Former Vice President Mike Pence is poaching top names from the Heritage Foundation, of Project 2025 infamy, as he scales up another political comeback.
Pence, 66, is building up his own think tank, Advancing American Freedom, which will oppose tariffs, isolationism, and “big-government populism,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
The friend-turned-foe of President Donald Trump said his group will stop propping up MAGA figures like Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who lacks a medical background, and will push to strengthen support of Ukraine.
Pence said the Heritage Foundation, an influence behind much of Trump’s policy this year, has been “abandoning its principles” and has “fallen” for altering its stance on the above issues.
“Why these people are coming our way is that Heritage and some other voices and commentators have embraced big-government populism and have been willing to tolerate antisemitism,” Pence told the Journal.
The Washington-based Advancing American Freedom is reportedly hiring 15 people from the Heritage Foundation, including John Malcolm, head of the foundation’s legal and judicial studies center; Kevin Dayaratna, head of its data analysis center; and Richard Stern, director of its economic policy studies institute.
The Journal reports that seven of the other staffers jumping ship are from Malcom’s team.
Those departures have not sat well with the Heritage Foundation, which accused its fellow Republicans of disloyalty. Heritage’s chief advancement officer, Andy Olivastro, further alleged that some of those departing were fired first.
Malcolm and another staffer were “terminated for conduct inconsistent with Heritage’s mission and standards” last week, Olivastro said. He did not elaborate on exactly what the staffers did to get canned.
“Our mission is unchanged, and our leadership is strong and decisive,” Heritage said in a statement. “Heritage has always welcomed debate, but alignment on mission and loyalty to the institution are non-negotiable. A handful of staff chose a different path—some through disruption, others through disloyalty.”
Other MAGA figures, including Donald Trump Jr., also weighed in on the intra-party civil war.
“Personally, I think it’s great news for Heritage that a bunch of Trump-hating RINOs are leaving,” the president’s eldest child posted to X. “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!”
The right-wing political consultant Alex Bruesewitz agreed.
He wrote, “Word on the street is that some of the staffers leaving the Heritage Foundation are heading to Mike Pence’s organization. Congrats to @Heritage! The clowns are leaving their organization. These departures will also open jobs up for patriots who believe in America First!”
Trump, 79, has held an iron grip on the Republican Party since 2016. That has meant Republicans adjust their priorities based on the president’s ever-changing beliefs, including his backtracking on multiple issues, such as the declassification of the Epstein files and the nationwide TikTok ban.
There has been a notable shift in recent months, however, as Trump has his party’s approval rating plummeting, thanks in part to controversial immigration policies and an affordability crisis he maintains is a “hoax.”
There have also been significant attention on the president’s growing frailty, which the Daily Beast has cataloged for months, and top allies like Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene have abandoned the president’s coalition.
Prominent GOP officials, like Pence, are now jockeying for power in the party. Trump’s time in office is up in January 2029. Pence ran for president in 2024 but, like most Republican challengers to Trump, failed to win a single primary before dropping out.
Helping push staffers to his own think tank was a video by the Heritage Foundation’s leader, Kevin Roberts, who defended Tucker Carlson’s bizarre interview with Nick Fuentes, well known for his White Nationalist stances and antisemitism.
Roberts was “widely criticized” at a staff meeting after posting video, the Journal reported. Three board members have since resigned.
Roberts, 51, of Louisiana, later apologized for his defense of Carlson, but has refused to delete the clip from his social media accounts. The Journal reports that Roberts has said privately that he will not delete the video.
