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Indeed, there is some public data, such as from YouGov earlier this summer, pointing to how information on Project 2025 had started to emerge from closed-off partisan bubbles. “Overall, 20 percent of U.S. adult citizens say they’ve heard a lot about Project 2025, while 39 percent have heard a little and 42 percent have heard nothing at all,” the YouGov report reads. “Most Independents with an opinion about Project 2025 dislike it (7 percent favorable, 38 percent unfavorable), while Republicans are more positive (26 percent favorable, 12 percent unfavorable).”
This all explains why Trump and his senior staff have — falsely — claimed that he has nothing to do with the conservative project, to the point that he got his supporters to boo Project 2025 during a campaign stop. Trump and his ilk realize how much attention the project is receiving from voters and how woefully unpopular many of the outlined policy prescriptions are to the average citizen. In recent weeks, as Rolling Stone previously reported, Trump had privately vented to political advisers that Project 2025, specifically the abortion-related components of it, risked tanking his electoral chances ahead of November.
You’re not wrong, but most people don’t pay attention to what’s going on in conservative circles. The entire conservative project has to deal with the fact that their policies are fundamentally unpopular and would obviously hurt the vast majority of people. Therefore, they tiptoe around what they actually want. “We’re going to reduce taxes”, for example, only ends up reducing taxes for rich people, and often increases taxes on everyone else. But the statement in a vacuum doesn’t give that away.
Their big mistake this time is that they thought they could go full mask off and win easily.