Project 2025’s Kevin Roberts Urges Trump to Target ‘Administrative State’ in Interview with Tucker Carlson

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts discussed what he sees as the threat from the federal government in the interview, a preview of which was given exclusively to Washington ExaminerRoberts placed the blame for what he called the rapid growth of the “administrative state” on both Democrats and Republicans.

“The third thing that we encourage every policymaker to do – and I think we can say this will be a policy priority of a Trump-Vance administration – is that when they get to Washington, D.C., they correct the abuses and excesses of the American administrative state,” Roberts said.

He stressed that the accusations against Trump were a wake-up call for many people.

“If a government, an administrative state… can abuse its power and persecute and prosecute a former president, it can and does happen to any of us, the pro-lifers, the grandmothers, my friend Mark Howell, those of us who, as you said, are trying to bring order out of chaos, we are living on the cusp of this great republic becoming an intellectual totalitarian state,” Roberts argued.

One of the priorities of the Trump administration, he said, must be to reduce the number of government employees.

“And the real weapon of power is the administrative state. So from the Justice Department down, we have to reduce the number of federal employees. There are almost 3 million employees in the federal government. There are, get this, 24 million Americans who work for the federal government, state or local governments,” Roberts added.

“I have nothing against them as individuals – some of you in this room may. The fact is that since the late 1970s, that number has doubled, and that shows you what the problem is, which is that Congress has repealed its power to oversee the administrative state, and the administrative state has expanded,” he continued. “At whose expense? At your expense, at mine, and at the expense of everyone in this room, and so we have to understand that that is what the battle is about in Washington.”

During the discussion, Roberts defended Project 2025 and said it had been mischaracterized by its critics: “I guess I should say I’m Kevin Roberts with Project 2025, and I’m here to help.”

Carlson seemed to agree throughout the interview, laughing frequently and nodding.

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The Project 2025 leader did not focus all of his criticism on Democrats, saying some Republicans were just as guilty.

“And I’m sorry to tell you that it’s not just the radical left progressive Democrats and the Biden Harris regime that we have to fight on this issue,” he said. “It’s the ruling elite, which includes some Republicans in Washington.”