Former President Trump attacked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as a “lightweight” Thursday morning, after the Democratic vice presidential nominee delivered an emotional acceptance speech a night earlier.
Trump phoned into “Fox & Friends,” where the hosts played footage of Walz tying the former president directly to Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint for the next GOP administration.
“First of all, he’s a total lightweight, and he shouldn’t be even having any access to possibly being president,” Trump said. “He has no capability. They call him coach. He’s a semi-coach. He coached some football for a little while. This guy is a lightweight.”
The former president called it “disgraceful” for the Minnesota governor to connect him to Project 2025.
“They know I have nothing to do with it. I had no idea what it was. A group of people got together, they drew up some conservative values, very conservative values,” Trump said. “In some case perhaps they went over the line, perhaps they didn’t. I have no idea what Project 25 is.”
Walz delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night in Chicago, where he emphasized his time as a teacher and a high school football coach in Minnesota.
Democrats have used their convention to repeatedly highlight Project 2025, which was published by the Heritage Foundation and details how a Republican administration could enact policy on abortion, immigration, climate, tax policy and government regulation.
“They spend a lot of time pretending they know nothing about this,” Walz said. “But look, I coached high school football long enough to know and trust me on this: When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re going to use it.”
Trump and his campaign have aggressively distanced themselves from Project 2025. The former president has said multiple times he is not familiar with it. His top campaign adviser has also called the effort a “pain in the a‑‑.”
A CNN report published last month found at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration were involved with Project 2025 in some capacity.