, in an emailed statement. The group’s current pinned tweet on X thanks J.D. Vance for his contributions “to the pro-life movement,” and the Project 2025 playbook’s anti-abortion proposals seem to align with its philosophy and goals.
“Going forward into the heart of this election season, we believe we can be most effective in our mission if we maintain this posture,” Mize said. “Of course, we will continue to partner with the Heritage Foundation as opportunity allows, knowing they share our profound commitment to the Life issue.”
A spokesperson said the Mackinac Center had “offered a few recommendations on energy and labor issues” to Project 2025, but that “Project 2025 contains some ideas we do not endorse and others outside of our scope.”
“Because of that, we requested that our name be removed,” said Holly Wetzel, public relations director at the Mackinac Center.
Wetzel did not respond to questions about which parts of Project 2025 the Mackinac Center did not endorse and whether the think tank read the playbook before joining the advisory board.
The Heritage Foundation did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment about these defections from Project 2025.