HERITAGE 4 25

ESTB 4 25 SEE HERITAGE 2 ACTION

NO MERRI

SEE PJT 2025 ROBERTS ALEC

SEE PJT 2025 KILLS CLIMATE SCIENCE SENSORS NOAA

KILLED ESG ~ CLIMATE LAWSUITS W/ AFP ALEC, KOCH, TPPF ...

FUENTES TUCKER SCHISM ANTI-SEM

SEE ANTI-COMMIE 10 25 NO KINGS

MOORE STEIN AWARD

SEE MISO 4 YENOR

brain drain florida acad suppress DEI

---

AN 7 26

The Heritage Foundation has long been one of the key institutions in conservative politics, helping to shape the policies of Republican presidents dating back to Ronald Reagan. But now, insiders say it is breaking apart due to an internal struggle that has also gripped the wider Republican Party in general: “how to harness the energy unleashed by Trumpism without being completely overrun by its conspiracy- and nativist-minded elements, particularly among the rising generation that has known little else.”

According to a new report from the New York Times, while the Heritage Foundation has been “long accustomed to placing its experts in key positions in Republican administrations, as it did in Trump’s first term,” once he returned to office, Heritage was “pushed to the side” regardless of the major role its notorious Project 2025 played in the 2024 election debate.

“As it tried to work its way back into the center of power, the foundation was consumed by a vicious in-house conflict,” explains the Times. “An old guard of establishment experts saw themselves swamped by an influx of more radical, often younger conservatives eager to remake the institution for the post-Trump right in their image: terminally online, ruthless in fighting the culture wars and vehement in rejecting the dogmas of postwar conservatism.”

According to the Times, a key breaking point came after Heritage president Kevin Roberts refused to back down from his support for Tucker Carlson, who had recently drawn accusations of antisemitism for hosting far-right white nationalist Nick Fuentes on his podcast. Roberts went on to argue the need to bring them into a conservative coalition, but many longtime Heritage employees disagreed, saying that “the people they usually collaborated with in congressional offices, circuit courts, foreign embassies and other institutions no longer wanted to be publicly associated with Heritage and what they perceived as its fidelity to Carlson.”

This incident prompted dozens of staff members to quit, defecting to Mike Pence’s new think tank, Advancing American Freedom, which is geared toward more traditional Republicans. “It’s good that they’re gone,” declared Roberts.

Around this time, there was a wave of firings and other resignations across the organizations, prompting some employees to call it the “Heritage Hunger Games" as their colleagues disappeared. Paranoia rose as staff began to suspect their devices were being monitored. One former senior analyst told the Times that the exodus was driven by “this movement that’s been brewing on the right,” that had “crept into a variety of mainstream conservative institutions and taken over.” The analyst declared that “it was planned, and it was a coup.”

By late 2025, most of the Heritage old guard had been replaced by Roberts’ hirees, who brought explicitly MAGA bona fides and often dubious pasts.

For example, “Mario Enzler, who served in the Vatican’s Swiss Guard, joined Heritage as a senior adviser. According to The Houston Chronicle, Enzler resigned from his previous position at the University of St. Thomas, a private Catholic school in Houston, amid allegations that the Italian university where Enzler claimed to have earned his Ph.D. did not offer Ph.D.s, and that the institution where he supposedly earned his bachelor’s degree was actually a high school.” Another recent top recruit was a former DOJ official who had been indicted for his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election. Others openly promote racism, misogyny, and Holocaust denialism.

According to the Times, “Many of the staff members who left Heritage quit because they were exasperated by what they saw as the institution’s failure to firmly distance itself from extremists and trolls. As the former senior analyst put it…these groups ‘always existed out there, but they never seized main institutions before. That’s what’s new.’”

While MAGA conservatives like Roberts say they’re glad the more traditional conservatives have left Heritage, it turns out that the feeling is mutual.

“Kevin Roberts says (referring to me & my colleagues who left Heritage to join Advancing American Freedom) that he’s glad we’re gone,” posted former Heritage Vice President John Malcolm. “I couldn’t agree more. Although there are some great people who are still there, we are glad we’re gone too.”

-=-=-=

MMA

July 9, 2026, edition of The Tenpenny Files, streamed on Rumble

EMMA WATERS (HERITAGE FOUNDATION SENIOR POLICY ANALYST): In the course of my research on national and international surrogacy, I came across a few academic reports that noted that cross-border surrogacy — where a foreign national comes to another country to access their surrogates, their agencies, and their health services — was growing in popularity. And in fact, the biggest area that we were seeing grow was actually Chinese nationals from mainland China coming to the United States to rent the womb of American women. And it noted that one of the key drivers or motivations for this was birthright citizenship because, when that child was born, they would gain and maintain the full rights of U.S. citizenship — even though their parents were foreign nationals, and even though that child would actually be raised fully abroad. And when I read that, I thought, oh my goodness. We have a massive case of immigration fraud, national security risk, and a violation of the well-being of children and the women serving as surrogates.

...

SHERRI TENPENNY (HOST): What sort of national security implications does this sort of process add? And what does this — why did the Supreme Court support this?

WATERS: Such a great question. So, speaking to the national security risks of birth tourism, and particularly of surrogacy birth tourism — because the child is simply being born here and being raised abroad, you have cases where there are thousands, even hundreds of thousands of individuals, who have full U.S. citizenship, and in the eyes of the law would be viewed as a natural-born citizen like you and I, who were born and raised here, and yet are being raised in a foreign country, predominantly China, who has a vested interest in undermining and defeating the United States.

We're in a cold war with China. And so you have these children who are being raised culturally, ethnically, geographically in China, who then have all access to sensitive research jobs in government positions or research positions. These children, when they turn 21, can actually apply for a visa to sponsor their extended family to becoming citizens. And so there are cases of surrogacy agencies openly advertising commercial surrogacy as a cheaper option than an EB-5 visa, which would be the proper immigration steps you should take. So sidestep immigration laws in the United States by citizenship through surrogacy.

But you also have to keep in mind that when that surrogate-born child — even though they're ethnically, geographically, and culturally raised in China — turns 35, he could run for president.

TENPENNY: Oh my goodness.

WATERS: He could hold office. He has — there are no restrictions on what these surrogate-born children could or couldn't do because they are full citizens, regardless of the fact that they are not raised here. They don't love America. They don't view America as their home. Right? They're not patriotic in any sense.

And so it's a massive national security risk because now the United States doesn't know who these children are. We have no idea at what point do they start reemigrating. And there are various reports on this where some will say, well, we know the CCP does have a vested interest. Others would say the CCP doesn't have a vested interest. But what we do know regardless is that the Communist Party of China will take any opportunity to subvert the United States. And if they have thousands or hundreds of thousands of young men and women growing up with full U.S. citizenship, I think that it is very likely they will use that to the best of their advantage to undermine the United States in coming years, whether that's stealing research, stealing intelligence, or running for office or secretive or select positions because of that.

Trump divide among American conservative professors - PMC

...

There are interesting contrasts in clusters of affiliations. The Trumpists tend to cluster around a few think tanks. There are 35 think tanks with 2 or more Trumpists, 19 with 4 or more, and 5 with 8 or more. The clustering tends to occur around ideologically oriented right-wing centers, such as the Claremont Institute (16), the Heritage Foundation (9), the Federalist Society (8), the Heartland Institute (8), the Independent institute (12), the League of the South (5), and the Abbeville Institute (4) (see Table 1) .30

---

cmd

The Heritage Foundation had Andy Ngo, a prominent propagandist for fascists, give a keynote speech about antifascists in 2019.

[### White House Plan Calls for NOAA Research Programs ...

The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com › noaa-research-budget-cuts](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/climate/noaa-research-budget-cuts.html)

Apr 13, 2025 — ... the preponderance of its climate-change research should be disbanded.” Advertisement. SKIP ADVERTISEMENT. “It would take the U.S. back to the ...Read more

NO LNX

White House Plan Calls for NOAA Research Programs to Be Dismantled

A Trump administration budget proposal would essentially eliminate one of the world’s foremost Earth sciences research operations.

By Austyn Gaffney

Published April 11, 2025

Updated April 13, 2025

See more of our coverage in your search results.

Trump administration officials are recommending the elimination of the scientific research division at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to internal documents obtained by The New York Times and several people with knowledge of the situation.

The proposal from the Office of Management and Budget would abolish the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research office at NOAA, one of the world’s premiere Earth sciences research centers.

A budget allocation of just over $170 million, down from about $485 million in 2024, would hobble science as varied as early warning systems for natural disasters, science education for students in kindergarten through high school, and the study of the Arctic, where temperatures have increased nearly four times as fast as the rest of the planet over the past four decades.

“At this funding level, O.A.R. is eliminated as a line office,” the proposal states.

Programs that retained funding, including research into tornado warnings and ocean acidification, would be relocated to the National Weather Service and National Ocean Service offices.

The outline for the 2026 budget passback, which would need to be approved by Congress, suggests “significant reductions to education, grants, research, and climate-related programs within NOAA” and comes after the dismantling of other agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the United States Agency for International Development, and the removal of mentions of climate change from federal websites.

Under the proposal, the total budget for the Commerce Department would be nearly $7.7 billion, a reduction of more than $2.5 billion from 2025 levels. According to the document, the budget would refocus on activities more in line with the Trump administration’s agenda, including enforcing trade laws and collecting scientific observations like ocean and weather data to support forecasting.

“This Administration’s hostility toward research and rejection of climate science will have the consequence of eviscerating the weather forecasting capabilities that this plan claims to preserve,” Representative Zoe Lofgren, the senior Democrat on the House Sciences Committee, said in an emailed statement.

NOAA, which takes up more than half of the Commerce Department budget, would receive just over $4.4 billion, a reduction of $1.6 billion from 2025.

“It’s not surprising, but it’s very disturbing,” said Rick Spinrad, who led NOAA under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

That includes reducing the budget for the National Marine Fisheries Service by one-third. The office would be split from NOAA and moved to the Interior Department’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Grants that fund species recovery and habitat conservation would be eliminated.

Funding for National Ocean Service, a branch of NOAA, would be cut in half. Programs like the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science, an office within the ocean service that studies corals, pollution, and the effect of climate change and sea-level rise on coastal communities, would not be funded.

The National Centers for Environmental Information, which archives climate data, would lose a quarter of its funding.

The proposal would also alter NOAA’s satellite and space programs.

It would gut the Office of Space Commerce and relocate the Space Weather Prediction Center to the Department of Homeland Security. A program called the Traffic Coordination System for Space that was set to take over the monitoring of satellite traffic from the Department of Defense, a kind of traffic police for outer space, would also lose funding. The passback suggests having such work done by the private sector.

The satellite program that provides data for weather forecasting and modeling would also be downsized. The longstanding relationship that helps NOAA acquire satellites through NASA would also be terminated.

Dr. Spinrad said the likelihood that this budget, as proposed by the White House, would pass Congress was low. “I don’t think it will withstand congressional scrutiny.”

The passback is part of balancing the federal budget, according to the document, which includes “eliminating the federal government’s support of woke ideology.”

Project 2025, a document that has been used as a blueprint for an overhaul of the federal government under the Trump administration, included a goal to break up NOAA and downsize its research arm.

“It begs the question, is the Trump Administration intentionally breaking our weather forecasting capabilities as an excuse to carry out the dangerous Project 2025 proposal to privatize the Weather Service?” Ms. Lofgren said in a statement.

Project 2025, which was published by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative policy research organization, called NOAA Research “the source of much of NOAA’s climate alarmism” and said “the preponderance of its climate-change research should be disbanded.”

“It would take the U.S. back to the 1950s in technical and scientific skill,” said Craig McLean, chief scientist at NOAA under both the first Trump presidency and President Biden, of the proposed budget.

Alexandra McCandless, an OMB spokesperson, said “No final funding decisions have been made.”

The agency has until noon on April 15 to appeal the proposal. And it has until April 24 to submit plans for many of the overhauls the passback suggests, even before the proposal has been addressed by Congress.

On Thursday, probationary government employees who had been fired in February, and then reinstated by a judge, received an email from the Department of Commerce firing them again after the decision was reversed by a higher court. A so-called reduction in force plan could slash an additional 20 percent of its work force in the coming weeks.

Austyn Gaffney is a reporter covering climate and a member of the 2024-25 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.

A version of this article appears in print on April 13, 2025, Section A, Page 25 of the New York edition with the headline: Plan Calls for End to NOAA’s Research. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Share full article

---

[### White House outlines plan to gut NOAA, smother climate ...

E&E News by POLITICO

https://www.eenews.net › Articles](https://www.eenews.net/articles/white-house-outlines-plan-to-gut-noaa-smother-climate-research/)

Apr 11, 2025 — ... the “preponderance of its climate-change research should be disbanded.” The OMB document outlines a plan to break up NOAA's space weather ...Read more

---

SEE LIBEL

5 13? 26 good YT dn

claR 180 AFTER BAD PRESS, JOINED BY ---

FEDSOC HERIT CLAREMONSTERS

[

19:33](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71ex9pAe248)

Support our work: https://democracynow.org/donate/sm-desc-yt The new book Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign ...

YouTube · Democracy Now! · Mar 20, 2025

---

AN 5 26

Veteran diplomats and Democratic lawmakers are raising the alarm about a private conservative group they accuse of spreading “Trumpian ideas” throughout the State Department. According to reporting by the New York Times, the Ben Franklin Fellowship has been criticized for its invitation-only mission to “identify and recruit diplomats based on ideology.”

While the group claims to be nonpartisan, its founders and members explicitly “aim to promote conservative policy ideas and combat pro-diversity policies.” It regularly posts “pro-Trump” content on its website and works in tandem with Republican officials.

Said the Times, “Critics have likened the fellowship to a secret society that is trying to seed Trumpian ideas throughout the department by helping the office of Secretary of State Marco Rubio promote career diplomats who exhibit conservative ideology — including many of the group’s members.” This is a major break from tradition, as “unlike political appointees, career diplomats have traditionally embraced a culture of nonpartisanship.”

Rubio has been accused of “weakening and demoralizing” the department by firing its most experienced diplomats and experts while appointing and promoting those aligned with President Donald Trump, including many Ben Franklin fellows. While some veteran diplomats who spoke with the Times agreed that the department could use improvement, “they insist the changes under Mr. Rubio have gone too far.” On Tuesday, for example, alarm was raised after the State Department fired over 200 Foreign Service officers.

All of this, say critics, is part of Trump’s mission to rid the agency and government of a “woke” mindset. The Ben Franklin Fellowship’s overwhelmingly white, male membership speaks to that goal, and since it has worked its way into the agency, current and former diplomats have “denounced a new State Department video recruiting campaign with imagery that almost exclusively features white men. It includes many black-and-white photographs of early- and mid-20th century workers, recalling an era when the diplomatic corps was mockingly known for being ‘pale, male and Yale.’”

According to State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott, “We have one fundamental goal: to implement President Trump’s America First foreign policy.”

As the Times notes, “As a 501(c)3 nonprofit group, the group is not required to disclose its funding sources publicly. It was the recipient last year of a financial ‘innovation prize’ from the Heritage Foundation, which hailed it for ‘rejecting ideological conformity’ and ‘producing a new generation of diplomats committed to an America First vision.’”

:{:{On Monday, Representative Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY), who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, sent Rubio a letter demanding “immediate clarification” of the group’s role in the department. “The letter noted that at least 25 of the group’s members, known as fellows, hold senior State Department jobs. }:

The highest ranking fellow in the agency is Christopher Landau, the deputy secretary of state.” Another, Lew Olowski, who previously served as general counsel for Tucker Carlson’s The Daily Caller News Foundation and has inveighed against career diplomats who testified during Trump’s first impeachment, “is now the top official in the office of foreign missions, which oversees U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide.”}:

According to John R. Bass, a career diplomat and three-time ambassador who retired last year after serving in two under secretary roles, the Ben Franklin Fellowship is “the opposite of a meritocracy,” and “its selection process is nontransparent, its application process is nontransparent, its funding is nontransparent.”

Eric Rubin, another retired diplomat with over 40 years of experience, including as the head of the American Foreign Service Association, recently wrote that the fellowship “functions as the equivalent of a Communist Party cell in Soviet government ministries.”

---

AN 5 26

According to State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott, “We have one fundamental goal: to implement President Trump’s America First foreign policy.”

---

2023 was the busiest year in the anti-ESG (environmental, social, and governance investing) trend in the states, with 26 of the 48 total anti-ESG laws passed that year in 31 states. AFP, along with other heavily Koch-funded groups like the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), the Heritage Foundation, and the American Legislative Exchange Council, led a state and federal crusade against “ESG” risk assessments in investing as a means of shielding the fossil fuel industry from accountability for the investment risks posed by climate change and pollution.

---

RWW

02/20/2026

Kyle Mantyla

Lawrence Hurley @ NBC News: Supreme Court strikes down most of Trump's tariffs in a major blow to the president

The decision does not affect all of Trump's tariffs but invalidates those implemented using an emergency law.

Kathryn Wilkens @ Mediaite: ‘Absolutely Ashamed!’ Trump Comes Out Guns Blazing After SCOTUS Tariff Decision

On Friday, during an appearance before the press at the White House, President Donald Trump spoke on the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down his sweeping tariffs, saying that he was “absolutely ashamed” of the justices responsible for it.

Tyler Pager and Tony Romm @ The New York Times: Trump Plans to Impose Tariffs a Different Way After Supreme Court Loss

The administration has been preparing for months for the possibility that the court would rule against the president and developed contingency plans.

Tamilore Oshikanlu @ The Daily Beast: MAGA Architects Hire Gay Porn Star for Education Role

Heritage Foundation leaders praised Corey DeAngelis’ hiring despite a public past in the porn industry.

Nikki McCann Ramírez @ Rolling Stone: Trump Is Hijacking Billions in Taxpayer Money for His Made-Up ‘Peace’ Group

The president banged a golden gavel to “Y.M.C.A.” at the coalition's first official meeting.

Tad DeHaven @ Vox: Trump’s dream is a giant slush fund Congress can’t touch

From Venezuelan oil to the Board of Peace, Trump is constantly looking for new sources of cash he can control.

Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: Chavez-DeRemer faces back-to-back scandals, putting her future at Labor Dept. in doubt

The secretary was already facing calls for her resignation. Recent allegations likely make her political standing even shakier.

---

an 12 25

Heritage Action and President Donald Trump are coming under fire after the conservative advocacy organization made a claim that the president threatened to defund the state of Indiana should lawmakers not pass legislation to redraw its congressional district maps.

“President Trump has made it clear to Indiana leaders: if the Indiana Senate fails to pass the map, all federal funding will be stripped from the state,” Heritage Action wrote on social media on Thursday. “Roads will not be paved. Guard bases will close. Major projects will stop. These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame.”

The post ended with, “#PassTheMap.”

While President Trump has publicly threatened to support primary challengers against lawmakers who oppose his redistricting push, NCRM has not found any news reports confirming Heritage Action’s assertion. It is possible the group is relying on information that has not been reported or made public.

Should Indiana pass legislation to redistrict, it reportedly could pick up only two more GOP-held seats.

Critics blasted Heritage Action, a sister group to the Heritage Foundation, for appearing to support Trump’s alleged threat, and blasted the president as well.

“The president and one of the most influential conservative groups in the country are threatening to deprive all Indiana residents of paved roads, guard bases, and major projects if they don’t pass an extremely gerrymandered map to deprive voters of choice,” noted Isaac Saul, founder of Tangle News. “Awesome stuff.”

“Heritage sure loves authoritarianism,” remarked Media Matters researcher Zachary Pleat.

Calling it “nonsense,” Joel Griffith, a senior fellow at the conservative group Advancing American Freedom wrote: “Appalling to see @Heritage_Action endorse this unconstitutional threat by @realDonaldTrump. The President does not have power to coerce state legislators to redraw congressional maps.”

Others appeared to aim their ire directly at the president.

“This is the behavior of a madman,” declared Tim Carney, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

“This isn’t conservative. This is fascist,” commented former Republican U.S. Congressman Joe Walsh.

Mother Jones’ D.C. bureau chief David Corn declared the move “dictatorial.”

“This does not sound like an appropriate or legal use of federal authority or presidential discretion,” observed Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias.

“Nothing about this shakedown is conservative,” noted CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Jacob Stewart, the deputy opinion editor for the IndyStar called the move “illegal.”

Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief of the conservative online magazine The Dispatch, wrote: “I remember when Heritage cared about federalism, the rule of law, separation of powers, and all that stuff. Now it’s all ‘We love Trump’s musk, do what he says (or what Tucker says).'”

“This is called extortion,” wrote former White House correspondent Sam Youngman, also deeming it “illegal.”

“If this comes to pass,” wrote IndyStar columnist James Briggs, “then the story will be that Trump is punishing Indiana citizens for reasons that have nothing to do with them and so-called Indianans will see the punitive measures for what they are.”

---

an 12 25

White House may deter Trump from future rallies as aides say he's not 'capable' of empathy

---

MMA

####Right-wing media are poised to escalate attacks on women as MAGA cracks emerge}:

As MAGA begins to fracture, elements of the coalition may seek to rally behind anti-feminism

Special ProgramsAbortion Rights & Reproductive Health

Written by John Knefel

Published 12/10/25

The right-wing media and policy ecosystem appears poised to escalate its attacks on the basic rights of women as a weakened President Donald Trump lurches toward the end of the first year of his second term. The campaign to roll back decades of material gains for women is coming from both the gutter sexists and the would-be high-brow elements of the conservative media world, and it could serve as a rallying point for an increasingly fractured MAGA movement.

Perhaps no event better exemplifies this trend than a recent hire by The Heritage Foundation, which has been in crisis for months after its president, Kevin Roberts, defended a friendly interview Tucker Carlson conducted with white nationalist streamer Nick Fuentes.

On the back of that scandal, which Roberts seems to have made worse with every attempt at cleaning it up, Heritage has now brought on Boise State University professor and anti-feminist crusader Scott Yenor to head up its B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies. As conservative pundit Henry Olsen notes at The Atlantic, the decision “poses serious questions about the institution’s beliefs concerning the equality of women in the workplace and perhaps even as citizens.”

New Heritage hire pushes birth control restrictions and rollbacks to the Civil Rights Act

Olsen runs through some of Yenor’s lowlights, including pushing for laws that would let businesses “support traditional family life by hiring only male heads of households, or by paying a family wage,” and his belief that “governments should be allowed to prepare men for leadership and responsible provision, while preparing women for domestic management and family care.”

Yenor has repeatedly attacked the Civil Rights Act — a distressingly common phenomenon in conservative media — telling a Mother Jones reporter that the landmark 1964 law “made it impossible and, in fact, suspect to treat men and women differently.” Yenor’s opposition to the law extends to racist grievances too. A blog he co-wrote argues that “the 1964 Civil Rights act, and especially its administrative and jurisprudential offspring, have warped American law and culture and traded one set of racial preferences for another.”

Heritage’s decision to bring Yenor on has generated significant support from right-wing media, suggesting that he’s more of an opening salvo than a random misfire.

Fellow Heritage staffer Emma Waters wrote that it was a “huge win for@Heritage to have Scott on board, and I'm glad he's here.” Her colleague Genevieve Wood reacted to The Atlantic article by writing: “The entire premise of this piece is invalid and disingenuous.” Anti-civil rights activist Chris Rufo argued: “Scott's idea that private companies should be able to prioritize hiring married men with families is completely within the bounds of reasonable debate, and, in fact, it's absurd that individuals cannot hire whomever they want in their own companies, with their own money.” (The Civil Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination based on sex and other characteristics.)

The campaign to roll back decades of material gains for women is coming from both the gutter sexists and the would-be high-brow elements of the conservative media world

Given Yenor’s recent output at Heritage — his author page currently hosts two pieces of writing — The Atlantic’s premise doesn’t seem invalid in the least. An October 29 blog headlined “RFK Should Grill the Pill” argues that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. should consider imposing restrictions on hormonal contraceptives and that his seeming reluctance to do so is “to the detriment of women across the country.” Yenor and his co-author write that the “proliferation of the birth control pill since the 1960s has fostered a number of grave consequences for our society: hook-up culture, delayed marriage, and the destruction of the nuclear family.”

The blog is hardly the first time Heritage has gone after birth control. Roberts took aim at the pill in his own book, writing: “In the case of contraceptives, we are a society remade according to a research agenda set by the Party of Destruction.” As Media Matters previously reported, Heritage’s sprawling presidential transition effort, Project 2025, “suggests restoring Trump-era ‘religious and moral exemptions to the contraceptive mandate’ through the Affordable Care Act that would allow employers to deny coverage.” A separate Media Matters analysis found that at least 34 of Project 2025’s partner organizations “have spread misinformation about contraceptive methods or championed limiting access to contraception, largely on religious grounds.”

Myths about the supposed dangers of birth control have found purchase in social media and podcasts as well. By early 2024, right-wing influencers spreading misinformation about birth control on TikTok had racked up millions of views. Now, some elements of the Make America Healthy Again movement — which is closely associated with Kennedy — are turning against hormonal contraceptives, illustrated by prominent MAHA podcaster Alex Clark referring to birth control as “poison.” The rejection of safe and proven forms of health care extends to so-called tradwife influencers, who have advised young women to embrace not only a far-right definition of proper gender roles, but also “a general distrust of the government and modern medicine.” One prominent tradwife figure used social media to spread “anti-trans bigotry, opposition to sending women to college at 18, and disturbing messages like ‘any wife who denies her husband intimacy is acting against her marriage.’”

Right-wing media figures urge women to leave the workforce

Yenor’s other piece at Heritage argues that prohibiting single-sex education at the Virginia Military Institute and beyond has harmed the school and society at large, suggesting that sex segregation in schools can “be wholesome per se, serving the innate differences between men and women and their somewhat different social destinies.” Elsewhere, Yenor’s writing details those “somewhat different social destinies" a bit more clearly; as Olsen noted at The Atlantic, Yenor has argued: “The Mrs. Degree, with additional credentialing for work, is all you want by graduation day.”

The position that women should largely, or perhaps entirely, eschew careers has become increasingly normalized in right-wing media. The late Charlie Kirk — who also railed against the Civil Rights Act — told a young woman with ambitions to be a surgeon that between her career and a potential family, “you’re going to have to choose which one matters more.” On the off chance his advice wasn’t clear, he added: “There are a lot of successful, 35-year-old orthopedic surgeons that have cats, and not kids, and they’re very miserable."

Not only do many right-wing media figures want women to exit the workforce — they also want to make it much more difficult for them to leave a failing marriage.

Not only do many right-wing media figures want women to exit the workforce — they also want to make it much more difficult for them to leave a failing marriage. Conservative pundits have attacked no-fault divorce, seeking to reduce women to a second class status and exposing them to greater risk of violence from their husbands.

And over the last year, and especially following Republican losses in November, right-wing media figures have called into question the very right of women to exist as political agents. Fox anchor Martha MacCallum reacted to women voting for Democrats by saying: “I find that very frightening.” Similarly, Newsmax host Rob Schmitt told his audience that “young women in this country have become a very scary demographic.” This impulse is expressed in its most extreme variation by Fuentes, who said that if he were president: “I would just take away the right to vote for tons of people. Women for sure.”

Yenor’s new role at Heritage suggests that the larger right-wing media broadside against feminist gains is likely to intensify, as conservative pundits look to restore long-outdated forms of gender domination. Largely agreed upon pillars of social life in the United States — like the Civil Rights Act and relatively open access to birth control — are now contested fronts in the so-called culture wars, and Heritage is helping to provide the ammunition.

---

tucker civil war

rww

11/17/2025

Kyle Mantyla

Chris Cameron @ The New York Times: Trump Defends Tucker Carlson After Nick Fuentes Interview

President Trump defended Mr. Carlson’s friendly interview with Nick Fuentes, an openly antisemitic white supremacist. Hours later, Mr. Fuentes wrote “Thank you Mr. President!”

Jack Revell @ The Daily Beast: Trump, 79, Crashes Wedding to Ramble About Heaven

The president made himself the guest of honor at a Mar-a-Lago wedding.

The Throckmorton Initiative: Tucker Carlson and Eric Metaxas Fight Over Bonhoeffer

There is so much infighting right now among MAGA types that I can’t really keep up. One battle that caught my eye is a fight over Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Most of what is being said is wrong in one way or another, hence I want to rehearse some important points about the German theologian who was murdered by the Nazis.

Ken Dilanian and Carol Leonnig @ MS Now: Kash Patel’s girlfriend being protected by FBI SWAT agents as security perk

Agents on a detail with the country singer would presumably be unable to respond or delayed in responding to other incidents, according to sources.

Cheyanne M. Daniels @ ProPublica: Heritage board member resigns over organization's defense of Tucker Carlson

Robert P. George said he and the foundation’s president were at an “impasse.”

Zack Beauchamp @ Vox: Inside the war tearing the Heritage Foundation and the American right apart

A Heritage insider alleging “openly misogynistic and racist” conduct shines a light on the right’s inner workings.

---

WA EXMR REBRAND?

Politics](https://evrimagaci.org/gpt/category/politics-3)

09 November 2025

Conservative Movement Faces Rifts Over Antisemitism And Legacy

A wave of controversy over antisemitism, generational divides, and foreign policy is forcing the American right to confront its core values and future direction.

Key Points

Tucker Carlson hosted antisemitic and white nationalist Nick Fuentes on his show without challenging his views, sparking widespread condemnation.
Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts initially defended Carlson but later apologized and recommitted to opposing antisemitism after internal and public backlash.
The controversy revealed deep generational and ideological divides within the conservative movement, especially over attitudes toward Israel and the movement's core principles.

The American conservative movement is facing a profound and public reckoning over antisemitism, generational divides, and the very soul of its ideology. In the wake of recent controversies involving prominent right-wing figures, the Heritage Foundation, and the legacy of neoconservative foreign policy, the right finds itself at a crossroads—one that is forcing painful questions about its past, present, and future.

It all began to boil over in early November 2025, when Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host turned influential podcaster, invited Nick Fuentes onto his show. Fuentes, a self-avowed racist and Holocaust denier, used the platform to air a litany of antisemitic and white nationalist views. According to The Boston Globe, Fuentes declared that “organized Jewry is ruining America,” and that “these Zionist Jews need to be taken down,” without challenge or pushback from Carlson. Carlson, for his part, did not press Fuentes on his history of praising Adolf Hitler or his calls for the annihilation of American Jews—statements that have been widely condemned across the political spectrum.

The fallout was swift and fierce. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation—a think tank once synonymous with Ronald Reagan’s brand of conservatism—initially rushed to defend Carlson. He asserted that while he might “abhor some of Fuentes’s opinions, canceling him is not the answer either,” and insisted that Heritage would not turn against Carlson. Roberts emphasized that the foundation’s priority was “focusing on our political adversaries on the left, not attacking our friends on the right.” As reported by the Washington Examiner, this stance ignited a civil war within the conservative movement. Some saw Roberts’s defense as a principled stand for free debate; others viewed it as a moral abdication that enabled bigotry to fester.

The controversy quickly exposed deep generational and ideological rifts. Gabe Guidarini, chairman of the Ohio College Republican Federation, told the Washington Examiner that the schism reflects a clash between an older, establishment conservative base and a younger, Trump-inspired cohort. “A lot of old school conservative groups have tried to keep the economic austerity, foreign policy hawkishness, and compassionate conservatism in the equation by latching on to [President Donald] Trump, but the majority of the Republican Party now believes what Trump actually talked about in 2015,” Guidarini observed. He added that the Trump movement’s “underpinning is repurposed Buchananism, which appeals more to young people and Catholics.”

Indeed, a Pew Research Center poll from March 2025 found that 50% of Republicans aged 18 to 49 have an unfavorable view of Israel, compared to just 23% of those over 50. The generational divide played out within the Heritage Foundation as well, with younger staffers expressing support for Roberts’s original comments and voicing skepticism toward Christian Zionism and traditional pro-Israel stances.

Yet many conservatives are alarmed by what they see as a drift toward cynicism, conspiracy, and provocation. Bethany Mandel, a longtime movement commentator, lamented to the Washington Examiner that “among many younger conservatives, there’s clearly a lack of grounding in what the movement actually stands for. They’ve absorbed the aesthetics of rebellion but not the principles behind it.”

The crisis reached a tipping point when, in response to mounting pressure, the Heritage Foundation fired its chief of staff and Roberts issued a public apology for his initial defense of Carlson and for describing Carlson’s critics as a “venomous coalition.” Roberts admitted his mistake and reiterated Heritage’s commitment to fighting antisemitism: “Everyone has the responsibility to speak up against the scourge of antisemitism, no matter the messenger. Heritage and I will do so, even when my friend Tucker Carlson needs challenging.”

Still, the damage was done. The controversy prompted several organizations and individuals—including senior fellow Steven Moore, the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, and the Coalition for Jewish Values—to sever ties with Heritage. Former Heritage fellow Joel Griffith warned that mainstream organizations lending credibility to figures like Fuentes “indicates to people that this is an acceptable point of view.”

The debate over antisemitism within the right was further inflamed by a series of incidents: a conservative student magazine at Harvard published Nazi-like rhetoric, and leaked messages from Young Republican chapters revealed casual engagement in racist, antisemitic, and violent talk. Vice President JD Vance dismissed these messages as “a stupid joke,” refusing to condemn Carlson’s podcast. Former President Donald Trump, for his part, has not unequivocally disavowed Fuentes, and in 2022 hosted him for dinner at Mar-a-Lago alongside Kanye West, another figure associated with antisemitic remarks.

Meanwhile, high-profile conservative voices drew a moral line. Senator Ted Cruz delivered a speech decrying the rise of “antisemitism on the right,” warning that it is “a poison” and “an existential crisis in our party.” House Speaker Mike Johnson echoed these sentiments, declaring Fuentes’s views “blatantly antisemitic, racist, and anti-American,” and emphasizing conservatives’ obligation to “call out antisemitism wherever it is.” National Review published an editorial condemning efforts by Carlson, Fuentes, and others to “remake the Republican Party and the conservative movement into one that is hostile toward Israel and the Jewish people.” Conservative commentator Rod Dreher, despite his friendship with Carlson, blasted the interview as “a two-man Unite the Right rally,” and implored fellow conservatives to find the courage to “speak out against this stuff.”

Yet, as the right wrestles with antisemitism, it is also grappling with the legacy of neoconservative foreign policy. The recent death of former Vice President Dick Cheney at age 84 reignited debates about America’s role in the world. Cheney’s legacy—described by The American Conservative as “one of the worst foreign policy disasters in U.S. history,” with over 4 million deaths attributed to the “War on Terror”—is sharply at odds with the isolationist rhetoric that fueled Donald Trump’s rise. While Senators Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and Tom Cotton praised Cheney’s “aggressive” approach to foreign policy, Trump himself has remained silent, offering no public condolences and lowering flags only as legally required. This, too, highlights the disconnect between the old guard’s hawkishness and the MAGA movement’s populist, anti-interventionist base.

Amid these overlapping controversies, some see an opportunity for the right to rediscover its conscience. “For the first time in years, a moral line was drawn—and enforced—not by liberals or the media but by conservatives themselves,” wrote Jeff Jacoby in The Boston Globe. But others worry that the infection runs deep and that the backlash may be fleeting. The conservative movement stands at a crossroads, forced to choose between the principles that built it and the forces now threatening to tear it apart.

As the dust settles, one thing is clear: the debate over antisemitism, ideological identity, and America’s place in the world is far from over—and its outcome will shape the future of the American right for years to come.

Loved What You Read? Support Intelligent Journalism!

We've launched what we proudly call the "Intelligent Journalism" era: a bold approach to journalism that prioritizes verifiable facts, eliminates unnecessary fluff, restores the rigor of classic journalistic principles, and delivers news in a clear, compelling format—all powered by our innovative AI algorithms.

Support Intelligent Journalism with a tip to help us understand the stories you love most, so we can bring you more of what matters!

---

AN 11 25

ANOTHER CIVIL WAR? // 5?

NO LNX

‘The whole thing is imploding’: Inside the rebellion at America’s top right-wing think tank

David Badash andThe New Civil Rights MovementNovember 09, 2025

Founded in 1973, the Heritage Foundation has become what its president, Kevin Roberts, now hails as the “intellectual backbone” of the conservative movement. It crafted the policy blueprint that powered President Ronald Reagan’s right-wing revolution — and today, under Roberts’s leadership, it’s once again shaping the machinery of power. Through its highly controversial Project 2025 — a plan widely credited to Roberts as its chief architect — Heritage laid out a road map for President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda. But Roberts’s recent missteps have rattled the institution, raising strong questions about his leadership — and the future direction of the conservative movement itself.

Roberts gained widespread attention in July 2024 when he issued a warning to Democrats: “we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

At the time, Biden campaign spokesperson James Singer said, “they are threatening violence.”

As did others.

“Kevin Roberts is threatening violence to anyone not following his dear leader,” former Republican and former U.S. Congressman Denver Riggleman wrote. “Every network should cover this."

Roberts’s remarks had come just after the U.S. Supreme Court recognized a new constitutional principle of “presidential immunity” for official acts — a decision critics say President Donald Trump has wielded to expand his power.

Late last month, Roberts came under tremendous criticism after throwing his support behind former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who had a two-hour interview with far-right extremist leader Nick Fuentes, whom many see as promoting Christian nationalism, white supremacy, racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and Islamophobia.

"There has been speculation that @Heritage is distancing itself from @TuckerCarlson over the past 24 hours," Roberts wrote on October 30 when posting the video that sparked this current firestorm. "I want to put that to rest right now."

The editors of the right-wing National Review in a scathing editorial explained the issue: “Tucker Carlson, knee-deep already, has taken another step into the muck with a friendly interview with Nick Fuentes.”

HERITAGE "WILL ALWAYS DEFEND OUR FRIENDS ... THAT INCLUDES TUCKER CARLSON"

Roberts had wasted no time in coming to Carlson's defense.

“The Heritage Foundation didn’t become the intellectual backbone of the conservative movement by canceling our own people or policing the consciences of Christians. And we won’t start doing that now,” he said in his video supporting Carlson.

Roberts insisted that Heritage "will always defend our friends against the slander of bad actors who serve someone else’s agenda. That includes Tucker Carlson, who remains, and as I have said before, always will be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation.”

Criticism of Roberts was immediate.

Journalist Yashar Ali called it a "watershed moment."

"In his statement," Ali wrote, "Kevin condemns what he calls a 'venomous coalition' that is 'sowing division' by attacking Tucker. That 'venomous coalition,' includes MAGA Republicans as well as Jewish conservative commentators, activists, and donors."

"Kevin also frames Nick Fuentes’s rhetoric as worthy of debate, rather than something to be condemned outright. A shift like this would’ve been unthinkable for Heritage just three years ago."

Condemnations came, and continue to do so — from both outside and inside Heritage.

CNN's Andrew Kaczynski on Thursday reported on what one senior staffer called the "absolute s--" swirling inside Heritage.

"The staff that we talked to told us the Heritage Foundation is in open revolt over the president's defense of Carlson," Kaczynski explained.

That senior staffer also told CNN that Roberts had "lost control over the organization."

Kaczynski noted that they also "said there's an open rebellion, and this really all came to a head [Wednesday], where they had this all hands meeting ... this was kind of going around social media, where Roberts publicly apologized, according to her recording we obtained, Roberts told employees, 'I made a mistake. I let you down. I let this institution down. I'm sorry.'"

"But," Kaczynski added, Roberts "also made clear he has no plans to resign."

On Friday, Reason senior editor Stephanie Slade wrote that at a Thursday night event, "I was asked if the crisis at Heritage Foundation seemed to be blowing over. This morning I received a message from someone inside the building about Kevin Roberts: 'He needs to be made to resign by the [Heritage] Foundation Board of Trustees.'"

"In speaking to current and former Heritage staffers over the last week," Slade continued, "the emotion I've most commonly encountered is disgust and the words I've most commonly heard are 'Kevin Roberts has to go.'"

By Wednesday, as Ali noted, Roberts had "made his fourth public statement on the Tucker Carlson/Nick Fuentes situation ... over the course of six days." After the initial video that ignited the firestorm, Roberts made three other attempts to "clean up" his remarks.

According to The Wall Street Journal's Elliot Kaufman, Heritage senior fellow Amy Swearer, in remarks before Heritage staff, told Roberts, "over the last week, you have shown a stunning lack of both courage and judgment."

She called Roberts' initial defense of Carlson "at best ... equal parts incoherent, unhelpful and naive."

"At worst, it was more akin to a master class in cowardice that ran cover for the most unhinged dregs of the far right."

"LOST MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN DONATIONS"

Heritage also appears to be losing important donors.

"One major donor, whose organization contributes more than a half million dollars annually to Heritage Foundation, told us that they had totally lost faith in Roberts," Kaczynski reported.

"They said, 'I see how things play out, but if Kevin remains as president, we will not be giving to Heritage.'"

"Likewise, the Zionist Organization of America, that's actually the oldest pro-Israel group in the United States, announced that it has withdrawn from Heritage's initiative on antisemitism, unless Roberts publicly apologized, and retract his praise for Carlson."

Newsmax reported that "Zionist Organization of America President Morton Klein told Newsmax Friday that Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts should resign immediately."

"My organization has many of the same donors as Heritage," Klein also said. "They've told me that they're stopping all funding for Heritage until they get rid of Kevin Roberts, so yes, they have lost millions of dollars in donations since this controversy arose."

Klein also "pointed to longtime Heritage fellow Stephen Moore's recent departure."

"He doesn't want to be involved with Heritage, which is now tainted as an antisemitic, bigoted organization," Klein told Newsmax. "It's harmed everything else they do."

Mark Goldfeder, CEO of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, told The Wall Street Journal on Friday that “Any tent that is big enough for them ...is too big for me,” referring to Fuentes and his allies.

The Journal reported that "Goldfeder resigned from Heritage’s National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism in the aftermath of Roberts’s video."

"CIVIL WAR AT THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION"

Other critics outside Heritage have also been observing Roberts' crumbling support, and what it means for the future of the organization, its president, and the conservative movement.

"The civil war at the Heritage Foundation is far more consequential than most people realize," noted Mike Madrid, the prominent Latino Republican political consultant. "The divide seems irreconcilable and it could splinter the American right irreversibly."

Conservative New York Times opinion columnist David French wrote on Sunday, "I don’t know if Roberts will survive at Heritage."

"I do know that Carlson and Fuentes and their constellation of friends and allies are far too popular to cancel or even to contain," he noted, and observed: "The fight for the future of the Republican Party is underway."

And pointing to a Washington Post article on the crisis at Heritage, Madrid declared: "The whole thing is imploding."

---

AN 11 25

One major conservative group is experiencing a massive rift in its workforce, and the source of the division is reportedly a polarizing far-right influencer.

That's according to a Monday article in the New York Post, which reported that insiders at the Heritage Foundation (the group responsible for the authoritarian Project 2025 playbook) are sharing stories of "revolt" within the GOP-aligned organization. Many within Heritage are alarmed after the group's president, Kevin Roberts, refused to disavow right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson after his friendly interview with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.

"We will always defend our friends against the slander of bad actors who serve someone else’s agenda," Roberts said at the time. "That includes Tucker Carlson, who remains, and as I have said before, always will be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation."

"I disagree with and even abhor things that Nick Fuentes said," Roberts continued. “But canceling him is not the answer either.”

One source told the Post that Roberts' statement was "the most embarrassed I’ve ever been to be a Heritage employee," adding: "It’s not close." Another accused Carlson of "playing footsie with literal Nazis." A separate Heritage staffer said Roberts' refusal to "cancel" Carlson amounted to "safe space wokeism."

IFrame Content

"If we are labeled on the same side as Nick Fuentes, then we deserve to lose," a fourth source said. "Talking with some of the interns I think that there are a growing number of them who actually agree [with Fuentes]."

Fuentes, who has openly praised Adolf Hitler and repeatedly maligned the Jewish community, spent part of his interview with Carlson blaming Jewish people for the state of American politics. He also heaped praise on World War II-era Russian leader Josef Stalin, calling himself a "fan" of the dictator who killed millions of his own citizens.

Click here to read the Post's full report.

---

RWW

10/27/2025

Peter Montgomery

Heritage Action, the political arm of the MAGA “think tank” behind the Trump administration’s Project 2025 policy agenda, is claiming that America’s city streets have been occupied by Marxist rioters to rally support for legislation that would empower President Donald Trump’s Justice Department to more aggressively wage war against the president’s political opponents.

“End the Marxist Occupation of our Streets,” reads a Heritage Action campaign message, which praises Trump's designation of Antifa as a "domestic terrorist organization." The message includes an illustrated graphic of a television “PUBLIC SAFETY ALERT” reading “MARXIST RIOTERS IN YOUR CITY AVOID PUBLIC AREAS AT ALL COSTS.”

The campaign by Heritage Action urges people to petition Congress to pass the Stop FUNDERS Act being promoted by Sen. Ted Cruz, Rep. Beth Van Duyne, and other MAGA Republicans. FBI Director Kash Patel endorsed the legislation at a congressional hearing last month.

Cruz told Fox News this month that his legislation would allow the Justice Department to “prosecute the money” that is funding “No Kings” protests and suggested without offering any evidence that the more than 200 organizations that have supported the overwhelmingly peaceful “No Kings” protests are part of a “criminal enterprise.”

Advocates warn that the Cruz legislation would, especially in the hands of the nakedly politicized Trump Justice Department, threaten freedom of speech and the right to dissent:

The legislation “would dangerously lower the bar for government investigations into Americans exercising their right to peaceful demonstration,” said Cole Leiter, executive director of Americans Against Government Censorship, a coalition of progressive and labor groups that launched late last year.

“By branding protest as a criminal activity, this bill threatens to intimidate people from engaging in peaceful, lawful advocacy and puts everyday Americans at risk of being dragged into sprawling investigations,” he added.

Trump has publicly demanded that the Justice Department deploy the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act – known as RICO – to prosecute his political opponents and progressive organizations and funders.

The Cruz bill would allow the federal government to, in Cruz’s words, “use the full suite of RICO tools against entities who fund or coordinate violent interstate riots.” According to Cruz’s office, those tools include “joint liability and group prosecution, conspiracy charges, asset forfeiture, and enhanced criminal penalties.” The Cruz press release claims the act would also “deter abuse of nonprofit status and expose hidden financial pipelines behind politically motivated violence.”

In his “war on the left,” Trump and his allies have repeatedly smeared and threatened philanthropists George and Alex Soros and the Open Society Foundations. The Guardian noted recently that Trump’s unsubstantiated claims “provided more specificity to a threat that liberal non-profits have been planning for since his election victory last year: a crackdown on their organizations and major Democratic funders designed to intimidate them from carrying out their work, waste their time with investigations and ultimately hobble the opposition.”

The Open Society Foundations recently responded to Trump administration attacks, saying in part:

Our activities are peaceful and lawful, and our grantees are expected to abide by human rights principles and comply with the law.

These accusations are politically motivated attacks on civil society, meant to silence speech the administration disagrees with and undermine the first amendment right to free speech. When power is abused to take away the rights of some people, it puts the rights of all people at risk.

Our work in the United States is dedicated to strengthening democracy and upholding constitutional freedoms. We stand by the work we do to improve lives in the United States and across the world.

Dozens of civil society organizations have condemned the Trump administration's attacks on the Open Society Foundations. In addition, People For the American Way has denounced “President Trump’s campaign to weaponize the entire federal government against anyone who stands in the way of his destructive agenda.”

Heritage Action is also urging the House to “establish — and dedicate adequate time, authority, staff, and resources to — a select committee to investigate the rise of left-wing terrorism.” In reality, there is evidence that “most domestic terrorists in the U.S. are politically on the right, and right-wing attacks account for the vast majority of fatalities from domestic terrorism.”

---}:

AN 9 25

Citing state policy on tenure, elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and the cost of living, Florida faculty laid out their frustrations in a recent survey.

In a Faculty in the South survey conducted by various conferences of the American Association of University Professors, 31% of Florida respondents said they have applied for a job outside of Florida since 2023. That number was 25% among all survey respondents in the South.

The same, 31% of Florida respondents, said they plan to seek employment in another state during the next hiring cycle.

“The governor of Florida threatens at every turn to take funding away so administration at colleges don’t stand up to him or board of education. I no longer have any motivation or creativity to make courses better,” a tenured professor at a public community college wrote.

The survey focused on policy affecting employment, including whether faculty would recommend working in their state to up-and-coming academics, and trends in applications for faculty positions. It included nearly 200 responses from Florida faculty among its nearly 4,000 responses across Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

IFrame Content

The survey concluded with an open-ended question asking faculty to provide examples of how “attacks on higher education are directly impacting your work.” It did not report respondents’ identities beyond basic demographics like gender, race, tenure status, years of experience, and type of institution they teach at.

‘Walking on egg shells’

“Students report any classroom discussion they don’t like directly to the Governor’s office. Everyone is afraid all the time,” one woman teaching at a public four-year school wrote. “I have stopped teaching books that might be in any way controversial. I don’t open up general discussion in class but ask only direct questions that will elicit non-controversial answers. I need health insurance so I can’t just quit.”

The state scanning course materials for disfavored viewpoints was a widespread stressor for many faculty.

Florida DOGE to ‘deep dive’ into state universities, ‘prune’ ‘ideological study stuff’

IFrame Content

“Most of the courses I’ve taught for decades now violate state and university mandates,” a man teaching at a Florida tier-one research university said.

As of earlier this year, Florida institutions’ general education courses no longer contained “indoctrinating concepts,” State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues proclaimed in January.

Florida universities have conducted a review, required by a 2022 law, of general education courses to ensure that they do not “distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics.”

“I’m continually worried that the content of my clases [sic] will be flagged as “DEI” because I am a historian of the Caribbean, a region mostly populated by non-white people,” one professor said.

One women’s studies professor described the effect as “Constant anxiety, walking on egg shells trying to anticipate what would be used against me/us.”

More than a third, 34%, of Florida respondents said administrators have questioned syllabi or curricula choices for their courses. Among all states surveyed, half as many, 17%, indicated administrators questioned their curricula.

One professor said that since the state and federal government have made illegal “a wide range of Constitutionally protected components of speech and expression,” “I must break the law in order to tell the truth. Because I’m hired to tell the truth, and because I’m much more committed to the truth than to the law, I break the law. This means I am expecting to be arrested in front of a classroom any day, for actions that are illegal only as a result of the right-wing fad of the most recent decade.”

Nearly three in four, 71%, of faculty in Florida who were surveyed said they would not encourage a graduate student to seek employment in Florida.

“I am going to take early retirement despite a great job and salary. The threats are real and I am exhausted, between fighting this and fighting AI and poorly prepared, lazy, unethical students,” a tenured professor at a four-year public university wrote.

Higher education funding cuts have been the subject of nationwide political debate, including Florida State University reporting that it lost $100 million in federal grants, although $83 million of that has since been reinstated, the school’s president said last week.

About one-in-10, 11%, said they have had a federal contract ended by the Trump administration.

“The loss of vital federal grants has removed opportunities from me and my colleagues,” one professor wrote. “Attacks on LGBTQ students, immigrants, and diversity have also made it difficult to recruit promising graduate students or to guarantee their health and safety. Florida colleges being forced to remove diversity languages has destroyed years of valuable work, overturned an incredible general education curriculum, taken power and governance away from faculty, and wasted a lot of valuable time.”

Tenure troubles

Since 2023, professors in Florida with tenure have been subject to post-tenure review, graded on standards crafted by university trustees relating to research performance, teaching, service, and compliance with state laws and university policies.

Of the nearly-one-third who recently applied for an out-of-state job, tenure and DEI issues, academic freedom, the political climate, and cost of living were among the most common concerns.

Respondents said the number of applications for coworkers’ positions, as well as the quality of applicants, have decreased.

“Our department is trying to improve, but we have had several failed searches in recent years because candidates don’t want to move to Florida because of the broad political climate and the fact that tenure protections functionally no longer exist here,” a tenured public university professor said.

Some faculty said they have not experienced problems with “attacks on higher education,” one stating, “I haven’t felt any — Florida is great!.” Another said, “They’re not, and freedom in the classroom still persists, and I am at a public university in… wait for it… FLORIDA…”

“I find that I’m having to spend more time explaining to students why they need to use evidence to support their views and why clear arguments are important,” a professor at a private institution wrote.

One professor complained that “our board of trustees stacked with heritage foundation members, our president was forced out and replaced by a republican politician.” Course materials face heightened scrutiny, this professor added.

“The climate of persecution, retaliation, and ideological imposition makes it impossible to teach my discipline accurately or well without opening oneself to disciplinary measures,” that professor said. “While New College got a lot of headlines, similar invasions of public universities are happening with no national press, leaving those of us who work here isolated and vulnerable to attack.”

‘Academic freedom is on life support,’ say professors surveyed on tenure, censorship

IFrame Content

Gov. Ron DeSantis orchestrated a shake-up of the University of West Florida Board of Trustees in a more conservative light earlier this year and that institution is now led by a former GOP lawmaker.

Results for the survey were collected throughout August and more than 60% of respondents said they are tenured. Last year’s iteration of the survey featured responses from about 350 Florida professors.

“There is a lower threshold of critical thinking because everyone is fearful about what is ‘allowed’ vs. ‘banned’ by law. The fear and the self-censorship is widespread. Our administration, now saddled with a governor-imposed, unqualified hire as a President, is understandably more cautious rather than vocal about protecting academic freedom,” one professor wrote.

---

YIKES OMG 8 25

President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni, is facing backlash after reports that he would consider suspending the crucial monthly jobs report, calling it flawed.

“How on earth are businesses supposed to plan – or how is the Fed supposed to conduct monetary policy – when they don’t know how many jobs are being added or lost in our economy? It’s a serious problem that needs to be fixed immediately,” Antoni told Fox Business.

His solution is to publish the data less often—a move that could send shockwaves through the business world.

“Until it is corrected, the BLS should suspend issuing the monthly job reports but keep publishing the more accurate, though less timely, quarterly data,” he said. “Major decision-makers from Wall Street to D.C. rely on these numbers, and a lack of confidence in the data has far-reaching consequences.”

IFrame Content

President Trump fired the previous Commissioner of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, after the BLS released downward revisions of more than 250,000 for April and May.

“I was just informed that our Country’s ‘Jobs Numbers’ are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer,” Trump wrote in an August 1 social media post, baselessly accusing her of having “faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of Victory.”

The 141-year-old Bureau of Labor Statistics is an independent statistical agency and part of the U.S. Department of Labor. Installing what critics are calling a highly partisan commissioner would be unprecedented in modern times.

Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich issued a warning: “The independence of the Bureau of Labor Statistics is vital. If politicized, it can’t be trusted as a source of information. Who did Trump just put in charge of the agency? E.J. Antoni — chief economist at the Heritage Foundation and contributor to Project 2025.”

“On top of being the Heritage Foundation’s Chief Economist, E.J. Antoni is literally the 5th Contributor named in Project 2025,” noted journalist Ahmed Baba. “You can’t make this up. Trump is seeking to put the BLS — and America’s economic data — in the hands of a Project 2025 extremist.”

---

---}:

RWW

07/28/2025

Peter Montgomery

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts urged right-wing state legislators this month to “de-charter” liberal capital cities and replace them with “state municipal districts.”

In a speech to a gathering of the American Legislative Exchange Council in Indianapolis, Roberts asserted, “We are in the second American Revolution,” which he explained by saying “we are renewing sovereignty and self-governance and faith in fellow man.”

Roberts showed no apparent recognition of the glaring inconsistency between his declared support for “sovereignty and self-governance” and his demonstrated contempt for the democratic choices made by voters in cities who disagree with Heritage’s agenda.

"When we have cities like Austin, or Nashville, or other capital cities whose local government is not representative of the will of the people, de-charter them and establish them as state municipal districts in the name of common sense,” he urged.

Roberts called Austin, Texas his “adopted home town” and described it as “a once-great place that has been taken over by Marxists.”

Roberts’ justification for this brazen attack on democratic self-governance? He claimed that the biggest threat to the Trump-Vance agenda, which is essentially the Project 2025 agenda promoted by Roberts and Heritage, is “that there are government entities that illegitimately are imposing something other than the American dream on their people.”

Roberts promised the legislators that Heritage would provide “air cover” if they made this virtual declaration of war against their own capital cities.

Roberts’ recommendation was part of a ten-point policy agenda he urged the state legislators to adopt. Among his other recommendations:

Roll back environmental regulations—“nonsense from the Green New Scam”—that he said are contributing to a crisis in affordable housing;

End subsidies and preferential treatment for “fickle energy resources.” (He said nothing about the subsidies enjoyed by fossil-fuel industries);

Force every local law enforcement agency to sign cooperation agreements with ICE’s 287 (g) program;

Replace SAT and ACT tests with the Classic Learning Test, which is promoted by right-wing culture warriors like Christopher Rufo and favored by conservative Christian schools and homeschoolers; the test was approved for statewide use in Florida in 2023.

The Heritage Foundation is a deep-pocketed think tank that has spent 50+ years shifting the Republican Party to the right and making America less free, less fair, and less safe. It was the sponsor of Project 2025, which Trump falsely disavowed during his 2024 campaign before aggressively implementing its recommendations since taking power this year, putting the country on a fast road to fascism. The American Legislative Exchange Council functions as a sort of matchmaker between corporate lobbyists and right-wing interests and state legislators eager to do their destructive bidding.

---

MMA

After Steve Bannon called for “a MAGA Republican” to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Trump fired its commissioner

Trump took this action following a weak jobs report with major downward revisions. Economists say this move will create mistrust about economic data.

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published 08/01/25

On the August 1 edition of former Trump strategist Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast, he and Heritage Foundation’s E.J. Antoni called for getting rid of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner following a weak July jobs report.

Hours later, President Donald Trump said and NBC News confirmed that he had fired BLS Commissioner Dr. Erika McEntarfer. Economists quickly spoke up about how this action, which would decrease confidence in economic data and seriously risk politicizing it outright, poses a grave threat to the entire American economy.

The BLS reported this morning that in July, only 73,000 jobs were created, and job creation in May and June were revised downward by a combined 258,000 jobs.

In response, Bannon claimed to be concerned about “whether we get accurate numbers” from the BLS, adding: “What in the hell is going on there? And have we put in our own person into BLS? Is a MAGA Republican, that President Trump knows and trusts, are they running the Bureau of Labor Statistics yet?” Antoni replied, “No, unfortunately, Steve, we still haven’t gotten there. And I think that’s part of the reason why we continue to have all of these different data problems.” Antoni also talked up a previous BLS commissioner, and added: “He’s been replaced by someone who, frankly, I think is incompetent. And that shows with the fact that the problems in the statistics — that first became evident all the way back in the spring of 2022 — those problems are still there.”

Video

Citation

From the August 1, 2025, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

Hours later, citing the July jobs report and a conspiracy theory about the BLS from the 2024 election cycle, Trump posted on Truth Social: “I was just informed that our Country’s ‘Jobs Numbers’ are being produced by a Biden Appointee, Dr. Erika McEntarfer, the Commissioner of Labor Statistics, who faked the Jobs Numbers before the Election to try and boost Kamala’s chances of Victory. … I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY. She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.”

Economists reacted to Trump’s firing of the BLS commissioner by explaining that the revisions weren’t political, and that Trump could damage trust in the accuracy of economic statistics moving forward.

Ernie Tedeschi, the director of economics for Yale’s Budget Lab, wrote: “Every economist who knows the 1st thing about labor data knows this has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the challenges of real-time jobs estimation in the world's biggest economy.”

IFrame Content

Navy Federal chief economist and Washington Post columnist Heather Long wrote: “This is basically unprecedented and will raise concerns about US data integrity going forward.”

IFrame Content

Employ America executive director Skanda Amarnath wrote: “Even if nothing in BLS processes actually changes, public trust is permanently harmed when the BLS commissioner is fired after one bad jobs report. The optics are terrible and collective perception matters. So does reality.”

IFrame Content

MEF Associates senior research associate Matt Darling simply replied: “Banana Republic hours.”

IFrame Content

Some conservative economists also expressed alarm over Trump’s action.

Manhattan Institute senior fellow Jessica Riedl wrote: “Trump firing the BLS director for a bad jobs report - days after demanding the Smithsonian remove him from the list of impeached presidents - is banana republic stuff.” She added in a follow-up post: “Trump just ensured that we should not trust any government data coming out of his administration. Why should we trust data from agencies in which the director's job depends on altering any bad economic news? Any Republicans with a spine need to speak out.”

IFrame Content

American Enterprise Institute director of economic policy studies Michael R. Strain wrote: “Erika McEntarfer has devoted her career to public service. She has conducted herself as BLS Commissioner with great integrity. There is no evidence whatsoever that BLS data are politically biased. By incorrectly asserting that the data are biased, President Trump is undermining the integrity of the information that policymakers, businesses, households, and investors use to make important decisions that affect the welfare of the nation. It is imperative that decisionmakers understand that government statistics are unbiased and of the highest quality. By casting doubt on that, the President is damaging the United States.”

---

RWW

04/07/2025

Peter Montgomery

Vice President J.D. Vance showed up at the Heritage Foundation last week to celebrate the premier of an Angel Studio documentary series based on his friend Rod Dreher’s 2020 book, “Live Not By Lies.”

Dreher is a conservative blogger who chronicled his own radicalization into far-right authoritarianism. Dreher is such a fan of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his repressive Christian nationalism that he moved to Budapest in 2022 after his wife filed for divorce.

Vance is closely aligned with anti-democracy intellectuals and funders who have pushed the U.S. right-wing to embrace Orbán-style crushing of dissent, attacks on civil society, and capture of the media and the judiciary. Vance, who praised Orbán for seizing control of state universities, has called for “aggressively” attacking universities in the U.S.

In his comments at the Heritage event, Vance unwittingly gave what could be solid advice to leaders of law firms, media outlets, and universities who are tempted to submit to the Trump administration’s intimidation and blackmail. They were not, to be certain, Vance’s intended audience, but here’s what he said: “The way to deal with being attacked by the ruling elites of a given society is to speak the truth, is to live not by lies…You’re going to sacrifice your soul, you’re going to sacrifice your civilization, you’re going sacrifice your family, you’re going to sacrifice your country, if you give into the easy pathway.”

Given the lawlessness, cruelty, and censorship that are the defining traits of the Trump administration, other Vance comments sounded like particularly Orwellian propaganda: “We can rebuild the kind of society where virtue and freedom and our ancient liberties are preserved and enforced and facilitated by our government rather than torn down by our government.”

Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts hosted the premier. Roberts, who oversaw the development of the Project 2025 policy agenda now being imposed on America by the Trump administration, has called Orbán the model for MAGA governance.

And it’s not just Roberts. Religious-right activists at the World Congress of Families adore Orbán for his “pro-family” and anti-LGBTQ policies, which reached a repressive new low last month with a ban on Pride celebrations. The Conservative Political Action Conference has teamed up with Orbán allies to host CPAC events in Hungary; at this year’s CPAC outside Washington, D.C., Hungarian groups were on hand to distribute pro- Orbán propaganda.

At Heritage last week, Vance called Dreher a friend and said Dreher’s promotion of Vance’s book “Hillbilly Elegy” was responsible for its bestseller status, which lead to Vance becoming a public figure, senator, and ultimately vice president.

The admiration is mutual. In an article for a conservative Hungarian publication last summer, Dreher compared Vance to a young Orbán and said Vance “embodies” Trumpism. At Heritage last week, Dreher gushed about Vance, “That man is the future of America, I believe.”