Subject: Re: John Oliver Weighs In
Sure. I think that if there’s one thing that we’ve all witnessed time and time again, something we can take to the bank, it’s that Trump’s word is his bond.

Seriously?

Of course not.

His savaging of the platform isn't him giving his word. It's a revealed preference. One of Trump's most significant and overarching character traits is that he is selfish. To an extreme. In any interaction, any decision, any calculation, he is driven by a single assessment: what's best for Trump? So tearing out these longstanding planks of the platform isn't a promise of anything by Trump, but rather a clear indication that he doesn't think those policies are good for Trump.

He savaged the platform because he (correctly) intuited that advocating for a national abortion ban is bad for Trump. It is unpopular. He does not care that he only became President because the evangelical community put him there, and that this is a deep betrayal of them. Because he only cares - ever and always - about what is good for Trump. So a national abortion ban is out the door, even though that pains his supporters. Bye-bye entitlement reform as well, replaced with a full-throated commitment to Social Security and Medicare: because Medicare and Social Security are popular, so they're good for Trump. The fact that reforming those programs has been a core facet of conservatism for half a century doesn't matter to him. Conservatives aren't Trump, and what matters is what's good for Trump.

The Heritage Foundation has thoughts about what the federal government should look like, based on what Heritage thinks would be good at advancing the things that Heritage cares about. Donald Trump does not care what Heritage's thoughts about the federal government are. He only cares about what is good for Trump. Some of Heritage's policy choices are simply copies of what Trump has already said he wants to do. Since those policies have already passed through the "Trump thinks they're good for Trump" screen, we know Trump will pursue them - but their inclusion in Project 2025 has nothing to do with that.

Which is why efforts to use Project 2025 to tarnish Trump are doomed to fail. They rest on a premise that American voters know is false. Claiming that a politician won't actually follow their own platform, but will instead serve the shadowy aims of their true (but hidden and shadowy) masters is an old tactic. But that's not going to work against a candidate like Trump. No one's going to believe that he's going to do something that someone else wants. If America knows one true thing about Donald Trump, it's that he's a selfish narcissist. He's only, ever going to do what he adjudges in that moment to be what helps him to remain popular and in power.

Which isn't cutting Social Security because some think tank wants him to. Which isn't banning pornography because some cultural Christian thinks its bad. Which isn't burning his political capital on a national abortion ban when he doesn't even care about abortion and it won't win him a single extra supporter.