Early Trump actions, Project 2025 'have a lot in common,' former chief says

The former leader of Project 2025 says the initial actions from the Trump administration aligns pretty closely with the conservative Heritage Foundation’s vision for the president’s return to the White House.

Paul Dans, who led the project until he resigned as leader in July amid backlash to many of the proposals, told Politico in an interview published Sunday that he’s very pleased with President Trump's agenda so far.

“I’m saying that directionally, they have a lot in common, but so do great minds,” Dans said. “We had hoped, those of us who worked putting together Project 2025, that the next conservative president would seize the day, but Trump is seizing every minute of every hour.” 

Project 2025 was a key point of attack for Democrats on Trump throughout the 2024 presidential campaign, with liberals tying him to the project as many former Trump staffers were involved in crafting it. Trump repeatedly denied any involvement in the project and said he didn’t know much about it. 

The project comprised conservative organizations and Trump allies and featured a 900-page outline on a wide range of policies for the potential second Trump administration. 

An analysis from Time magazine found almost two-thirds of the initial executive orders that Trump issued in his first days back in office at least somewhat mirrored proposals from Project 2025, and reports have noted similarities in scaling back the federal workforce, going after diversity, equity and inclusion programs and moving to ban gender-affirming care for minors, all of which Trump discussed on the campaign trail. 

Dans told Politico that Trump told the truth when he said he wasn’t involved in the project, as it was completed independent of him and for the conservative movement to say what they believe in. 

He said the agenda of Project 2025 goes back beyond Trump, to the foundation of the Progressive Era ushered in by former Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt. 

“The entire artifice of the federal government had been built over the last 100 years in essentially a very anti-democratic manner,” he said. 

Dans said Project 2025 was caught in a “maelstrom of misinformation” as the left decided to go “all in” on attacking it, leading to his resignation. But when asked if the Trump administration was falling short or diverging from his original vision for the project, Dans said “It’s actually way beyond my wildest dreams.”