Trump Campaign Responds After Project 2025 Leader Steps Down - It's 'Demise Would Be Greatly Welcomed'

On Tuesday, the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, the presidential transition project that outlined a plan to implement conservative policy priorities and staff the next Trump administration, announced that the initiatives director, Paul Dans, would step down from the role.

In an email to Heritage staff, Dans explained that the initiative was due to wrap up the bulk of its work following the nominating conventions for both parties and that he would be moving on from Heritage to "direct all my efforts to winning" in November.

In response to the news, the Trump campaign, which has asserted that Project 2025 has no influence over Trump's vision for the next administration, welcomed the news with campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles writing, "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."

"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," the campaign managers concluded. The conservative think tank's initiative has been the subject of repeated attacks from Democrats and the Harris campaign, falsely claiming that the project represented Trump's policy platform instead of the official campaign platform, Agenda 47.

Despite the initiative's director stepping away, the president of the Heritage Foundation, Dr. Kevin Roberts, announced that Project 2025 would continue its work. "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 the people. This tool was built for any future administration to use," Dr. Roberts wrote.

"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. 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," the Heritage president continued. "We are extremely grateful for his and everyone's work on Project 2025 and dedication to saving America. Project 2025 will continue our efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels—federal, state, and local. I look forward to leading this team to continued success."

Read Paul Dans' resignation email below:

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