Project 2025 director steps down amid backlash from Trump

the director of project 2025 has stepped down after facing criticism from both Democrats and the Trump campaign. Paul Danz helmed the right wing policy Blueprint and Personnel Project, which was backed by the conservative Heritage Fou and if it was enacted, it would dramatically reshape how the federal government opera At least 140 former Trump administration officials. Officials contributed to this pr and many of its proposals overlap with Trump's plans for a second term. But the former president has both criticized and distanced himself from it. I don't know what the hell it is It's project 45. He's involved in project, and then they read some of the t and they are extreme. They're seriously extreme, but I don't know anything about I don't want to know anything ab Now, I should note the Trump campaign appeared to cheer Paul Danza's departure tonight, even though he is an alum of the Trump administration who served in the OPM office, saying in a quote, its demise would be greatly welc and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their inf with President Trump and his cam It will not end well for you. I should note Paul Dance was forced to join me on this show tonight, and we hope that he will soon. But he unfortunately canceled our interview within the last hour. Here's dance, in his own words, about the project he'd been working on for years. Our book is is a set of proposals by conservative organizations. Donald Trump and his campaign al set the agenda. These are ideas to help them. And they'll pick and choose. But you know, a lot of the mischaracterization now and false attributions of th to project 2025. It's kind of what Scott saying. They have nothing else to run on Joining us now is Washington Pos national political reporter Isaac Cornstalk, who has been following project 2 and its relationship with the Trump campaign closely and, Isaac, in your reporting tonight, you talk about how it became thi rallying cry for for Democrats, but also was a nuisance for the Republican nominee, Dona as he is trying to escape the public s and repair relations with Trump's campaign. Can you just lay out a breakdown for people who have heard about project 2025, but also just heard what Trump s on what this relationship and what project 2025 was actual Project 2025 started before Trum was the nominee, before it was clear that he was going to be the nomi And the idea was for the heritage Foundation to get together a whole bunch of tanks in the conservative moveme and and present a consensus view for an agency by agency policy b for the next administration, whoever that Republican presiden was going to be. Now, obviously, and there were actually some con that the president of the Herita Foundation was too close to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for a while, and that that could be an issue. But obviously, as it became clear that Trump was going to be the n and so many of the contributors to this, to this, to this projec were alumni of the Trump White House and the Trump admini and would naturally be the kinds of people who Trump would look to, to staff the next administration if he does win. And so that's why when, you know, the Trump campaign has not been super spec about the details of what he would implement in the second term, naturally, a lot of people looke at his staff, his former staff and the ideas that were being pr to kind of fill in those blanks and get a clearer sense of of what that would look like. And then when the campaign saw t you know, they didn't want to own the things that were ended up being controv But it's remarkable because a lot of this was, as you noted, done by people who worked for Trump. A lot of the proposals, when you look at them, are things that the people in Tr campaign have actually proposed and suggested would happen if he did win a second term. So I think it's remarkable to see such a conservative group that Trump has praised the leader of the Heritage Found and to now see his campaign chee you know, the the departure of the leader of this of this specific project. Well, right. I mean, look, a lot of people at heritage are involved in project 2025. Loved the notoriety that it was They loved to see it being criticized on CNN and M They loved that they were DNC mobile billboard trucks outside the office. But then when it started angerin and they started getting backlas from Trump about it, that made them really concerned. And so some of what is going on here is trying to have a reset, trying to make smooth this over with the campaign, try to get out of the spotlight, you know, offer up Paul Danz as a little bit of a sacrificial And, you know, maybe we can just try to smooth this over and publicly. The campaign is happy to take th W if it means that project 2025 stops causing political problems for them. The thing is, I don't expect the Democrats to stop talking about it anytime As a great point there. Thank you for joining tonight. Thanks. And have a panel of political ex here to also talk about this. Bill de Blasio is a former New York City David Pulley is a Republican str who has worked on five Republica presidential campaigns and most recently for Ron DeSant and also the veteran journalist Gretchen Carlson. Great to have you all here tonig David, I'll start with you. Since given what I was just laying out initially, you know, they were worried that this is too close to DeSant But did you ever think you'd see the where the Republican presumptive Republican nominees campaign is kind of decrying thi and trying to say, you know, we have nothing to do with this, even though the guy who was in charge of it worked for Trump. Yes. I mean, look what happened at the RNC convention recently. I mean, we saw the campaign essentially eliminate most specific policy platforms in our own convention. And so, look, it's not uncommon. And anybody that's worked in politics in Washington knows think tanks both on the left and on the right like to drive white papers constantly and try to influence whether it's the legislative pro the executive process, and sometimes the campaign proce They're just not very good at it And so in some cases, they're great ideas and suggesti that campaigns might test in and push out and take on their o In other instances, they're extreme ideas that campaigns look at and go, no way in hell we're taking that And I think that's what you're seeing here. Well, and Tom Homan, who was Trump's ice chief and contributed to thi he spoke at that Republican conv He was on stage. And this is something that Democrats have used. Mr. mayor, and I want you to listen to what Vice President Harris said just tonight when she was on this stage in Atlanta. Just look at his project 2025 agenda. I take it you've seen it. Project 2025 is a plan to weaken the middle class. Be clear. Should we still expect to see he using that talking point, you think even despite Paul Danza's departure? Yeah, 10 Look, one over 100 former Trump administration officials help to write it. And it mirrors so much of what Trump has said over the years. The die is cast. This is going to stick to Donald for the rest of this election. And I'll tell you something. We should be worried about it, not just because of the specific policy planks, which are clearly extreme. But I'll tell you, as someone who had to start a government city hall in New Yo you take that policy platform. It's actually where you begin. So this is not I agree with you. Some pieces get thrown out, but I want people to be really c If only one force has created a and given you those details, a lot of energy gravitates that way when a new administration begins And that's why this should be ta very, very seriously. Well, and there's no real transition happening right now for the Trump campaign planning if he does win. So this actually probably would have been something they used a lot of, at least in certain bones and structure of it. But when you look at the part of the reason we wanted to talk to about this tonight is, is he helmed all of this, obviously with a lot of help. But there are plans to to ban pornography, reverse federal appeal of mifepristone, undo the FDA's approval of that essentially also eliminate the federal agenc that oversees the National Weather Service. I mean, there are these proposal that a lot of these conservative wanted to actually see enacted, and certainly could still happen if Trump won. I mean, I think it was a total shock to many conservatives that Donal suddenly disavowed himself from By the way, I think getting rid of Paul Down does nothing. The Democrats will continue to talk about this because this is effectively what Donald Trump will do potent if he wins reelection. But what I really want to get the point across is that this is all about indepe and quite possibly, the Trump campaign finally realized that they had to reach out to independents. And this is not a way to do it. 900 pages of ultra conservatism. So independents decide every presidential election. He may have figured out that he has to try and get them in some shape or form. And that's a pretty terse statem coming from the Trump campaign t that they want nothing to do wit Do you see it as as how Isaac just laid it out that this person who helmed this was, was seen as a sacrificial lamb, essential Yeah, but I don't think it's going to one thing. I mean, the Democrats are going to still tick or still stick this project to Donald Trump.