Paul Dans

Paul Dans
Chief of Staff of the Office of Personnel Management
In office
February 2020 – December 1, 2020
PresidentDonald Trump
Preceded byJonathan Blyth
Succeeded byBasil Parker
Personal details
Political partyRepublican
EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technology (BS, MS)
University of Virginia (JD)

Paul Dans is an American lawyer and conservative political operative best known for leading Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's 2025 presidential transition project intended to reshape the United States federal government to reflect right-wing policies.[1][2]

Early life and education

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.[3][4][5] His ancestors' roots are in the Catholic faith.[3]

Dans received a Bachelor of Science with a major in economics and a Master of Science in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[6]

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 practice law in New York City.[6][7]

Career

Law

Following law school, Dans worked at multiple law firms, including LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae and Debevoise & Plimpton, before running a solo law practice for a number of years.[3]

Trump administration

Dans worked as a senior advisor in the Office of Community Planning and Development at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.[8]

Dans then served in the first 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 worked closely with John McEntee to remove longtime public servants from government. Dans was hired without the knowledge of Dale Cabaniss, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, who resigned abruptly in 2020.[8][9][10]

Project 2025

Dans helped to launch Project 2025 in April 2022 and led it until August 2024.[11] Dans described the project as "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".[12]

In 2023, Dans stated that Project 2025 had a "great" relationship with President Donald Trump,[13] despite clashing with the 2024 Trump campaign team.[14]

On July 30, 2024, Dans announced he was stepping down from his position as Director of Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation in the wake of public criticism from President Trump.[15] In a statement, Heritage stated that the decision to part ways was mutual and due to strategic differences, clarifying reports that Dans had been terminated over issues of alleged misconduct.[16]

Family

Paul Dans's twin brother Thomas Emanuel (Tom) Dans is a venture capitalist and was an official in Donald Trump's first administration. In 2025, Tom's organization American Daybreak coordinated controversial trips to Greenland by Donald Trump Jr. and Usha Vance, which were criticized for their promotion of the second Trump administration's Greenland policy.[17][18]

References

  1. ^ Berman, Russell (September 24, 2023). "The Open Plot to Dismantle the Federal Government". The Atlantic. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  2. ^ "Inside the Next Republican Revolution". Politico. September 19, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c MacGillis, Alec (August 1, 2024). "The Man Behind Project 2025's Most Radical Plans". ProPublica. Retrieved August 1, 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.
  4. ^ Dans, P. E. (January 2002). "Peter Emanuel Dans, MD: a conversation with the editor". Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings. 15 (1): 59–69. doi:10.1080/08998280.2002.11927814. PMC 1276336. PMID 16333407.
  5. ^ "Colette Dans, 65, French teacher in Baltimore County public schools". Baltimore Sun. September 30, 2021. Retrieved August 1, 2024.
  6. ^ a b "Paul Dans Named National Capital Planning Commission Chairman". www.ncpc.gov. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  7. ^ "Paul Dans at Republican National Lawyers Association". Republican National Lawyers Association. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  8. ^ a b Lippman, Daniel (March 17, 2020). "OPM chief Dale Cabaniss abruptly resigns". Politico.com.
  9. ^ Rein, Lisa (March 18, 2020). "Federal personnel chief quits abruptly amid coronavirus planning for the workforce of 2.1 million". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  10. ^ Swan, Jonathan (June 14, 2020). "Scoop: Trump's loyalty cop clashes with agency heads". Axios.
  11. ^ McGraw, Meridith; Lippman, Daniel (July 30, 2024). "Head of Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 steps down". Politico.
  12. ^ 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.
  13. ^ Walker, Josephine (July 11, 2024). "Project 2025 Director in Resurfaced Interview: Trump's 'Very Bought In'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  14. ^ Bensinger, Ken (September 9, 2024). "Former Project 2025 Leader Accuses Trump Campaign Advisers of 'Malpractice'". The New York Times. Retrieved July 9, 2025.
  15. ^ Restuccia, Andrew (July 30, 2024). "Head of Project 2025 Steps Down Following Trump Criticism". The Wall Street Journal.
  16. ^ Nolan, Dylan (June 30, 2025). "Project 2025 Architect Mulls Bid For Lindsey Graham's Senate Seat". FITSNews. Retrieved July 9, 2025.
  17. ^ Elías Thorsson (January 10, 2025). "Donald Trump Jr. accused of paying Greenland's homeless to appear as supporters". ArcticToday. Retrieved March 28, 2025.
  18. ^ Elías Thorsson (March 26, 2025). "Obscure U.S. group 'American Daybreak' central to controversial Greenland visit". ArcticToday. Retrieved March 28, 2025.

Further reading

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