The Wall Street Journal editorial board delivered a scathing assessment this week of The Heritage Foundation, arguing that the once-dominant conservative think tank has effectively "blown up" under the leadership of its president, Kevin Roberts.
The editorial portrays an institution in crisis — hemorrhaging top talent, board members, donors, and credibility — after what it describes as Roberts' ideological lurch and mishandling of internal dissent.
According to the Journal, the breaking point came this week when a large bloc of Heritage's most prominent scholars and policy leaders announced they were leaving en masse to join Advancing American Freedom, the policy organization founded by former Vice President Mike Pence in 2021.
At least 15 Heritage employees are departing, including the heads of three of its most influential policy divisions: the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, the Center for Data Analysis, and the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies.
The defection from the Meese Center was particularly symbolic. The center is named after Ed Meese, the Reagan-era attorney general who, at age 94, has long served as the moral and intellectual anchor of Heritage's legal work.
The Journal reports that Meese himself endorsed the move — and shortly thereafter quit Heritage altogether — underscoring how deeply the rupture runs.
For decades, Heritage positioned itself as the flagship institution of Reagan conservatism; now many of the figures who embodied that tradition are walking away.
The Journal places responsibility squarely on Roberts, arguing that since his arrival as president, Heritage has abandoned its founding principles in favor of simply a populist agenda.
Where Heritage once championed free trade, it now embraces protectionist policies. Where it supported a strong U.S. foreign policy, it purged its defense hawks two years ago.
And where it once defended originalism and the rule of law, the editorial says it now rationalizes expansion of executive power even when constitutional justification is thin.
A major source of internal outrage, according to the Journal, has been Roberts' refusal to condemn antisemitism on the right — particularly that associated with media personality Tucker Carlson, whom Roberts and his allies admire.
The editorial notes that Roberts defended Carlson after he conducted a "softball" interview with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, a figure widely regarded as openly antisemitic.
Fuentes has praised Adolf Hitler, denied the Holocaust, and promoted conspiracy theories portraying Jews as controlling governments and financial systems.
Carlson himself has repeatedly promoted antisemitic tropes, including suggesting that Jewish organizations push immigration policies to "replace" Americans, amplifying the so-called "great replacement" theory, and portraying Jews as sinister elites undermining America and Western civilization.
These themes, critics argue, echo classic antisemitic conspiracy theories.
When pressed, Roberts reportedly argued there should be "no enemies to the right," a remark the Journal says crystallized the moral and strategic collapse of Heritage's leadership.
The fallout has been swift.
Several Heritage board members have resigned, along with Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore.
Three board members are reported to have quit outright, and prominent fellows have followed suit. Donors, too, are fleeing.
The Journal reports that Pence's organization has already raised more than $13 million toward a $15 million goal to fund the departing analysts for three years — money that once would likely have flowed to Heritage.
Later the same day as the mass defection, two additional Heritage stalwarts, Cully Stimson and Hans von Spakovsky, resigned, citing "a heavy heart and profound sadness." Both are longtime conservative figures whose departures further signal the depth of the crisis.
The Journal concludes that Heritage's unraveling is a warning to the broader conservative movement. A think tank, it argues, is ultimately a collection of people and donors united by shared principles.
By abandoning those principles under Roberts' leadership, Heritage is losing its people — and soon, the editorial warns, there may not be much left worth donating to at all.
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