As Donald Trump and Republicans seek to downplay their ties to Project 2025, the release of an upcoming book by the project’s director has been postponed until after the election – but not before advance copies have been sent to reviewers.
Kevin Roberts is president of the Heritage Foundation, which hosted the controversial conservative policy and human resources project, and he is now officially leading Project 2025 after its director – a former Trump administration official – resigned.
Earlier this week, Roberts announced he would delay the release of his book, telling Real Clear Politics, “There is a time to write, read, and tour – and a time to put the books down and fight with all your might to take back our country… For that reason, I have decided to delay the release and marketing of my book until after the election.”
But the delay came too late to cover up another blow to the Trump campaign’s ridiculous claims that they had absolutely nothing to do with Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation’s plans: The foreword to Roberts’ book was written by none other than Trump’s vice presidential candidate, JD Vance.
Dawn’s Early Light: Reclaiming Washington to Save America is a manifesto for Roberts – the man whose organization leads Project 2025. According to a review of a proof that The book, which has been widely published, presents a vision for the nation that is closely linked to the mission formulated by the Heritage Foundation in preparation for a second Trump term.
It’s a dirty little red book that Republicans can’t get rid of, so here are some of the craziest details we know so far from the book’s contents.
1. The title has been changed.
Dawn’s Early Light: Reclaiming Washington to Save America, was not Roberts’ original title. Intrepid social media users noticed that the book was originally marketed as Dawn’s Early Light: Burning Washington to Save America, Early drafts of the cover featured a matchstick above the word “Washington.”
According to an archived version of the book’s Amazon listing, the description of The early light of dawn was also watered down by removing language such as “a warpath” for conservatives and the need to “burn down” institutions to “preserve the American way of life.”
Although the book’s title and cover have been toned down, its content is as inflammatory as ever.
2. The insane intro by JD Vance.
Although the former president has repeatedly claimed he had nothing to do with Project 2025, evidence is mounting of how deeply he and his allies were involved in the project. The fact that Vance, the senator from Ohio, wrote the foreword to the president’s new book for the Heritage Foundation doesn’t help their cause.
According to a copy of the foreword that we have The New Republic, Vance repeats many of today’s widely used Republican cultural conservative platitudes – have more children, get married and stay married. He praises Roberts for his proposal to “create the material circumstances” families need to prosper, including by “protecting American industries – even if that means higher consumer prices in the short term.”
Vance also repeated Roberts’ now infamous call for a “second American revolution” that would only “remain bloodless if the left allows it.”
“As Kevin Roberts writes, ‘It’s all right to take a laissez-faire attitude when you’re in the safety of the sun. But when dusk falls and you hear the wolves, you must circle the wagons and load the muskets,'” Vance writes. “We all now realize that it is time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the battles ahead, these ideas are an indispensable weapon.”
3. Attacks on contraception, abortion and IVF
Roberts himself has railed at length against the – already limited – reproductive freedoms available to American women. According to Media Matters for America, he also attacks fertility treatments such as IVF. “In vitro fertilization (IVF) appears to promote fertility, but has the additional effect of encouraging women to delay trying to start a family, often leading to additional problems when the time comes,” he writes.
He describes birth control as a technological change that made childbearing “an optional and unnatural consequence of sexual intercourse and destroyed a whole series of institutions and cultural norms that protected women and forced men to take responsibility for their actions.”
Much like Vance, who has complained that America is run by “childless cat ladies” like Kamala Harris (who has two stepchildren), Roberts expresses similar disdain for childless Americans. “A childless society becomes decadent and nostalgic. Aging, barren societies literally become consumptive, going deeper into debt and burning through their savings while paying foreign workers to keep things running,” he writes. “On the other hand, getting married and having children allows you to commit to the future of your country. It forces you to grow up, give up childish things, and live in the real world.”
4. Calling America’s teachers “crazy”
It’s no secret that conservatives have made teachers—especially public school teachers—the target of their regressive culture war against anything that doesn’t conform to their vision of white, Christian heteronormativity.
According to Media Matters, Roberts writes that schools have “transformed from institutions dedicated to cultivating children’s souls into godless assembly lines designed to mold obedient little comrades who believe morality is a construct and nature an illusion.”
“Parents’ rights must be jealously guarded right now because America’s teachers have gone mad,” he adds.
Not surprisingly, Roberts is ordering the introduction of “universal school choice,” signaling her support to the Republican Party for cutting funding for public schools and redirecting the money to charter, private, and other alternative education models.
5. Claim that dog parks are hostile to children
Nearly half of all American households have a dog. Yet at one point, Roberts complains that a Washington dog park geared toward dogs rather than children is evidence that “anti-family culture shapes legislation, regulation and enforcement in our sprawling government apparatus.”
Normal stuff.
6. What are you passionate about?
Roberts firmly believes that America is facing a second revolution, and according to a Media Matters review of the book, he writes, “In some ways, our situation is even worse than it was during the First American Revolution.”
“What is your Alamo? What are you dying for? Pick a place, pick a people, pick a project and give it everything you have (…) There is a time to write and read – and a time to put down the books and fight with all your might to take back our country and build our future,” he adds.
“It is time for a conservatism of fire,” Robert writes. “To burn it down and restore the natural order of the world, the Western civilized order, and the American governmental order.”
