More than a dozen employees at the Heritage Foundation left their posts over the weekend amid widening ideological rifts within the conservative movement and escalating internal tensions at the influential think tank.
“This weekend, most of our staff, from our legal and economic centers, are departing immediately,” Heritage President Kevin Roberts wrote in a Sunday night email to employees. “We wish them well, though the manner of their departures speaks volumes.”
Those who left include several high-profile leaders who joined former Vice President Mike Pence’s Washington-based advocacy group, Advancing American Freedom.
The defections come amid mounting criticism of Heritage from traditional conservatives who say the organization has drifted from its core principles.
“Today, Advancing American Freedom added 13 of the most respected scholars and staffers in Washington, D.C.,” AAF President Tim Chapman told the Washington Examiner on Monday. “Their work on the Constitution, economics, taxes, the Second Amendment, and banking, among other issue areas, totally and completely speaks for itself. There’s a lot of dust in the air, but what we are focused on here at AAF is building a principled public policy organization.”
AAF tenets include a belief in free markets, limited government, and the rule of law.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Pence said he has long respected the Heritage Foundation but believes the group has strayed from its founding mission. He argued it had “abandoned its principles” by embracing a more isolationist posture, withdrawing support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, backing tariffs, and supporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Pence added that Heritage employees are willing to make the move to his organization because “Heritage and some other voices and commentators have embraced big-government populism and have been willing to tolerate antisemitism.”
Pence has wielded diminished influence within the Republican Party since his break with President Donald Trump in 2021 over the president’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Pence struggled to gain traction in his 2024 presidential run, dropping out without winning a single primary. Even so, he has retained a following among conservatives who have resisted Trump’s handling of the party.
The Heritage Foundation, which still carries significant clout in D.C., played a central role in drafting the controversial policy blueprint known as Project 2025. Trump initially disavowed it but has since embraced several key principles.
In the past several months, Heritage has been rocked by internal upheaval.
For some, the breaking point came after a video released by Roberts in which he defended former Fox News host Tucker Carlson following backlash over Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes, a white supremacist and Holocaust denier. Roberts claimed that he was trying to appeal to Fuentes’s followers, who might be open to Heritage’s outlook. Several apologies later, Roberts said the foundation had severed ties with Carlson, although he stated he was still friends with the former Fox star-turned-podcaster.
Earlier this month, Heritage Foundation Trustees Shane McCullar and Abby Spencer Moffat became the second and third board members to leave the foundation, citing concerns over antisemitism and the foundation’s direction. Former board member Steven P. George left in November.
“No institution that hesitates to condemn antisemitism and hatred—or that gives a platform to those who spread them—can credibly claim to uphold the vision that once made the Heritage Foundation the world’s most respected conservative think tank,” McCullar said in a statement. “And, I cannot, in good conscience, remain on a board that is unwilling to confront the lapses in judgment that have harmed its credibility, its culture, and the conservative movement it once helped shape.”
Heritage Foundation Chief Advancement Officer Andy Olivastro accused the departing staff members on Monday of being disloyal to the cause. He also said two former leaders, including John Malcolm, the head of the foundation’s legal and judicial studies center, had been terminated for “conduct inconsistent with Heritage’s mission and standards.”
“Heritage has always welcomed debate, but alignment on mission and loyalty to the institution are nonnegotiable,” Olivastro said. “Their departures clear the way for a stronger, more focused team.”
Donald Trump Jr. waded into the controversy on Monday by posting on X: “Personally, I think it’s great news for Heritage that a bunch of Trump-hating RINOs are leaving. Anyone who would want to go work for Mike Pence’s globalist never-Trump organization isn’t MAGA and definitely doesn’t put America First!”
Others who left Heritage for AAF include Kevin Dayaratna, the head of the foundation’s data analysis center, and Richard Stern, the director of the foundation’s Economic Policy Studies Institute. Malcolm has purportedly taken seven members of his center’s team with him to AAF.
AAF said it had raised more than $10 million in a few weeks for the new hires.
PAIR OF HERITAGE FOUNDATION BOARD MEMBERS RESIGN OVER CARLSON FALLOUT
Chapman, a former Heritage chief of staff, and Marc Short, Pence’s longtime chief of staff, orchestrated the mass migration to AAF, according to the Wall Street Journal. Several executives approached Champan after Roberts’s video was released and asked if AAF would hire them.
“It was a moment of opportunity we didn’t necessarily see coming three months ago. It supercharges our capacity on a whole number of fronts,” Chapman said.