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.

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”