DETROIT, MI — President Joe Biden on Friday slammed Donald Trump over Project 2025, a controversial proposed overhaul of the government, in Michigan as he attempted to silence critics who want him to withdraw from the presidential race.
Speaking to a raucous crowd at Renaissance High School, Biden made Project 2025 the central theme of his speech, calling it the “biggest attack on our personal freedom.”
“Folks, Project 2025 is the biggest attack on our system of government and on our personal freedom that’s ever been proposed in the history of this country,” Biden told the crowd. He added Project 2025 “is run and paid for by Trump people” and is “a blueprint for a second Trump.”
Project 2025 is a 900-page policy outline that was written by Trump allies and former administration officials, including Paul Dans and Spencer Chretien. If enacted in a second Trump term, it would dismantle much of the U.S. government and replace it with federal workers loyal to Trump.
A “conservative President” will need “boldness to bend or break the bureaucracy to the presidential will and self-denial to use the bureaucratic machine to send power away from Washington and back to America’s families, faith communities, local governments, and states,” the document reads.
“Trump said if he wins, he’ll be a dictator on day one,” Biden said. “He means it, folks. We’re not gonna let that happen. Over my dead body it will happen.”
Trump has attempted to distance himself from the policy outline as well as his allies.
“I know nothing about Project 2025. I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, and, unlike our very well received Republican Platform, had nothing to do with it,” he wrote on social media. “The Radical Left Democrats are having a field day, however, trying to hook me into whatever policies are stated or said.”
Biden’s strong words come after two weeks of calls from members of his own party to withdraw from the presidential race following his debate performance against Trump last month.
Taking the stage to chants of “Don’t you quit!” and “We’ve got your back!” from the packed gymnasium, Biden said — again — that he was still running for re-election and vowed to defeat Trump in November.
“You’ve probably noticed. There’s a lot of speculation lately: What’s Joe Biden gonna do? Is he gonna stay in the race? Is he gonna drop out. Here’s the answer; I am running and we’re gonna win! I’m not going to change that,” he told the crowd.
Despite calls from his Democratic colleagues, Friday night was clear that the voters do not want Biden to step aside. The crowd in Michigan waved signs that read “Motown is Joetown” and enthusiastically cheered the President’s remarks — and booed at any mention of Trump.
“You made me the nominee, no one else, not the press, not the pundits, not the insiders, not the donors,” Biden said. “You the voters decided, no one else, and I’m not going anywhere.”
