At the Moms for Liberty annual summit in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Donald Trump aired grievances about his political rivals and leaned into culture war issues. In his “fireside chat,” he attacked President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and he disparaged trans people and migrants crossing the U.S. border.
But aside from his ramblings — which The Guardian described as “long, zigzagging and at times incoherent” — the Republican presidential nominee’s appearance at the event also underscored his connection to the Heritage Foundation, the architects behind the Project 2025 plan that Trump has taken pains to distance himself from.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative organization that has served as a personnel pipeline to GOP administrations and crafted policy proposals that have been picked up by Republican officials, has ties to the far-right Moms for Liberty, which has been labeled an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. In 2022, the organization awarded Moms for Liberty its Salvatori Prize for Citizenship, which came with a $25,000 cash award, according to its tax filing that year. The Heritage Foundation is also one of 10 sponsors of the Moms for Liberty summit this year, as The Washington Post reported. And Moms for Liberty is listed as a “coalition partner” for Project 2025, an action plan for Trump’s second term that was drafted by the Heritage Foundation.
Amid public backlash to Project 2025, Trump has tried to separate himself from the document, despite a number of allies and former Trump administration officials’ involvement in drafting it. He has disavowed the project and claimed ignorance of the people behind it. But his politics inherently tie him to the organization’s sphere of influence, and supporters of Project 2025 have likened Trump’s public rejection of the plan to “two siblings in a fight.”
Trump’s appearance at the Moms for Liberty event further undermines those efforts. At the event on Friday, he received a personal endorsement from Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice, who said that while the group is “nonpartisan,” she personally supports Trump for president.