Topline
The director of the “ Project 2025” program that’s drawn widespread criticism for its hard-right proposals is stepping down, the Heritage Foundation confirmed Tuesday—a move that comes after former President Donald Trump and his campaign have strongly disavowed any connection to its controversial policy agenda.
Paul Dans, director of Project 2025 at The Heritage Foundation, speaks at the National Religious … [+]
Key Facts
Paul Dans will leave his role at the Heritage Foundation “and [move] up to the front where the fight remains,” Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a statement to Forbes.
Project 2025 is a multi-pronged project led by the right-wing Heritage Foundation aimed at providing a blueprint for the next conservative administration—namely Trump’s—which has drawn controversy for its 900-page policy framework calling for a complete overhaul of the executive branch.
Trump’s campaign responded to the news with a statement emphasizing Project 2025 wasn’t affiliated with the campaign: “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.”
The Trump campaign has distanced itself from Project 2025 as its policies have come under scrutiny, with Trump saying he has “nothing to do with them” and some of their ideas are “ridiculous and abysmal,” and campaign advisor Chris LaCivita saying the group had become a “pain in the ass” for the campaign.
Dans had defended Project 2025 as recently as Tuesday, saying on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” program that in order “to retake the government … we have to start with the executive branch.”
It’s unclear why Dans departed the organization: Roberts said Project 2025 was always scheduled to conclude its “policy drafting after the two-party conventions this year” and is “sticking to that timeline,” though the Washington Post reported Trump campaign advisors “grew furious” at the Heritage Foundation for promoting the project and had threatened anyone involved with it could be barred from a future Trump administration.
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Is Project 2025 Shutting Down?
No, according to the Heritage Foundation. Though Roberts said its policy drafting is concluding, there are still other aspects to Project 2025—most notably a large-scale effort to staff a potential Trump White House, offering a LinkedIn-style database for hopeful federal employees and training programs. The Heritage Foundation confirmed Tuesday those efforts “to build a personnel apparatus” will continue. The organization has not yet responded to a request for comment on if it still intends to release a “playbook” for the first 180 days of a potential Trump administration, however, which was slated to be the “fourth pillar” of Project 2025. The Post reported Tuesday the Heritage Foundation has issued new “talking points” telling participants “to emphasize that the project does not speak for Trump,” however, and some employees have considered leaving in order to not damage future job prospects.
Crucial Quote
“Under Paul Dans’ leadership, Project 2025 has completed exactly what it set out to do: bringing together over 110 leading conservative organizations to create a unified conservative vision, motivated to devolve power from the unelected administrative state, and returning it to the people,” Roberts said in a statement, praising Dans as the person who “built the project from scratch and bravely led this endeavor.”
Chief Critic
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign responded to the news of Dans’ resignation in a statement Tuesday, which resisted Trump’s attempts to distance himself from Project 2025’s agenda. “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,” Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. “Hiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn’t make it less real—in fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding.”
What Does Project 2025 Say?
Project 2025’s policy blueprint broadly calls for radical changes to the executive branch, including replacing career civil servants with political appointees and getting rid of some agencies entirely, such as the Departments of Education and Homeland Security. The agenda seeks to give more power to the president and ensure the executive branch is ideologically aligned with them, and sets out policy proposals that are in line with conservative values like emphasizing the nuclear family. Policy proposals include getting rid of climate change initiatives, rescinding federal approval for abortion drug mifepristone, ending LGBTQ initiatives and stopping all student loan forgiveness, among other measures. Many proposals in the policy agenda are broadly similar to Trump’s own Agenda47 platform.
Contra
Though Trump has disavowed any connection to Project 2025, the authors of its policy agenda include many former members of his presidential administration, including members of his Cabinet. Trump has also praised the Heritage Foundation’s policy work in the past, saying at a 2022 dinner for the organization that it was “going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do … when the American people give us a colossal mandate.”
Key Background
Project 2025 is part of a longstanding effort by the Heritage Foundation to advise incoming conservative presidents, with the organization saying it made its first policy recommendations ahead of Ronald Reagan’s presidency and has continued to release policy agendas every election since. The nonprofit previously made policy recommendations to Trump before the 2016 election, and boasted two years into his White House tenure that Trump had already followed 64% of its recommendations, CBS News notes. Though Project 2025 first released its policy blueprint in 2023, its proposals have gained national attention only over the past month, as Trump publicly disavowed the agenda and Democrats ramped up their attacks on it as President Joe Biden’s candidacy came under criticism. Democrats have repeatedly pointed to Project 2025 as a key reason for why voters should oppose Trump in the presidential election, sparking Trump and his campaign’s decision to publicly distance itself from the Heritage Foundation’s work.
