The former head of Project 2025 was pressed by a CNN anchor Monday night over former President Donald Trump's involvement in the GOP playbook to overhaul the federal government.
Paul Dans, former director of Project 2025 who stepped down in July, joined "The Source" with Kaitlan Collins on Monday night and was grilled about the book, which includes replacing government workers with Trump loyalists, eliminating the Department of Education and other extreme proposals.
When asked if he's worried the largely unpopular presidential transition playbook to overhaul the federal government could prove a "liability" for Trump, Dans swatted the notion.
"No, not at all," he said, thanking Collins for having him on her show. "[Former] President Trump's the greatest debater of our time and breaking news is Trump has nothing to do with Project 2025. Sure, a lot of us have worked in the admin and came together, but this started long before he even announced a run for president."
Dans called the playbook a "coming-together of the conservative movement and said it has proved "threatening" to Democrats.
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"Our side has always been prone to infighting," said Dans, noting the project brought together over 100 groups and laid out what he called a "common sense plan."
"Not everyone agrees with what's in that book, but the book's actually only a part of that plan," he said.
Collins pushed back on claims that Trump had little or nothing to do with the playbook, noting Dans was the deputy chief of staff at the office of personnel management — "a pretty significant office," she noted — and six of his former Cabinet secretaries have also worked on it.
Dans clarified that while a lot of folks who came out of the Trump administration worked on the plan, Trump "personally didn't have anything to do with it."
Collins then asked Dans if it bothers him that Trump has called Project 2025 "abysmal" and "ridiculous."
"I don't know what he's referring to in particular with that," said Dans. "Certainly there were some remarks by people at [The Heritage Foundation] that I fully renounce."
Specifically, Dans pointed to remarks about a second American Revolution and "bloodlessness."
"We have to lower the temperature in this country," he said.
Even so, he called the ideas in Project 2025 "pretty solid. "The reality is that what most people think is in Project 2025 is in fact not in it. It's mainly misinformation."
Collins acknowledged that while some Democratic attacks on the plan have been false, such as attacks on Social Security, others are in the plan, including a proposal to revoke access to an FDA-approved and widely used abortion drug as well as a proposal to do away with the inflation reduction act which helped lower prescription drug prices.
When asked if Dans believes any part of Project 2025 would come to fruition, Dans said he hopes so, and repeated that not everyone who contributed to the book supports every proposal in the book.
Dans later said he's been to Mar-a-Lago several times, but said he's only shaken hands with Trump a couple of times.
When pressed about Trump's involvement, Dans insisted the former president hasn't been "personally briefed" by Dans. In fact, he said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, not Trump, was invited to the debut of the book at Heritage's 50th anniversary.
"It's very ironic that it's getting mapped to him," said Dans. "That's fake news."
Watch the clip below or at this link.
