Paul Dans prepared plans and a massive staffing database to replace thousands of members of the “Deep State” with MAGA loyalists.<a href="[link removed]><img src="[link removed]" alt="" border="0" /></a>

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The Big Story
August 01, 2024 · View in browser <[link removed]>

In today’s newsletter: Going deep on Paul Dans <[link removed]>, who recently resigned as director of Project 2025; how the energy demand from data centers <[link removed]> compares to that of residential customers; and more from our newsroom.

<[link removed]>
The Man Behind Project 2025’s Most Radical Plans <[link removed]>

I first heard about Paul Dans, the former director of Project 2025 <[link removed]>, from people who had grown up with him just outside Baltimore, where I live. They were astonished at the arc this son of a highly esteemed, politically liberal Johns Hopkins University medical professor had followed to become the leader of Project 2025, the effort to prepare for a second Trump administration.

Alec MacGillis <[link removed]>, ProPublica Reporter

I set out to find out more about Dans, who, even as Project 2025 rose in notoriety, managed to remain largely in the shadows — at least until Wednesday when, facing the Trump campaign’s denunciations of the project, he stepped down from his role.

Dans not only directed Project 2025, but he also embodies its central purpose, which is to bring a whole new cohort of people into the government for Trump 2.0. Trump allies believe that his first administration suffered from having too many establishment types who, in cahoots with the rest of the “deep state,” blocked the Trump agenda. Dans, a longtime New York lawyer with no previous experience in government, did not get hired by the administration until mid-2019; he attributes the delay to having been too MAGA for the Republicans doing the hiring.

Dans’ departure this week was a sudden end — or at least a pause — in a remarkable ascent from obscurity. But then again, his resignation was at least partly symbolic: The work of Project 2025 is largely done. It has delivered a toolkit, ready for use, to create a second Trump administration that would be decidedly more MAGA than the first.

Read story <[link removed]>

 
That Stat

 
40%

Portion of total electricity demand data centers accounted for in Grant County, Washington, in 2022. That’s about as much as 190,000 U.S. households, according to utility and state data. The county is headed for a daunting choice in the next six years: violate a state green energy law limiting the use of fossil fuels or risk rolling blackouts in homes, factories and hospitals.

Read the investigation: “Washington Is Giving Tax Breaks to Data Centers That Threaten the State’s Green Energy Push <[link removed]>”

 
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In Los Angeles, Your Chic Vacation Rental May Be a Rent-Controlled Apartment <[link removed]>

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New York Lawmakers Call for Police Commissioner to Be Stripped of Power to Bury Brutality Cases <[link removed]>

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Trump Media Quietly Enters Deal With a Republican Donor Who Could Benefit From a Second Trump Administration <[link removed]>

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