Trump has long tried to distance himself from Project 2025. Now that he’s won, his acolytes say it’s the plan for a second term.Steven Senne/AP

Wednesday morning, some of Trump’s favorite fans finally felt comfortable joking about something the next president has long denied: Project 2025 This has always been the plan for a second Trump term.

“Now that the elections are over, I think we can finally say that yes, Project 2025 is on the agenda. Lol,” right-wing podcast host Matt Walsh wrote in an article on of the Extremist guide of more than 900 pages. Walsh’s message was soon received picked up and promoted by Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist who was recently published from prison, where he landed after ignoring a Jan. 6 House committee subpoena. “Fabulous,” Bannon said with a laugh after reading Walsh’s message aloud on his computer. War room podcast today. “We might have to put this everywhere.”

Benny Johnson, a conservative YouTuber with 2.59 million followers who has called affirmative action “Nazi-level thinking” and said Trump should pursue Biden for human trafficking of immigrants, also added: “It is my honor to inform you that Project 2025 was real all along,” he said. job on X.

Bo French, a local Texas GOP official who recently came under fire for using insults about homosexuals and people with disabilities on social media, wrote: “Can we admit now that we are going to implement Project 2025?

Walsh, Bannon and the others are not the only ones in Trump’s orbit who have made these promises. As Trump tries to distance himself from Project 2025, there is a long list of its connections to thismany of whom have similarly stated that Trump plans to implement these policies if re-elected. Russell Vought, a potential next chief of staff profiled by my colleague Isabela Dias, declared in a secretly recorded meeting that Project 2025 is the the real Trump plan and the tactic of distancing was only a campaign necessity.

Spokespeople for the Trump campaign, the RNC and the Heritage Foundation – the right-wing think tank behind the plan – did not respond to repeated requests for comment from Mother Jones.

If these claims are true, then Trump could see an erosion of support from his base. As I reported in September, a NBC News Poll found that only 7 percent of GOP voters had positive opinions about the 2025 plan, while 33 percent had negative opinions. This is not entirely surprising when you consider the drastic ways in which this measure could radically reshape American life if passed. He calls ban abortion pills nationwide; using big tech to monitor abortion access; roll back climate policies; allowing discrimination in the workplace; And worsening wealth inequalities.