Paul Dans

Paul Dans is a Republican political operative and a former member of the Donald Trump Administration. He is currently leading Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's 2025 Presidential Transition Project intended to reshape the U.S. federal government to reflect extreme right-wing policies.

Early life
Dans earned his bachelor's degree in Economics and a master's degree in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Career
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, and later practicing law in New York City.

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

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 4000 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.

In 2023, Dans confirmed that Project 2025 had a "great" relationship with former President Donald Trump.