The book by Heritage Foundation President Kevin D. Roberts, who recently took over leadership of Project 2025, will be released after the election.
The new leader of Project 2025 has delayed the publication of his book until after the 2024 election amid criticism of the initiative from both Democrats and former President Donald Trump.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, head of the Washington think tank that created the 2025 Presidential Transition Project, was due to publish the book “Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America” on Sept. 24.
Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s vice presidential running mate, wrote the foreword. Roberts announced Wednesday that he would delay his book’s publication until after the election amid efforts by Democrats to associate the initiative with Trump.
“There’s a time for writing, reading, and book tours—and a time to put down the books and go fight like hell to take back our country. That’s why I’ve chosen to move my book’s publication and promotion to after the election,” Roberts wrote in an emailed statement.
He added that “in the coming weeks, conservatives are fully committed to focusing our efforts on helping defeat the left at the ballot box.”
Amazon now lists the book’s release date as Nov. 12, 2024, one week after Election Day.
Broadside Books, the publisher of Roberts’s book, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Roberts took over leadership of Project 2025 after its director, Paul Dans, resigned amid criticism of the initiative.
“Under Paul Dans’ leadership, Project 2025 has completed exactly what it set out to do: bringing together over 110 leading conservative organizations to create a unified conservative vision, motivated to devolve power from the unelected administrative state, and returning it to the people. This tool was built for any future administration to use,” Roberts wrote on X in a statement praising Dans’s work upon his departure.
He added, “I look forward to leading this team to continued success.”In recent weeks, top Democrats have asserted Project 2025’s policy ideas will be implemented by Trump’s administration if he wins this year’s presidential election.
The initiative’s “Mandate for Leadership,” a 922-page policy book, advocates reclassifying many civil servants as political appointees to enable their dismissal, banning abortion drugs, abolishing the Department of Education, and significantly curbing immigration, among other proposals.
The Heritage Foundation has been publishing updated Mandate for Leadership editions since the first one was launched in 1981 following President Ronald Reagan’s election.
“Project 2025 is run and paid for by Trump people: his top policy people, his campaign press secretary, his personal bag man in the White House, the biggest funders, and more. It was a project built for Trump,” said President Joe Biden on July 11.
He called Project 2025 “the biggest attack on our system of government and our personal freedom that has ever been proposed in the history of this country.”
“Project 2025 is proof: If Donald Trump wins in November, he will continue to attack equality, take away freedoms, and undermine our democracy,” Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, said on Aug. 5.
“[Trump’s] running mate shares his dangerous and backward agenda for this country. JD Vance literally, literally wrote the foreword for the architect of the Project 2025 agenda,” said Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.), the presumptive Democratic vice-presidential nominee, at his first campaign event with Harris on Aug. 6.
Trump has distanced himself from the initiative.
“I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying, and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” Trump wrote on TruthSocial.
“Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”
He later wrote that efforts to tie him to Project 2025 were “pure disinformation,” and his campaign released a statement celebrating its “demise” after Dans’s resignation.
Project 2025 has involved many top officials who served in Trump’s administration. The initiative’s “Mandate for Leadership” includes sections written by several cabinet members, such as former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, former Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, and former Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought.