Project 2025 director leaves Heritage Foundation
What is project 2025? Author of the plan speaks
Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project, is a collection of conservative policy proposals and potential picks to fill positions if Donald Trump is reelected as president in November. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative nonprofit, organized the plan in 2022 which is "guided by the conservative cause to address and reform the failings of big government and an undemocratic administrative state," according to the Project 2025 website.
The director of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 vision has stepped down.
Paul Dans’ exit from the conservative think tank on Tuesday comes after the project "completed exactly what it set out to do," Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a statement.
Roberts said the group is sticking to its original timeline.
FILE - Paul Dans, former director of The Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, speaks at the National Conservative Conference in Washington D.C., Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (Credit: DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
But the news comes after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has increasingly distanced himself from Project 2025 amid escalating attacks by Democrats, prompting speculation that Trump’s campaign forced the exit.
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What is Project 2025?
Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project, is a collection of conservative policy proposals and potential picks to fill positions if a Republican is elected as president in November.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative nonprofit, organized the plan in 2022 which is "guided by the conservative cause to address and reform the failings of big government and an undemocratic administrative state," according to the Project 2025 website.
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The nearly 1,000-page plan involves having civic infrastructure in place in 2025 to take over and discard what Republicans claim is a "deep state" bureaucracy, in part by firing as many as 50,000 federal workers, The Associated Press reported last year.
Some conservatives are pushing to remove federal employees they consider an obstacle to a president’s agenda and want to replace them with individuals whose beliefs are aligned with a Republican president and are willing to undertake a new approach to governing.
According to The Associated Press, if Trump is reelected as president, the plan would also restore Schedule F, an executive order during Trump's first term in office that reclassifies thousands of federal employees as at-will workers who can be fired.
The plan also calls for installing top allies in acting administrative roles to push past senators who attempt to block presidential Cabinet nominees.
Does Trump support Project 2025?
Since some of the people involved in Project 2025 are former senior Trump administration officials, many are wondering if the former president himself supports the movement.
Trump appeared to distance himself from Project 2025 by posting on his social media website that he "knows nothing" about it.
"I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them," he wrote.
Trump has repeatedly disavowed the nearly 1,000-page document, saying on social media he hasn't read it and doesn't know anything about it. At a rally in Michigan earlier this month, he said Project 2025 was written by people on the "severe right" and some of the things in it are "seriously extreme."
"President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the President in any way," Trump campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement. "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."
Trump campaign representatives did not respond to messages inquiring about whether the campaign asked or pushed for Dans to step down from the project.
The Heritage Foundation said Dans left voluntarily and it was not under pressure from the Trump campaign. Dans didn't immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from The Associated Press.
But it was almost certain that Trump’s campaign forced the shakeup, said one former Heritage aide granted anonymity to discuss the situation.
RELATED: Who created Project 2025?
Who wrote Project 2025?
Project 2025 includes dozens of former senior Trump administration officials, including:
- Dans, the director of the project, who served as chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management under Trump.
- Russ Vought, who wrote one of the chapters, served as director of the Office of Management and Budget under Trump.
- John McEntee, a senior adviser for the project, previously served as director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office in the Trump administration.
The Associated Press, Austin Williams and Megan Ziegler contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.