(NewsNation) —The director of the controversial Project 2025 is stepping down from his position at conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation amid escalating criticism of the plan by Trump and his campaign, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Paul Dans, director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project at the organization, informed the staff this week of his decision to resign, the WSJ reported.
The Heritage Foundation did not immediately return a request for comment by NewsNation.
Dans is considered one of the main architects of the plan, “organizing policy and personnel recommendations and training for appointees in the next presidential administration,” according to a bio still listed on the group’s website.
Critics have called the plan extremist, “authoritarian” and even dystopian.
Prior to joining The Heritage Foundation, Dans served in the Trump Administration as chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management as well as the agency’s White House liaison. Trump appointed Dans to serve as Chairman of the National Capital Planning Commission in 2021, according to the group.
The Heritage Foundation wrote the nearly 1,000-page Project 2025 as a blueprint to overhaul the federal government for the next Republican administration.
Trump has previously disavowed the plan, posting on his social media site that he has “no idea” who is behind Project 2025 and knows “nothing” about it. Dozens of people who worked closely with him and helped shape his administration are involved in the plan.
“I disagree with some of the things they’re saying, and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” Trump wrote. “Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”
Project 2025 suggests firing as many as 50,000 federal workers who conservative groups say will impede the president’s agenda.
A so-called top-to-bottom “overhaul” of the Department of Justice would end FBI efforts to stop misinformation under the plan. The Pentagon would “abolish” diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives if Project 2025 is adopted, and service members discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine would be reinstated.
On abortion, Project 2025 calls for restricting the procedure through a limit on mail-order pills and penalizing providers. Other healthcare services and social services like Medicare and Social Security would be scaled back and privatized, and all of the Biden administration’s climate change policies would be reversed through.
