I’ve kept quiet about the turmoil at my former employer, The Heritage Foundation. But I do want to make one important point: Heritage is not going anywhere.
Yes, some scholars have departed for other organizations, many of them to Advancing American Freedom, Mike Pence’s think tank. A few, such as Cully Stimson, have gone away and come back again as the controversy cools and the organization returns to its regular work. And a lot of work is ongoing there.
Remember how the left howled about Project 2025 throughout the campaign? It spelled out all the horrible things Trump would do if elected.
Close the border. Deport the criminals. Close the Department of Education. Dramatically reform the entire public health edifice of the federal government. Deregulate farming, energy exploration and other key industries so those who operate them can flourish.
Cut taxes. End trans nonsense. Shutter PBS/NPR, USAID, VOA and any number of other purveyors of taxpayer-funded leftist schlock. Re-establish order in our hemisphere. Limit the influence of China on our schools and labs. Strengthen courts and reform civil service.
All conservative goals for more than a generation. And all spelled out with a handy how-to in Project 2025, which we Heritage alums know as Mandate for Leadership – the compendium of policy proposals the scholars put together for every incoming president, regardless of party.
And, as the Democrats would point out, many have been carried out by the Trump administration, and it is a symbol of Heritage’s enormous influence that the administration frequently consults the playbook for action items on areas of government they wish to address.
More than any other think tank, Heritage has sought to explain the particular brand of conservatism represented by President Trump.
Many conservatives reflexively rejected Trump’s support for tariffs. We’d been taught from our cradles that tariffs were bad and drove up costs for Americans.
But Heritage sought to understand why the warnings of economic collapse have not materialized and how tariffs should be viewed in the current context. Same with foreign policy, where Heritage has stuck to its roots and endorsed a vigorous defense strategy.
Heritage is uniquely positioned for this because it has sought to explain rather than reject major parts of the Trump agenda in a way few other organizations have. It is close enough to the administration to have influence and objective enough to suggest policy it has modeled and can credibly put forward..
This year, Heritage will provide a type of scholarship no other organization can at this scale. Its America 250 project will showcase the wisdom of the founders and feature the documents that made possible the freedom we enjoy.
It will be history as conservatives would want it presented and will have the reach and impact that only Heritage can bring.
Far from backing down from the future, Heritage is asking the questions that should drive conservative policy development for the next generation:
What does it mean to be a flourishing American family?
What does it mean to honor the dignity of work and secure the future of free enterprise?
What does it mean to have true national security?
What does it mean to be an American citizen?
It just released a new research project on the American family. The left declared that all the ideas are bad, whatever they are – just as it did Project 2025.
Its work on the dignity of work and the future of free enterprise are sure to spur vigorous debate not only among left and right but among the various sections of the right – another role Heritage has long played in the movement.
So do not write off the Heritage Foundation. Do not count it out. Do not make the mistake of thinking it has marginalized itself to the point it no longer will be a force in the American debate.
There is too much history there, too much commitment to American principles, too much eagerness to develop the next generation of policy proposals as Trump enacts much of its current agenda. Heritage is still conservatism, and conservatism is still Heritage. And nothing that has happened in the last year changes that.