JUST IN: Project 2025 ‘Winding Down’ Work As Trump Campaign ‘Greatly Welcomes’ the Demise
AP Photo/George Walker IV
The director behind the controversial Project 2025 has stepped down from his current position with The Heritage Foundation.
The Daily Beast senior political reporter Roger Sollengerger first posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday that Paul Dans “stepped down” from Heritage Foundation following pressure from former President Donald Trump’s campaign.
NEWS: Project 2025 director Paul Dans has stepped down at Heritage Foundation after pressure from Trump campaign leadership, ongoing power rift over staffing control for potential second Trump admin, per internal email. This suggests Project 2025 will likely shut down. Story TK.
— Roger Sollenberger (@SollenbergerRC) July 30, 2024
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts later confirmed the news that Dans was leaving through a statement posted to X.
Roberts said in his statement that Dans leaving is in line with a “timeline” they set out with in 2022. Roberts promised Dans will be moving to the “front line.”
“When we began Project 2025 in April 2022, we set a timeline for the project to conclude its policy drafting after the two party conventions this year, and we are sticking to that timeline,” he wrote, crediting Dans with getting the project going from “scratch.”
“Paul, who built the project from scratch and bravely led this endeavor over the past two years, will be departing the team and moving up to the front where the fight remains,” he wrote. “We are extremely grateful for his and everyone’s work on Project 2025 and dedication to saving America.”
Check out the full statement below:
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…
— Kevin Roberts (@KevinRobertsTX) July 30, 2024
Sollengerger and others reported of “pressure” coming from Trump’s campaign over Project 2025 and a statement from Trump’s campaign “greatly welcomed” the “demise” of the project. The Washington Post reported that Project 2025 will be “winding down” policy operations and the group is telling participants to emphasize the point that the policy program has nothing to do with Trump.
“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,” the statement read. “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.”
Dans is listed on the Heritage website as the director of the “Presidential Transition Project.” He had just appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast on Tuesday morning.
Trump claimed at a rally earlier this month that he had no idea what Project 2025 is. In a 2022 keynote address though, the former president appeared to be referring to the 900-plus pages of policies just as the organization was getting started on the plan.
In a Truth Social post this month, Trump said agrees with some things in Project 2025 and finds others “ridiculous and abysmal.”
“I know nothing about Project 2025. 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.
The massive plan includes sweeping changes to the government, including getting rid of the Department of Education and instituting more limits on abortion.
Have a tip for us? tips@mediaite.com
