Project 2025 ex-director accuses Trump campaign advisers of ‘malpractice’

The former head of Project 2025, a rightwing blueprint for remaking the US government that was created by many of Donald Trump’s former officials, has urged the former president to replace his two campaign managers if he wants to win November’s presidential election.

Paul Dans, who stepped down as the project’s director in July after Trump dissociated himself from it, turned his fire on Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, blaming the advisers for a series of errors that he claims have jeopardised the Republican nominee’s chances of beating Kamala Harris.

Dans accused them of being guilty of overconfidence and of failing to adequately prepare Trump for the possibility that Harris would replace Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee. That development changed the race, which polls suggested Trump had previously been leading.

Related: Project 2025: rightwing manifesto’s key proposals and how they could affect you

“Trump should be running like Secretariat at the Belmont, but instead it’s a race to the wire,” Dans told the New York Times.

He also accused Trump’s campaign advisers of “malpractice”, and said their misjudgments led to an embarrassing public about-face, in which Trump finally claimed to disown the Project 2025 document.

Rightwing criticism of Trump’s campaign staff has grown in recent weeks as the former president has sought to at least appear to moderate his position on some policy proposals and issues, including reproductive rights.

While there has been little direct criticism of Trump himself, a #FireLaCivita hashtag trended briefly on social media.

Dans, who served for two years in the White House under Trump, spearheaded work at the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank that produced Project 2025. The 922-page tome proposes an array of radical plans to reshape government – such as replacing tens of thousands of career civil servants with Trump loyalists, abolishing the education department and drastically restricting abortion and contraception.

The document has been described as a manifesto for Trump’s presidency, and Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, said in a podcast that the project would herald “a second revolution that would be bloodless if the left allows it to be”.

As criticism grew, Trump eventually responded by claiming to disown the plan, falsely stating he did not know its architects – even though most used to work for him and he gave the keynote address to their annual conference – and calling its suggestions “ridiculous and abysmal”.

LaCivita described the project as “a pain in the ass” at the Republican national convention in Milwaukee.

A New York Times/CNN poll found 75% of American voters had heard of Project 2025, while 63% strongly opposed its contents.

When Dans stepped down in July, LaCivita and Wiles issued a statement strongly denouncing the project and bluntly warning anyone associated with it against trying to advertise their supposed links to Trump.

“Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or in any way,” they said.

“Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign. It will not end well for you.”

Responding on CNN on Tuesday, Dans said: “With apologies, Mark Twain, I’d say the reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.”

Asked if he thought Trump’s campaign managers were doing a good job, he pointedly avoided referring to LaCivita and Wiles, but praised the recent return of Corey Lewandowski, the pugnacious former manager of the 2016 campaign, and the appointment of Robert F Kennedy Jr, who recently suspended his own independent campaign to endorse Trump.

In a statement to the Times, responding to Dans’ comments, Trump said: “Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita are doing a great job. I could not be more happy with them.”