Project 2025 director steps down at Heritage Foundation
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The head of the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, Paul Dans, has stepped down from his post as the operation also wraps up its "policy drafting," according to an announcement Tuesday.
Why it matters: Former President Trump has increasingly tried to distance himself from Project 2025, as Democrats have seized on the plan to paint the ex-president as a threat to democracy.
- The former president's campaign officials have also increasingly criticized Project 2025, per the Washington Post.
- The Post reported that Trump campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita recently warned people involved in creating Project 2025 that they would be barred from working in a second Trump administration.
- Project 2025 is not a campaign platform, but it was written by many of the former president's close allies.
Driving the news: Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts will lead Project 2025, per the think tank.
- Roberts said in the statement that when Project 2025 began in 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 said that "efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels—federal, state and local— will continue."
Zoom in: Before joining the Heritage Foundation, Dans was chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management during the Trump administration.
State of play: The Trump campaign again tried to put distance between the former president and Project 2025 in a Tuesday statement.
- "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," campaign co-managers Susie Wiles and LaCivita said in the 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 said during a rally earlier this month that Project 2025 is "seriously extreme" and was conceived by people on the "severe right."
Catch up quick: Project 2025 proposes a dramatic expansion of presidential power and a curbing of the independence of federal agencies during a second Trump term.
- Trump during his last administration moved to implement some of the policy recommendations in Project 2025, including signing an executive order creating a Schedule F job classification.
- Schedule F would allow Trump to strip civil servants of employment protections and replace them with loyalists to the former president.
- Trump in recent weeks has ramped up his criticisms of Project 2025 as Democrats continue to try to tie him to the conservative blueprint.
Go deeper: DNC launches billboards connecting Trump to Project 2025
Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional details.
