Paul Dans, the former director of the infamous Project 2025, is mounting a brutal primary challenge against establishment Republican Senator Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, setting the stage for an explosive MAGA showdown that could tear the party apart.
The conservative operative, who was “unceremoniously dumped” from Donald Trump’s orbit in 2024 after disagreeing with some of the president’s actions, is now positioning himself as the anti-swamp candidate against Graham, whom he savagely attacked as the “top swamp critter” in Washington.
“We have seen where the swamp is, and the swamp is the United States Senate,” Dans declared to South Carolina’s The Post and Courier, branding the longtime senator a “warmonger” completely disconnected from ordinary South Carolinians.
Graham, who has desperately tried to reinvent himself as a Trump loyalist after years of criticism, secured the former president’s endorsement in March. Trump praised Graham as a “wonderful friend” who won’t let South Carolina down, but the senator’s MAGA credentials remain deeply suspect among the base.
The war hawk has been repeatedly humiliated by Trump supporters, getting brutally booed at the president’s own rallies and election night events. His hawkish foreign policy positions have made him a lightning rod for America First conservatives who oppose endless military interventions.
The contest was deemed a “MAGA civil war” by the Daily Beast.
Trump’s former co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita, now advising Graham, launched a vicious counterattack against Dans, sneering that “like everything Paul Dans starts, this too will end prematurely.”
But Dans isn’t Graham’s only problem. Former South Carolina Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer is also mounting a Trump-aligned primary challenge, creating a three-way battle that could savage the incumbent.
The South Carolina bloodbath mirrors similar GOP civil wars erupting nationwide, including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s bid to unseat Senator John Cornyn, as MAGA forces target establishment Republicans they view as insufficiently loyal to Trump’s America First agenda.