Donald Trump Reveals Transition Team After Secret Project 2025 Video Drops

Former President Donald Trump has set up a presidential transition team and it may be a sign that he’s continuing to try to distance himself from Project 2025.
Project 2025, a presidential transition project from the Heritage Foundation, became a problem for Trump after its wish list for another Trump presidency went viral. Among the items on the list are expanding the control of the presidency and withdrawing the abortion pill mifepristone from the market.
Trump’s denounced the project and sent a warning to people using his name to promote their own agenda. However, critics aren’t taking Trump at his word and there was speculation that Trump not having a transition team indicated he would lean on Project 2025.
On Friday, Trump announced that he was launching the Trump Vance 2025 transition team. It includes Linda McMahon, who served in Trump’s first administration and billionaire Howard Lutnick. They’ll both serve as co-chairs with vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump serving as honorary chairs.
“The 2024 GOP Platform to Make America Great Again is a forward-looking agenda that will deliver safety, prosperity and freedom for the American people. My administration will deliver on these bold promises,” Trump said in a statement obtained by Newsweek. “We will restore strength, competence and common sense to the Oval Office. I have absolute confidence the Trump-Vance Administration will be ready to govern effectively on Day One.”
Notably, neither McMahon nor Lutnick have a connection to Project 2025. Trump’s announcement also came one day after a report was published about Project 2025’s alleged influence on Trump’s potential second administration. The British nonprofit, the Centre for Climate Reporting, published a video of a meeting between two undercover journalists and Russel Vought, an author of Project 2025.
Vought said the group was secretly creating hundreds of documents for Trump, including executive orders, regulations and memos. The goal is to lay the groundwork for how Trump would govern if he wins in November. He claimed Trump was “very supportive” of Project 2025.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
It might seem strange for a campaign to set up a transition team before they’ve won the election but the Trump camp is actually coming into this late in the game. Historically, presidential campaigns start working on plans for their administration in the spring of an election year because of how much work goes into taking over the office.
Max Stier, CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, told the New York Times that Trump’s about four months behind schedule and the “consequences are significant.”
“You’re taking over the largest, most complex and important organization in our country, probably our planet, and probably in history,” Stier said.
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris has been eating away at Trump’s lead in several states, including Pennsylvania, a key state for the Republican nominee. Trump’s team has downplayed Harris’ surge, attributing it to a honeymoon, and citing internal polling that shows a different race playing out than the one in public polls.
Update 08/16/24 11:30 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.