Heritage: Director of Project 2025 did not resign – he was fired

By Philip Wegmann 
Real Clear Wire

The director of Project 2025, the conservative blueprint for how former President Donald Trump ought to govern if returned to the White House, did not resign from his post this summer as the Heritage Foundation previously announced. Paul Dans was fired, RealClearPolitics is first to report.

Dans joined the initiative with grand ambitions of gathering the vast constellation of disparate conservative groups together around “a deep consensus on issues.” He left persona non grata after a two-year tenure defined by public feuds with the Trump campaign and a concentrated effort by Democrats to make Project 2025 into an election year liability for Republicans.

But political controversy was not the cause of his departure, as was previously reported. Dans was instead fired by Heritage after an investigation found repeated incidents of professional misconduct and mistreatment of colleagues. The relationship has since soured.

The influential conservative think tank initially hoped the split could be amicable, offering Dans a generous severance package as well as a mutual non-disparagement agreement to turn the page. But in a letter to Heritage leadership dated Aug. 13 and reviewed by RCP, legal counsel for Dans requested a lump sum payment of $3.1 million by Aug. 15. The demand was rejected.

Dans often directed his ire at women in particular, according to multiple sources who described a pattern of exhibiting anger that boiled over in July at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

A meeting among Heritage Foundation officials there went off the rails when Dans began berating and swearing at colleagues for what he considered their poor performance. The tense encounter ended when Heritage President Kevin Roberts intervened to warn Dans the personal attacks were unacceptable. “He was being so demeaning,” said a source present for the meeting. “It was constant, and he refused to listen.”

An investigation followed, and Dans’ tenure was terminated on July 25. The director of Heritage human resources, Kelly Adams, confirmed that timeline to RCP and said in a statement that the organization “deeply values all of our staff, and is committed in both practice and principle to maintaining a positive work environment where abusive or demeaning behavior is not welcome.” 

Dans strongly rejected that characterization. “I was made a scapegoat by The Heritage Foundation to cover up for their own mishandling of the public relations fiasco over Project 2025,” he said in an email to RCP. “The statements that you have provided to me are false and it appears that the Heritage Foundation continues to trash my good name and professional reputation for their benefit.”

Adams cited the reason for Dans’ termination as “professional misconduct and mistreatment of colleagues.” At the time, however, Roberts publicly praised Dans.

“We are extremely grateful for his and everyone’s work on Project 2025 and dedication to saving America,” the Heritage president said at the time. “Our collective efforts to build a personnel apparatus for policymakers of all levels – federal, state, and local – will continue.”

Heritage had pulled out all the stops for the GOP convention, renting out a downtown bar and hosting “a policy fest” headlined by the likes of Tucker Carlson and Utah Sen. Mike Lee. The fingerprints of the conservative behemoth were heavy, including at the Milwaukee Airport where banners and televisions blared “Heritage Welcomes You to the RNC Convention.” They wanted attention, and suddenly they got it: Project 2025 was searched online more than Taylor Swift.

President Biden and his campaign team were behind the earned-media boon. Biden’s account tweeted the week before the GOP convention, “Google Project 2025.” It became a talking point among Democrats who point to the Heritage initiative as evidence of Republican ambitions for remaking the federal government. And while it is not unusual for Washington Beltway think tanks to draft policies that they hope will become law, the white papers served as partisan kindling as the left highlighted Heritage proposals, such as new federal abortion restrictions.

“Can you believe they put that thing in writing?” Vice President Kamala Harris often says of Project 2025 on the campaign trail. For his part, the Republican nominee has repeatedly insisted he has never read the 900-page document. The Trump campaign repeatedly urged Heritage to turn down the volume on Project 2025, and senior Trump advisor Chris LaCivita described the initiative as a “pain in the ass.”

Heritage employees report that Dans was “rattled” by the pressure and reacted by calling colleagues at all hours to complain about looming controversies both real and imagined. Some began to believe that the policy director, who served briefly as chief of staff at the Office of Personnel and Management under Trump, was out of his depth. Meanwhile, he was seeking perks that rubbed his colleagues the wrong way, such as asking to move his office to the top floor of the Heritage building and for prime speaking slots at events. One Heritage official described Dans as viewing himself as “the lord of his own fiefdom.”

It was not uncommon for employees to leave meetings with Dans needing to “compose themselves” and complaining to human resources of what they described as “toxic and abusive behavior.” Sources with direct knowledge say Dans was repeatedly warned about his conduct during performance reviews. Internally, the confrontation at the GOP convention was considered “the last straw.”

Former colleagues report that Dans “always struggled to maintain collegiality,” behavior that made it difficult for Heritage to navigate the political storms that picked up in frequency as the election neared.

Dans has since become a vocal critic of both Heritage and the Trump campaign. In an interview with the New York Times, he criticized senior Trump advisors Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, saying that “Trump should be running like Secretariat at the Belmont, but instead it’s a race to the wire.” He bristled at criticism from the GOP nominee during a CNN interview this month and seemed to blame Kevin Roberts for the diminished reputation of the venture.

“There were some remarks by people at Heritage that I would fully renounce,” Dans told CNN referring to an interview from June in which the think tank president said the country was “in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” As far as the ideas in the project itself though, Dans continued, “they are pretty solid.”

Adams, head of human resources at Heritage, said that public criticism made the initial plans for an amicable split with Dans untenable. “We are deeply disappointed that Mr. Dans is using the liberal media to attack Heritage’s decision to terminate him, thereby making the rationale behind his dismissal public,” she said. “We will not allow him to falsely attack Heritage, its people, without defending the difficult decision to terminate Paul’s employment based on facts. We will continue to defend our staff and our institution from false narratives and disgruntled former employees.”

Asked about his departure from Heritage, which the Trump campaign welcomed with a statement warning outside groups not to “misrepresent their influence with President Trump” or “it will not end well for you,” Dans reiterated to CNN that the former president and Project 2025 are not directly affiliated.

“With apologies to Mark Twain,” Dans told that network, “I’d say the reports about my demise have been greatly exaggerated.”

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