Trump campaign holds Milwaukee panel event including Project 2025 contributor, who downplays involvement

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The presidential campaign trail wound its way back through Wisconsin Thursday. That included the Trump campaign event on Milwaukee's east side featuring a group of recognizable conservatives.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who ran for president earlier in the campaign, moderated a panel event featuring former Gov. Tommy Thompson, Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) and former Fox News contributor Monica Crowley, who also served as a Treasury Department spokesperson during former President Donald Trump's first term.

Democrats focused on Crowley's involvement in the program. She's listed as one of the contributors to Project 2025, a sweeping right-wing agenda playbook released by the Heritage Foundation.

The 900-page document calls for eliminating the Department of Education among a host of changes to federal government, including ones making it easier to remove federal employees and replace them with political appointees and enact labor changes union officials see as hostile.

The Trump campaign has disavowed the document, which Burgum quickly noted when asked about Crowley's involvement after the event.

"I think it's a complete red herring," Burgum said. "I don't think it's an issue here, and I think people should look at the policies like today, the incredible economic speech President Trump gave [Thursday in New York City.] Those are the policies from his campaign, and [Project] 2025 is not relevant."

Crowley downplayed her involvement in the document, saying after the event she had been approached to only offer some ideas for the Treasury section of Project 2025.

"When the project got started in the early days, they contacted me to make a few contributions on the Treasury Department piece of it," Crowley said. "So I was literally involved for maybe three weeks, and that was the end of it."

"Early on, when the Heritage Foundation approached me on the Treasury piece, it was two or three years ago, and I contributed a couple of ideas, and that was it."

The panel discussion itself focused largely on immigration and the economy, two issues particularly important to Republican voters. There was also talk about reining in what Crowley described as a "weaponized government."

Both Crowley and Burgum criticized federal overreach from what they called "three-letter agencies." Crowley specifically question just how drastic changes would need to be at the FBI.

"There is a debate about whether some of these institutions, say the FBI, can be reformed," she said. "Or is the corruption so deep that you have to raze the institution to the ground and start all over again? That's a debate for President Trump when he's re-elected."

A group of about 50 protestors marched outside the event venue, which was a UW-Milwaukee building on Prospect Avenue. The demonstrators belonged to groups including SEIU Wisconsin and Power to the Polls.

Anthol Farrar, vice president of property services for SEIU Wisconsin, said he was concerned about Project 2025's section on labor, as well as proposals to restrict abortion access.

"The fact that it does not support the gathering of unions, and again, it challenges the right for people to receive overtime," Farrar said. "That's a big concern to me."

Project 2025 discusses proposals to let companies calculate overtime eligibility based on hours worked over two or four-week periods instead of hours over 40 in a single week. It also proposes allowing workers to vote on decertifying their union at any time; currently, such votes cannot happen within three years of a collective bargaining agreement being reached.

Burgum insisted the true Trump campaign document is 'Agenda 47,' which the campaign has touted in recent weeks.

As for how Republicans can win Wisconsin, Steil suggested mobilizing more poll observers. Burgum noted the GOP has 175,000 people nationwide willing to monitor polls, and he suggested they be deployed to Milwaukee and Madison suburbs in November.

Thompson said Republicans need to go places they don't usually campaign. He specifically mentioned Black churches and Dane County, saying the Trump campaign should aim to win 30% in the state's most liberal county.