Head of GOP’s Project 2025 steps down following Donald Trump criticism
Paul Dans, head of the conservative road map for the next Republican administration, quits after Trump publicly criticised the group and Democrats decried its ‘dangerous’ proposals.
The Heritage Foundation official who leads Project 2025, the conservative road map for the next Republican administration, is stepping down after former President Donald Trump and his aides publicly criticised the group and Democrats decried its proposals as radical and dangerous.
Paul Dans, the group’s director, informed Heritage Foundation staff this week of his decision to step down, according to people familiar with the discussions. Dans didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump campaign senior advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita pounced on the news. “Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign – it will not end well for you,” they said in a statement.
In recent weeks, Wiles made calls to Heritage officials asking them to lower Project 2025’s profile, according to people familiar with the discussions. LaCivita made his distaste for the group known at the Republican National Convention this month when he called Project 2025 a “pain in the ass.” With the departure of Dans, a significant component of Project 2025 – its policy-focused work – will soon come to an end, according to Heritage Foundation officials. But Project 2025 won’t be disbanded. Instead, the group will now largely focus on its efforts to build a personnel database of conservative officials who are seeking jobs in government.
“The work of this project was due to wrap up with the nominating conventions of the political parties,” Dans wrote in a note to staff, according to a copy of the document reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. “Our work is presently winding down, and I plan later in August to leave Heritage.”
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts will take over Project 2025’s operations. “We are extremely grateful for his and everyone’s work on Project 2025 and dedication to saving America,” Roberts said of Dans. “Our collective efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels – federal, state, and local – will continue.” The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, spearheaded Project 2025, but the effort was endorsed by more than 100 right-leaning groups.
Democrats have aggressively targeted Project 2025, picking apart the group’s 900-plus-page book of policy proposals. The book lays out a sweeping governing agenda based on the input of hundreds of conservative leaders. Policy proposals the group have put forward include: eliminating or significantly shrinking the Education Department; ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs; imposing additional restrictions on abortion, including by undoing the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion pill Mifepristone; and imposing tougher work requirements for food stamps.
Trump has taken steps to distance himself from Project 2025, which isn’t part of the campaign, as Democrats gained traction in raising public awareness about the agenda.
During a rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., in July, Trump said the project was drafted by “some on the right – severe right,” and that he knew some of the people involved but not all of them. In an earlier social-media post he described some of the things the group proposed as “absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.” Trump has privately expressed annoyance that Project 2025 has received so much attention, and he resents the notion that the group is ghostwriting his policies and choosing candidates to fill the top ranks of his administration, according to associates.
Though Trump has criticised Project 2025, many of his former staff are involved with it. Some – but not all – of the ideas the group has embraced echo policies Trump has endorsed on the campaign trail or promoted while he was in the White House.
“Project 2025 is on the ballot because Donald Trump is on the ballot. This is his agenda, written by his allies, for Donald Trump to inflict on our country,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign manager. “Hiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn’t make it less real.”
Project 2025 started in April 2022, before any candidate had formally launched a 2024 presidential campaign. It is composed of four parts: the 900-plus-page book, which is called “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise”; the personnel database that collects resumés from conservatives around the country who want to serve in the next administration; a training academy that prepares potential political appointees to work in government; and a series of 180-day policy plans for every federal agency.
Dow Jones
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