(NewsNation) — Questions surrounding former President Donald Trump’s connections to the controversial conservative plan Project 2025 are intensifying as he’s set to accept the presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention this week.

Trump has previously disavowed the plan, posting on his social media site that he has “no idea” who is behind Project 2025 and knows “nothing” about it, but dozens of people who worked closely with him and helped shape his administration are involved in the plan. 

“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. “Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that wrote Project 2025, said it’s a guide on what the next president needs to do so they can undo the “damage” to America they claim has been caused by liberal politicians. 

Critics, though, say Project 2025 is extremist, “authoritarian” and even dystopian.

The plan’s authors have said in a statement to NewsNation that they are “not affiliated with any candidate” and that they “do not speak for President Trump, who was not involved with the creation of the Mandate for Leadership.” They also said that Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, is “not involved.”

Following criticism from the Trump campaign and repeated attacks from Democrats, the head of Project 2025 at The Heritage Foundation Paul Dans announced he planned to step down from his position, The Wall Street Journal reported.

What is Project 2025? 

Project 2025 is a nearly 1,000-page document written by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation.

It lays out a multiprong blueprint to overhaul the federal government for the next Republican administration. 

A main component of Project 2025 is the firing of as many as 50,000 federal workers who conservative groups say will impede the president’s agenda. 

Under Project 2025, agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education would be “eliminated,” and others, like the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission, and Justice Department, would be put under the president’s control.

A so-called top-to-bottom “overhaul” of the Department of Justice would end FBI efforts to stop misinformation. The Pentagon would “abolish” diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives if Project 2025 is adopted, and service members discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine would be reinstated.

On abortion, Project 2025 calls for restricting the procedure through a limit on mail-order pills and penalizing providers. Other health care services and social services like Medicare and Social Security would be scaled back and privatized as well, and any of the Biden administration’s climate change policies would be reversed through Project 2025.

Dozens of former Trump officials are working on Project 2025

Trump has disavowed Project 2025, but many top officials and political advisers who worked under his administration and some who are currently involved in his campaign have contributed to the plan. 

Trump’s running mate, Republican Ohio Sen. JD Vance, announced in June that he wrote the foreword to Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts’ upcoming book, “Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America.”

“I was thrilled to write the foreword for this incredible book, which contains a bold new vision for the future of conservatism in America,” Vance said.

Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign national press secretary, is allegedly seen in a video promoting Project 2025’s “Presidential Administration Academy,” which, according to the plan’s website, will “prepare and equip future political appointees now to be ready on Day One of the next conservative Administration.” 

She appears to be one of the “seasoned leaders” highlighted in the academy. 

The Heritage Foundation said they have “no specific knowledge of Karoline’s participation.”

The video was produced in September 2023, when Leavitt was serving as a spokesperson for pro-Trump super PAC Make America Great Again Inc., which is a separate entity from the Trump campaign, reported ABC News.

Leavitt joined the Trump campaign in January, and since then, she’s called out the project she helped create in her official capacity as Trump’s spokesperson. “Project 2025 is not related to our campaign and does not reflect official campaign policy,” she told New York Magazine.

Dans, who was chosen to lead the Project 2025 initiative for The Heritage Foundation, served in the Trump Administration as chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management as well as the agency’s White House liaison.  Trump appointed Dans to serve as Chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission in 2021, according to the group.  His announcement to step down was first reported on Monday, July 30.

Stephen Miller, who served as Trump’s senior adviser for policy and White House director of speechwriting, is also on the promotional video as a leader. 

He’s also since tried to distance himself, saying, “I have no involvement with the project whatsoever,” in a statement to ABC News.

At least six of Trump’s former Cabinet secretaries have either authored or advised on Project 2025.

Russ Vought, Trump’s former Office of Management and Budget director, wrote a chapter on “Executive Office of the President” for Project 2025. 

Vought also serves as the policy director of the Republican National Convention’s platform committee, an appointment the Trump campaign agreed to. 

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, former deputy chief of staff Rick Dearborn, former Justice Department senior counsel Gene Hamilton and former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller have also all worked on Project 2025. 

At least 140 other people who worked in the Trump administration have also had a hand in Project 2025, CNN reported. 

Why has Trump publicly rejected Project 2025?

Several close allies of Trump have signed off on the plan, but Trump has maintained his distance likely because it is so politically controversial, experts told NewsNation. 

They add that it’s highly unlikely he knows “nothing” about it as he’s claimed. 

“His campaign folks are not dumb, and they’re saying you got to distance yourself from it because it won’t appeal to the voters he needs,” Beau Breslin, a political science professor at Skidmore College, said. “If it was politically popular, he wouldn’t distance himself from it in some ways.”

Trump also loves taking credit for policies, he added, so by accepting Project 2025, he gives that credit to something else.

Given all the connections with former administration officials, it’s very unlikely Trump doesn’t know about the plan and at least approved some of the major campaign platforms, Casey Burgat, director of the legislative affairs program at George Washington University, said. 

Trump has shown that he lets those on the ground do the work in his name, but that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t seen or been briefed on the broad strokes or overall objectives outlined within Project 2025, Burgat said. 

“It’s too long of a bridge to accept that he has nothing to do with it given not only the connections but just how that platform supports a lot of the main policy objectives that President Trump has outlined in his first term, ” he said. 

But the optics could hurt Trump at the polls so he has to avoid it, he said. 

“The more people are talking about it, particularly the more negative side effects of it being implemented; Trump is trying to find a magical path forward of distancing himself while still getting the policy benefits if and when it should be implemented.”

Trump’s other ties to Project 2025 

Project 2025 is backed by more than 100 other right-leaning organizations.

Some of these groups have worked closely with Trump during his time in office. 

The Heritage Foundation created a “Mandate for Leadership” in 2015 ahead of Trump’s first term. Two years into his presidency, it touted that Trump had instituted 64% of its policy recommendations, ranging from increasing military spending and leaving the Paris Accords, CBS News reported. 

Trump has praised the group in the past, saying, at an event sponsored by the Heritage Foundation in April 2022, “They’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do and what your movement will do when the American people give us a colossal mandate to save America.” 

Other groups that have worked closely with Trump are also a part of Project 2025. These include Turning Point USA, the Center for Renewing America, the Claremont Institute, the Family Policy Alliance, the Family Research Council, Moms for Liberty and America First Legal, reported NBC News. 

NewsNation’s Cassie Buchman contributed to this story.