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The director of the Heritage Foundation\u2019s Project 2025<\/a> vision for a\u00a0complete overhaul<\/a>\u00a0of the federal government stepped down Tuesday after blowback from Donald Trump\u2019s campaign, which has tried to disavow the program created by many of the former president\u2019s allies and former aides.<\/p>\n Heritage Foundation<\/a> President Kevin Roberts said Paul Dans\u2019 exit comes after the project \u201ccompleted exactly what it set out to do.\u201d Roberts, who has emerged as a chief spokesman for the effort, plans to lead Project 2025 going forward.<\/p>\n \u201cOur collective efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels \u2014 federal, state, and local \u2014 will continue,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n What started as an obscure far-right wish list is now a focal point in the 2024 campaign. Democrats for the past several months have made Project 2025 a key election-year cudgel, pointing to the ultraconservative policy blueprint as a glimpse into how extreme another Trump administration could be.<\/p>\n The nearly 1,000-page handbook lays out sweeping changes in the federal government, including altering personnel rules to ensure government workers\u00a0are more loyal<\/a>\u00a0to the president. Heritage is building a database of potential new hires to staff a second Trump White House.<\/p>\n Yet Trump has repeatedly disavowed the document, saying on social media he hasn\u2019t read it and doesn\u2019t know anything about it. At a rally in Michigan earlier this month, he said Project 2025 was written by people on the \u201csevere right\u201d and some of the things in it are \u201cseriously extreme.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Trump\u2019s 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,\u201d Trump campaign advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement.<\/p>\n They said, \u201cReports of Project 2025\u2019s 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 \u2014 it will not end well for you.\u201d<\/p>\n But Ohio Sen.\u00a0JD Vance<\/a>, Trump\u2019s running mate, wrote a foreword to a forthcoming book by Roberts in which he lauds the Heritage Foundation\u2019s work. A copy of the foreword was obtained by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Heritage Foundation isn\u2019t some random outpost on Capitol Hill; it is and has been the most influential engine of ideas for Republicans from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump,\u201d wrote Vance.<\/p>\n Quoting Roberts elsewhere in the book, Vance writes: \u2033We are now all realizing that it\u2019s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.<\/p>\n In many ways, Project 2025 served as a potential far-right White House in waiting, a constellation of outside groups that would be ready for action if Trump wins a second term.<\/p>\n The project included not only the detailed policy proposals that Trump could put into place on day one at the White House. Project 2025 was also building a personnel database of resumes for potential hires, drawing Americans to Washington to staff a new Trump administration.<\/p>\n Many Trump allies and former top aides contributed to the project. Dans formerly worked as a personnel official for the Trump administration. And Trump\u00a0regularly campaigns on many of the same proposals<\/a>\u00a0in the Project 2025 book \u2014 from mass deportations to upending the Justice Department \u2014 though some of its other proposals, including further\u00a0taxes on tips<\/a>, conflict with some of what Trump has pledged on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n It was clear that Project 2025 was becoming a liability for Trump and the Republican Party.<\/p>\n Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019 campaign and top Democrats have repeatedly tied Trump to Project 2025 as they argue against a second term for the former president.<\/p>\n The Harris campaign said Project 2025 remains linked to Trump\u2019s agenda, written by his allies for him to \u201cinflict\u201d on the country.<\/p>\n \u201cHiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn\u2019t make it less real \u2014 in fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding,\u201d said Harris for President Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.<\/p>\n For months Trump\u2019s campaign had warned outside groups, and Heritage in particular, that they did not speak for the former president.<\/p>\n In an interview from the Republican convention first published by Politico, LaCivita said Project 2025 was a problem because \u201cthe issues that are going to win us this campaign are not the issues that they want to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n It was almost certain than Trump\u2019s campaign forced the shakeup, said one former Heritage aide.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s team was well aware it couldn\u2019t risk any missteps from Heritage in this final stretch ahead of the election.<\/p>\n By announcing the departure, Roberts appeared to be sending a signal to the Trump campaign that changes were being made at Heritage to tamp down any concerns over Project 2025, said another conservative familiar with the situation.<\/p>\n If Trump wins the White House, he almost certainly will need to rely on Heritage and other outside entities to help quickly staff a new administration, the person said.<\/p>\n That person and the former aide would only talk on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.<\/p>\n Project 2025\u2019s website will remain live and the group will continue vetting resumes for its nearly 20,000-person database of potential officials eager to execute its vision for government, the Heritage Foundation said Tuesday.<\/p>\n The group said Dans, who had started the project from scratch more than two years ago, will leave the Heritage Foundation in August. Roberts will now run Project 2025 operations.<\/p>\n\nProject 2025 has many ties to Trump\u2019s orbit<\/h2>\n
Heritage says Project 2025 is not going away<\/h2>\n