Former President Donald Trump did not author a single word of the 900-page document detailing the Heritage Foundation’s so-called Project 2025, but the media is trying to hang it around his neck.

While Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise borrows some ideas already proposed by the former president, the campaign of the presumptive Republican nominee did not contribute to the collection of policy proposals. And while the Heritage Foundation could not overtly endorse a primary candidate as a 501(c)(3), the think tank clandestinely threw its weight behind the failed bid of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). In other words, Project 2025 is a document written neither by Trump nor his primary allies, and he has overtly disavowed the proposal, slamming some aspects as “absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.”

And yet, much of the media has run with the mania, pressing reported top running mate contenders such as Sens. J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) on a document that Trump did not authorize, author, or endorse. On the Sunday shows, Vance, responding to a seemingly veiled threat by Heritage President Kevin Roberts, asserted that “political violence is never justified,” and Rubio correctly noted that while “think tanks do think tank stuff,” the tail does not wag the dog.

The obvious conclusion here is that the media are manufacturing this story out of sheer desperation that its preferred candidate and sitting president of the United States is currently on his second week of a public meltdown. And, unlike in news cycles of the past, Trump is wisely refusing to take the focus off Joe Biden.

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After all, nobody really believes that Trump is the extreme candidate in this race, and on the social issues that matter most, Trump is the moderate next to Biden. Unlike the national Democrats under Biden, who want to codify legal abortion past the point of fetal viability on a federal level, Trump has affirmed his commitment to leaving abortion regulations to the states. Contrary to Project 2025, Trump does not favor the FDA banning the abortion drug mifepristone. Furthermore, it’s hard to believe that the thrice-married playboy, who once bragged that the former first lady’s diligent use of oral contraceptives meant that he didn’t have to pull out, would endorse Project 2025’s promotion of the rhythm method as a legitimate form of birth control.

But the media have no good news for the audience it spent years telling to ignore their lying eyes. After allowing the Democratic Party to literally cancel state primaries to coronate Biden for a second term, he publicly pantsed both himself and the media’s credibility with his disastrous debate performance last month, and unlike in years past, the Trump of 2024 is disciplined and his campaign is shockingly devoid of leakers. With no good news for Democrats, the press have to fall back on its old tactic to treat Republicans: making something out of nothing.