During a Bloomberg Radio interview Monday, Roberts suggested that if he could turn back time, the Heritage Foundation would have deployed the conservative policy agenda differently and would have immediately pushed back against critics’ claims.

Roberts said he released Project 2025 in order to “insert substantial political discussions into the political season” and “did not anticipate that the radical left, which could not run on the basis of its record because it is terrible, would in fact use it as a bogeyman and would succeed.”

“And look, we made a tactical error in not responding in the first six weeks to their total misrepresentations. It’s our fault, but ultimately the errors of interpretation are on the side of the radical left. This is a tactical lesson we have learned and we will never repeat it,” he continued.

As one of Washington’s most prominent conservative think tanks, the Heritage Foundation unveiled Blueprint 2025 in April 2023. Created to be a policy blueprint for the next Republican administration, the 900-page document provoked anger of Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic critics who said this would “deprive us of our freedoms”. Harris has launched attacks on Project 2025 and her efforts to link it to President-elect Donald Trump. central part of his campaign.

Although one of his campaign spokespeople was featured in a Project 2025 training video, Trump distanced himself from the policy document throughout his campaign against Harris.

“I don’t know anything about Project 2025,” he said on Truth Social in July. “I have no idea who is behind this.”

“I don’t agree with some of the things they say, and some of the things they say are absolutely ridiculous and appalling,” he continued.

Roberts suggested that Trump’s comments were a “political calculation” and that he made the remarks during his presidential campaign because he “viewed branding as a liability during the political season.”

“All the political calculations of the last months, which were very understandable and towards which we have no hard feelings, belong to the past,” the mastermind of Project 2025 said on Monday.

With immigration policies one of the Heritage Foundation’s top priorities, the conservative organization recently saw a boost when Tom Homan, who helped write the 2025 plan, was appointed by Trump to be his “border czar”.

Commenting on the news during his interview with Bloomberg, Roberts suggested that Trump’s decision to choose Homan was not necessarily a reflection on the Heritage Foundation, but rather because of the “mandate” given by his presidential victory last week.

“The most important thing: forget Tom’s professional affiliation. Forget that he was an author of Project 2025. The most important thing is that he is aligned not only with President Trump, but also with the American people, who want to end the ridiculous mess on the southern border,” Roberts said .

While polls showed concerns about the border consistently topped voters’ list of top concerns throughout the election cycle, Trump ran much of his campaign on the premise that he would “secure the border » and would put an end to illegal immigration if elected.

After sweeping the electoral college to win the presidential election, flipping six key states in the red and winning the popular vote, Trump called the result is “a historic realignment, uniting citizens from all walks of life around a common core of common sense.”

“You know, we are the party of common sense. We want to have boundaries. We want to have security,” Trump said after declaring that “America has given us a powerful and unprecedented mandate.”

Donald Trump’s victory speech:

“America has given us a powerful and unprecedented mandate. »pic.twitter.com/DNnJcUfitD

– The American Conservative (@amconmag) November 6, 2024

As Trump seeks to fulfill his “mandate,” Roberts reiterated his belief that Project 2025 could be the way to help him get there.

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“I also anticipate that going forward, the President-elect and Vice President-elect, with whom we have an excellent relationship, will also understand that ’tis the season of policymaking that Heritage, and all the other groups that are part of our project, are built for,” he said.

“Again, it’s entirely up to the president-elect and vice president-elect. We operate in service to them and to the American people,” Roberts continued. “The American people have won here, and we look forward to playing whatever role we can, formal or informal, to support that.”