Paul Dans

Paul Dans
EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technology (BA, MCP)
University of Virginia (JD)
Political partyRepublican

Paul Dans led Project 2025,[1][2] the Heritage Foundation's 2025 presidential transition project intended to reshape the U.S. federal government to reflect right-wing policies, until his resignation on July 30, 2024.[3]

Early life and education

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Dans' father was a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and his mother had worked for National Institutes of Health and then became a schoolteacher. Dans has three siblings.[4][5][6]

Dans earned his bachelor's degree in economics and a master's degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[7]

Dans worked at architecture and planning firms before attending law school at the University of Virginia, where he was president of the law school's Federalist Society chapter. He later practiced law in New York City.[7][8]

Career

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Dans worked at law firms and ran a solo private practice for a number of years after law school.[9]

Trump administration

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Dans worked as a senior advisor in the Office of Community Planning and Development at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.[10]

Dans then served in the Trump administration as chief of staff at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management where he managed the federal agency in charge of human resources policy for the more than two million federal workers. He also served as the Office of Personnel Management's White House liaison and worked with the White House Office of Presidential Personnel to staff the approximately 4,000 presidential appointees across the federal government. Dans was seen as a Trump loyalist and worked closely with John McEntee to remove longtime public servants from government who did not demonstrate sufficient loyalty to Trump. Dans was hired without the knowledge of Dale Cabaniss, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, who resigned abruptly in 2020.[10][11][12]

Project 2025

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Dans helped to launch the project in April of 2022 and led it until August of 2024.[13] Dans described Project 2025 was "systematically preparing to march into office and bring a new army [of] aligned, trained, and essentially weaponized conservatives ready to do battle against the deep state".[14]

In 2023, Dans stated that Project 2025 had a "great" relationship with former President Donald Trump.[15]

On July 30, 2024, Dans announed he was stepping down from his position as director of Project 2025 the following month.[16]

Future

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Donald Devine (and Paul Dans) expect him to play a role if there is another Trump administration.[17]

References

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  1. ^ "Inside the Next Republican Revolution". Politico. September 19, 2023.
  2. ^ Berman, Russell (2023-09-24). "The Open Plot to Dismantle the Federal Government". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2024-07-16.
  3. ^ Restuccia, Andrew (July 30, 2024). "Head of Project 2025 Steps Down Following Trump Criticism". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved July 30, 2024.
  4. ^ Alec MacGillis (1 August 2024). "The Man Behind Project 2025's Most Radical Plans". ProPublica. Retrieved 1 August 2024. Paul Dans was raised, in the 1970s and '80s, in a family that embodied liberal idealism. Peter Dans was a professor of medicine who had enlisted in the Public Health Service; started an STD clinic and a migrant health clinic while on faculty at the University of Colorado; and served in the office of Sen. Gaylord Nelson, the Wisconsin Democrat who founded Earth Day. Paul's mom, Colette Lizotte, was a French teacher who had previously worked as a chemist at the National Institutes of Health.
  5. ^ "Peter Emanuel Dans, MD: a conversation with the editor". PubMed Central (PMC). January 2002. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  6. ^ "Colette Dans, 65, French teacher in Baltimore County public schools". Baltimore Sun. 30 September 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Paul Dans Named National Capital Planning Commission Chairman". www.ncpc.gov. Retrieved 2024-07-16.
  8. ^ "Paul Dans at Republican National Lawyers Association". Republican National Lawyers Association. Retrieved 2024-07-16.
  9. ^ MacGillis, Alec (2024-08-01). "The Man Behind Project 2025's Most Radical Plans". ProPublica. Retrieved 2024-08-14.
  10. ^ a b Lippman, Daniel (March 17, 2020). "OPM chief Dale Cabaniss abruptly resigns". Politico.com.
  11. ^ Rein, Lisa (2020-03-18). "Federal personnel chief quits abruptly amid coronavirus planning for the workforce of 2.1 million". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2024-07-16.
  12. ^ Swan, Jonathan (June 14, 2020). "Scoop: Trump's loyalty cop clashes with agency heads".
  13. ^ McGraw, Meridith; Lippman, Daniel (July 30, 2024). "Head of Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 steps down". Politico.
  14. ^ Gira Grant, Melissa (January 4, 2024). "The Right Is Winning Its War on Schools". The New Republic. Archived from the original on January 13, 2024. Retrieved January 13, 2024. systematically preparing to march into office and bring a new army, [of] aligned, trained, and essentially weaponized conservatives ready to do battle against the deep state.
  15. ^ Walker, Josephine (2024-07-11). "Project 2025 Director in Resurfaced Interview: Trump's 'Very Bought In'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2024-07-16.
  16. ^ Restuccia, Andrew (July 30, 2024). "Head of Project 2025 Steps Down Following Trump Criticism". The Wall Street Journal.
  17. ^ MacGillis, Alec (2024-08-01). "The Man Behind Project 2025's Most Radical Plans". ProPublica. Retrieved 2024-08-14. Will Dans himself be among that number? As Devine sees it, Dans' current defenestration is political, and temporary. 'Paul is too bright and intelligent not to,' he said. 'They'll pick him up somewhere.'...Dans still sees himself as a field general for a new class of Trump bureaucrats, one that will come to power if Trump wins, whether the effort is called Project 2025 or not.

Further reading

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