The Heritage Foundation, the massive and increasingly MAGA-minded think tank at the center of the right-wing political infrastructure in the U.S., hauled in more money last year than ever before. The right-wing Washington Times reported Thursday that Heritage raised more than $150 million in 2023.
As Right Wing Watch has reported, Heritage is leading Project 2025, a massive coalition of right-wing and MAGA movement organizations that are planning to ‘take the reins of government’ after—they hope—Trump or another like-minded Republican gets elected president this year. They have a 900-page battle plan for purging the civil service, weakening federal agencies’ ability to regulate corporations and protect Americans, and give (presumably) Trump dictatorial powers to indulge his authoritarian fantasies and turn the FBI and Justice Department into weapons of personal revenge against his political opponents.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts has dragged the institution firmly into Trump’s camp, so much so that he recently told The New York Times that the organization’s current mission is “institutionalizing Trumpism.” Roberts himself has seemingly internalized Trumpism, which is evident in his disdain for the media, his enthusiastic embrace of anti-democratic strongmen like Hungary’s Viktor Orban, and the cavalier way he smears political opponents as “communists.”
When Heritage celebrated its 50th anniversary last April, Right Wing Watch published “6 Ways the Heritage Foundation Makes America Less Free, Less Just, and Less Safe.” An excerpt: