Project 2025 director steps down amid Trump campaign criticism

The director of the Heritage Foundation-led Project 2025, Paul Dans, is departing from the role, the conservative think tank’s president Kevin Roberts said Tuesday.

“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,” Roberts said in a statement.

“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," Roberts said. "We are extremely grateful for his and everyone's work on Project 2025 and dedication to saving America. Our collective efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels—federal, state, and local—will continue.”

Dans was previously chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management in the Trump administration.

His exit comes as Democrats have made Project 2025 central to their campaign attacks on Republicans and former President Trump. The effort, made up of a coalition of more conservative organizations and many Trump allies, includes a 900-page hard-right policy blueprint intended to guide the next conservative administration and a bank of individuals who could staff such an administration.

Trump and his campaign have distanced themselves from Project 2025, which takes a farther right stance on some issues than Tru...