Democrats are highlighting Project 2025–the controversial policy agenda produced by the Heritage Foundation—despite the Trump campaign’s attempts to distance themselves from the proposals.
On Wednesday, Saturday Night Live legend Kenan Thompson took the stage at the Democratic National Convention with a massive copy of the agenda, making jabs at the document that has stirred controversy for months.
“You ever see a document that could kill a small animal and democracy at the same time?” Thompson laughed.
ADVERTISEMENT
Thompson compared it to a Terms & Conditions page for Trump’s second term in office. “You vote for him, you vote for all of this.”
In a speech with voters appearing on a video chat behind him, Thompson highlighted some of the Democrats’ main objections with the project: elimination of protections for same-sex marriages, raising costs of prescription drugs, eliminating the Department of Education, and resurrecting the Comstock Act to crack down on abortion providers.
“That’s amazing, very, very cute,” Thompson tells one voter, who tells Thompson she has been married to her wife for almost a decade. “But, I have got some bad news for you,” he quips. “On page 584 Project 2025 calls for the elimination of protections for LGBTQ+ Americans. So yeah, right back to the Stone Age.”
Comedian and actor Kenan Thompson arrives to speak about Project 2025 on stage during the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on August 21, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.
Chip Somodevilla/Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesSpeaking to another voter, who is on insulin to manage their diabetes, Thompson warned her $35 monthly fee would disappear under a Republican administration. “Why? Well I guess maybe to help big pharma make more money that they can donate to Republican politicians, I assume,” Thompson replies.
The Trump campaign has since tried to distance itself from the conservative policy agenda, calling some of the agenda “ridiculous and abysmal” in a post on Truth Social in July. The campaign forced Project 2025’s director, Paul Dans, to step down the same month, and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts delayed publication of a book meant as a companion piece.
But for three nights in a row the Democrats have presented the oversized book on the conference stage and criticized Trump on the policies within. Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a state senator in Michigan, presented the book on Monday.
“They went ahead and wrote down all the extreme things Donald Trump wants to do in the next four years,” McMorrow said. “And then they just tweeted it out.”
McMorrow told CNN that a new presenter would bring out the copy once each night. Pennsylvania state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta brought the oversized agenda out on Tuesday.
The association with Project 2025 has reportedly irked the Trump campaign in the past. A representative for the Trump campaign said Agenda47, the policy platform laid out on the former president’s website, was the only platform endorsed by Trump.
“Dangerously liberal Kamala Harris and the DNC are LYING and fear-mongering because they have NOTHING else to offer the American people,” said Trump Senior Campaign Adviser Danielle Alvarez in a statement sent to the Daily Beast.
