Project 2025 director resigns after Trump criticism

Paul Dans, the director of Project 2025, has resigned from the Heritage Foundation. Dans will now focus on supporting Donald Trump’s efforts to return to the White House.

They’ll be back, under some other name.

The creepy billionaires behind this nonsense aren’t going away.https://t.co/W9izHxWpnT

— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) July 30, 2024

Project 2025 proposes expanding the powers of the U.S. president, reducing federal services, restricting access to abortion, and implementing large tax cuts.

They’ll take pieces of it and just move it into the campaign. The unpopular stuff they’ll pretend it never existed and Trump will continue to distance himself. Bad dudes.

Project 2025 leader steps down amid criticism from Trump https://t.co/OuJ1OB0yDe

— Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) July 30, 2024

Trump has distanced himself from the policy document, stating he has no connection and does not agree with much of its content. Kevin Roberts, the president of the Heritage Foundation, will take over the leadership of Project 2025. The project is not shutting down; it is undergoing a reshuffle.

Another way to frame this story: 'Trump abandons his policy team after realizing their ideas are unpopular' https://t.co/Fu1v0KHbM4

— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) July 31, 2024

Dans announced his resignation in a statement, explaining he would leave his position in August to concentrate on the upcoming electoral season.

Director resigns, project reshuffled

He emphasized that Project 2025’s policy platform was designed as a tool for any administration dedicated to conservative ideals. A Project 2025 advisory board member indicated that the project will submit its work, including a database of potential hires and a list of policy recommendations, to Trump’s campaign for review. Dans previously held personnel-related roles in the first Trump administration, including serving as chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management. Project 2025’s core document outlines four central policy aims: restoring the family as the centerpiece of American life, dismantling the administrative state, defending sovereignty and borders, and securing individual rights to live freely. Key proposals include bringing the entire federal bureaucracy under presidential control, dismantling the Departments of Education and Homeland Security, cutting federal funds for renewable energy, halting sales of abortion pills, and implementing sweeping tax cuts. Trump’s campaign reiterated that Project 2025 is not associated with the campaign or the former president. Vice-President Kamala Harris’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, criticized the project, stating it represents Trump’s agenda and should raise concerns about what else Trump and his allies might be concealing.