Welcome back to Washington Secrets! You might notice things look a little different after a brief hiatus. The legendary Paul Bedard finally got to put his feet up after 45 years in the news business. This is Rob Crilly checking in with all things Washington and secret. I plan to keep some things the same and do some things differently. More on that later. But for now, the show must go on.
If Mike Pence is going to save conservatism from the populist sharks, then he’s going to need a bigger boat. Or at least a bigger office.
The headquarters of his Advancing American Freedom think tank is crammed with refugees from the Heritage Foundation.
Every desk in its ninth-floor office on Pennsylvania Avenue is filled, and the overflow has set up shop in the conference room.
“When we set this up, we thought it would be a one-man band,” the former vice president told Secrets as he surveyed the makeshift workspace. A long conference table was covered with laptops, briefing papers and someone’s sandwiches in a tupperware box.
So far, 16 people have left Heritage for AAF. The trigger was a row involving Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes and the debate within the conservative movement over antisemitism.
A slew of staffers resigned when Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, the architect of Project 2025’s blueprint for Donald Trump’s second administration, initially defended Tucker Carlson for his soft interview with Fuentes.
The antisemitism headlines may have provided cover to flee, but Pence and his lieutenants believe that dispute was simply the top layer in a deeper split, one that offers a chance for traditional conservatism — the right to life, a Reaganite approach to international alliances, and the rejection of state capitalism — to regain ground from MAGA’s populist grab bag of policies.
It could be just the start as the Republican Party embarks on life after Trump.
“Now we feel a great responsibility with the shift towards the populist right in the movement,” Pence said. “But I still believe we represent the majority.”
The former vice president looks trim and tan. He had just arrived from Indiana, but he will be back and forth frequently as he takes up a teaching role at George Mason University.
He remains a target for MAGA loyalists, who accuse him of disloyalty for certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, but after spending time in the political wilderness, his star is rising again.
The rapid growth of AAF will give him a chance to shape the debate around this year’s midterm elections. And his media appearances are becoming more frequent. On Sunday, he told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he had worries about the “questionable constitutional authority” used by Trump to pursue Greenland.
All that means Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff at the White House, has his eye on extra office space two floors below their current suite. If the policy wonks keep coming, then AAF will have to look for a new address altogether, he said.
“If we’re going to be the organization that’s going to remind Republicans and conservatives that we don’t stand for big government populism, then that’s a big mission, and it might require a lot more people,” he said.
He spoke to Secrets in Pence’s office, with the dome of the Capitol shining in the distance.
With the conference room full to bursting and every other spot occupied, it was the only place for a quiet chat.
Short said he expected more arrivals.
Even if one of Trump’s political superpowers is a double-edged magnetism.
“He’s so good at providing access,” Short said. “So I think for a lot of them, they don’t want to lose that access by criticizing him.”
Instead, he said, there were second-term policies that deserved credit, such as extending tax relief, striking Iran, and removing Nicolas Maduro: “Even if I think we have reservations and would say you should allow the Venezuelans to choose their own leader.”
On the debit side is a lack of action on abortion, he said
“Here’s where next week we have the March for Life,” he said, gesturing at Pennsylvania Avenue beneath the window, “wondering why they keep approving [abortion pill] mifepristone and really not taking a stand for life.”
Trump will record a video message for the rally.
Pence will be hosting a hot chocolate reception for frozen marchers and, no doubt, trying to sign up more recruits from MAGAworld.
PENCE BECOMES UNLIKELY FACE OF CONSERVATIVE OPPOSITION TO TRUMP AND POPULISM
London’s message to Europe: Keep calm and carry on
With everyone freaking out over Greenland, Secrets can almost smell the very British irritation in this message, which basically urges everyone to take a deep breath. Particularly the Europeans. Particularly the French, whose president, Emmanuel Macron, is urging the use of the trade “bazooka” to hit back.
“NATO leaders had to deliver a firm response to POTUS’ audacious outburst. European emotions continue to run high but hysteria rarely helps. Cool heads will now serve European objectives best,” a British official told Secrets.
“We know Trump escalates to deescalate. Expect our focus to be on lowering temperatures and finding diplomatic off-ramps. Plus showing that NATO takes Arctic security seriously.
“Moscow and Beijing would be the big winners from a deeper NATO/US bust-up.”
Secrets sourcing
So welcome back to Secrets. As I said, I’ll be keeping some things the same with the Secrets newsletter, and changing some things up. I hope you will join me for the ride. Because I need you.
What did you find interesting today? What didn’t you like? Do you have a tip for me, or did you just see something odd that might make a few paragraphs in Washington Secrets? You can email me at [email protected], and you can find me here on X.
The White House marks a year of Trump
Tuesday marks the first anniversary of Trump’s second inauguration, and the White House plans to mark it in much the same way it has governed, by telling its story to the smaller and alternative media outlets and sidelining the bigger beasts.
It will hold a “media row” — you know the sort of thing … reporters with microphones and cameras in a line — where Cabinet secretaries and other top administration officials will trumpet successes.
Expect to hear plenty about border security and the economy, as well as foreign policy wins. And expect to see officials make a beeline for the friendlier, new media outlets that have prospered under Trump.
“A large focus of the President’s first year in office has been on local and new media, to meet the people where they are,” a senior White House official told me via text message.
Lunchtime reading
Trump abandons ‘obligation’ for peace in Greenland dispute after being rejected for Nobel: “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.”
Pro-Putin spy nuns infiltrating Sweden: Sisters from a notorious Belarusian convent, with links to Kremlin intelligence, are allegedly fueling a cynical propaganda war