Heritage Foundation

Heritage Foundation Publishes 800-Page Constitutional Guide as Trump's Judicial Roadmap

| Importance: 8/10

The Heritage Foundation released an 800-page ‘Guide to the Constitution’ featuring contributions from Trump appointees and prefaced by Justice Samuel Alito, serving as Trump’s blueprint for Supreme Court nominations and legal interpretation. The guide promotes an originalist …

Heritage Foundation Justice Samuel Alito Donald Trump Supreme Court judicial-capture institutional-capture constitutional-subversion project-2025
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Mass Inspector General Firings Implement Project 2025 Plan

| Importance: 9/10

On September 1, 2025, President Trump initiated a massive purge of federal Inspectors General, firing approximately 17 independent watchdogs across multiple agencies. These dismissals, explicitly outlined in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint, violated federal law requiring …

Donald Trump Chuck Grassley Chuck Schumer Elizabeth Warren Robert Storch +2 more inspector-general-purge oversight-elimination executive-power accountability-removal project-2025 +2 more
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ALEC Publishes 'Essential Policy Solutions 2025' Playbook - State-Level Corporate and Income Tax Elimination Agenda, Coordination with Federal Project 2025

| Importance: 8/10

In February 2025, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) published its ‘Essential Policy Solutions’ playbook for 2025, doubling down on its decades-long campaign to eliminate state corporate and individual income taxes and replace them with higher sales taxes—a regressive shift …

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Lisa Nelson Arthur Laffer State Policy Network Heritage Foundation +4 more alec tax-policy state-legislation corporate-corruption regressive-taxation +6 more
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JD Vance Writes Foreword for Project 2025 Architect's Book

| Importance: 8/10

Vice President-elect JD Vance writes the foreword to “Dawn’s Early Light” by Kevin Roberts, the architect of Project 2025. In the foreword, Vance calls for “offensive conservatism” and “rebuild[ing]” government, endorsing the Heritage Foundation’s …

J.D. Vance Kevin Roberts Heritage Foundation Paul Dans Steven Groves succession-risk jd-vance project-2025 authoritarian-consolidation government-purge +2 more
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Paul Dans departs as Project 2025 director amid campaign controversy

| Importance: 6/10

Paul Dans departed as Project 2025 director on July 30, 2024, amid Trump campaign pressure to distance from the Heritage Foundation blueprint. The departure followed campaign concerns about the project becoming a political liability, though Russell Vought later claimed Trump privately supports the …

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Heritage Foundation launches Project 2025 initiative

| Importance: 8/10

Heritage Foundation launched $22 million “2025 Presidential Transition Project” published April 2023, bringing together 140+ former Trump staffers and 100+ conservative organizations. Created 920-page “Mandate for Leadership” blueprint, LinkedIn-style personnel database, …

Heritage Foundation Kevin Roberts Paul Dans Mark Meadows Stephen Miller +4 more project-2025 heritage-foundation conservative-blueprint government-transformation
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Leaked Video Exposes Heritage Action's $24 Million Voter Suppression Campaign Coordinating State Legislation

| Importance: 9/10

A leaked video obtained by the watchdog group Documented and shared with Mother Jones revealed that Heritage Action for America, the advocacy arm of the Heritage Foundation, was orchestrating a coordinated $24 million campaign to push voter restriction legislation across eight key battleground …

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440 Voter Restriction Bills Introduced in 49 States - ALEC's Largest Suppression Wave

| Importance: 10/10

Throughout 2021, at least 440 bills containing voter restriction provisions were introduced across 49 states, representing the largest coordinated assault on voting rights since Jim Crow and demonstrating ALEC’s systematic model legislation deployment at unprecedented scale. The Brennan Center …

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Heritage Foundation Heritage Action Republican state legislators State Policy Network alec voter-suppression electoral-manipulation big-lie voting-rights +3 more
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CNP Coordinates National COVID-19 Anti-Lockdown Protest Movement

| Importance: 8/10

In April 2020, CNP Action (the 501(c)(4) affiliate of the Council for National Policy) began hosting weekly conference calls to coordinate conservative response tactics to the COVID-19 pandemic, mobilizing Tea Party-like protests against virus-related public safety lockdowns in swing states.

The …

Council for National Policy CNP Action Stephen Moore Heritage Foundation FreedomWorks +3 more cnp conservative-movement coordination covid-19 astroturfing +1 more
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Trump Signs Tax Cuts and Jobs Act - Corporate Rate Permanently Slashed from 35% to 21%, Pass-Through Deduction, Estate Tax Exemption Doubled, $1.9 Trillion Added to Deficit

| Importance: 10/10

On December 22, 2017, President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) into law, enacting the most sweeping tax reform package in 30 years and permanently slashing the corporate tax rate from 35% to a flat 21%—a 40% reduction representing the largest corporate tax cut in American …

Donald Trump Paul Ryan Mitch McConnell Kevin Brady Orrin Hatch +5 more tax-policy trump-administration corporate-corruption wealth-transfer deficit-spending +5 more
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Ed Feulner Returns as Heritage Foundation Interim President After DeMint Ousted for Management Failures

| Importance: 7/10

Ed Feulner, who had retired as Heritage Foundation president in 2013 after 36 years of leadership, returned as interim president and CEO on May 2, 2017, after Heritage’s Board of Trustees unanimously forced out Jim DeMint due to “significant and worsening management issues” that …

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Trump Promises All Supreme Court Picks Will Come From Federalist Society

| Importance: 10/10

During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump made a pivotal strategic commitment to outsource Supreme Court nominee selection entirely to the Federalist Society, a move that would fundamentally reshape the federal judiciary. In March 2016, Trump, campaign lawyer Don McGahn, and Federalist Society …

Donald Trump Leonard Leo Don McGahn Neil Gorsuch Brett Kavanaugh +3 more trump-judicial-nominees federalist-society-vetting leonard-leo supreme-court-outsourcing judicial-capture +2 more
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Richard Mellon Scaife Dies After Investing $620 Million in Conservative Movement Infrastructure

| Importance: 9/10

Richard Mellon Scaife, the billionaire heir to the Mellon banking and aluminum fortune who became the most important financial architect of the modern conservative movement, died on July 4, 2014, one day after his 82nd birthday, after a battle with cancer. Scaife’s death marked the end of a …

Richard Scaife Sarah Scaife Foundation Carthage Foundation Allegheny Foundation Heritage Foundation +5 more dark-money conservative-movement heritage-foundation federalist-society state-policy-network +5 more
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Edwin Feulner Retires as Heritage Foundation President After 36 Years Building Conservative Movement Infrastructure

| Importance: 9/10

Edwin J. Feulner Jr. retired as president of the Heritage Foundation on April 3, 2013, after an extraordinary 36-year tenure that transformed Heritage from a small Capitol Hill operation with 9 staff members and a $1 million budget into the most influential conservative think tank in Washington, …

Edwin Feulner Heritage Foundation Jim DeMint Richard Scaife Newt Gingrich +3 more heritage-foundation conservative-movement think-tank-influence institutional-capture dark-money +4 more
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DonorsTrust Organizational Profile: Dark Money ATM Enabling Anonymous Billionaire Political Spending

| Importance: 9/10

Comprehensive organizational analysis reveals DonorsTrust and Donors Capital Fund as the central infrastructure for conservative dark money operations, earning designation as ‘Dark Money ATM of The Right.’ Founded in 1999 by Whitney Lynn Ball and Kimberly Dennis (both from Philanthropy …

DonorsTrust Donors Capital Fund Whitney Lynn Ball Kimberly Dennis Lawson Bader +5 more organizational-profile dark-money donor-advised-fund anonymity-infrastructure koch-network +4 more
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ALEC Creates Model Voter ID Legislation Following Obama Election

| Importance: 9/10

ALEC’s Public Safety and Elections Task Force approved the “Voter ID Act” model legislation at its July 2009 Atlanta meeting, with final Board of Directors approval on August 27, 2009. The model bill was created in direct response to Barack Obama’s 2008 election victory and …

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Hans von Spakovsky Heritage Foundation ALEC Public Safety and Elections Task Force alec voter-suppression electoral-manipulation corporate-influence state-capture +2 more
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Koch Network Mobilizes to Kill Waxman-Markey Cap-and-Trade Climate Bill

| Importance: 9/10

After the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act (cap-and-trade climate bill) on June 26, 2009, the Koch brothers’ network immediately launched a massive campaign to kill the legislation in the Senate. Americans for Prosperity, whose top …

Koch brothers Charles Koch David Koch Americans for Prosperity Heritage Foundation +4 more climate-denial regulatory-capture lobbying environmental corporate-corruption +1 more
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Hurricane Katrina Enables .4B No-Bid Disaster Capitalism Takeover

| Importance: 8/10

Hurricane Katrina became the largest implementation of ‘disaster capitalism’ in U.S. history, with corporate interests using the crisis to advance privatization agendas previously blocked. Within 10 days of the levees breaking, .4 billion in no-bid contracts were awarded to four major …

Dick Cheney Halliburton Bechtel Shaw Group Fluor +1 more hurricane-katrina disaster-capitalism no-bid-contracts privatization displacement
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DC Opportunity Scholarship Program - First Federally-Funded School Voucher System

| Importance: 7/10

On January 22, 2004, President George W. Bush signed the DC School Choice Incentive Act, creating the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP)—the first federally-funded private school voucher program in American history. Congress used its constitutional authority over the District of Columbia to …

President George W. Bush Speaker Dennis Hastert Senator Judd Gregg DC Public Schools Heritage Foundation +1 more education vouchers privatization federal-policy washington-dc
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Bush Signs JGTRRA - Dividend and Capital Gains Rates Slashed to 15%, Massively Favoring Investment Income Over Wages

| Importance: 8/10

On May 28, 2003, President George W. Bush signed the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (JGTRRA) into law, completing the second phase of the Bush tax cuts and fundamentally restructuring taxation to favor investment income over wages. The legislation reduced the long-term capital gains …

George W. Bush Dick Cheney Bill Thomas Charles Grassley Americans for Tax Reform +3 more tax-policy bush-administration supply-side-economics capital-gains dividend-taxation +4 more
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Heritage Foundation Coordinates with WHIG for Crisis-Accelerated Implementation of Powell Memorandum Blueprint

| Importance: 8/10

The Heritage Foundation, cornerstone institution of the Powell Memorandum corporate capture strategy, establishes systematic coordination with the White House Iraq Group to exploit the 9/11 crisis for accelerated implementation of long-term institutional capture objectives. This coordination …

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Bush Signs EGTRRA Tax Cuts - Top Rate Reduced from 39.6% to 35%, Estate Tax Phased Out, Beginning $1.5 Trillion Debt Increase

| Importance: 8/10

On June 7, 2001, President George W. Bush signed the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (EGTRRA) into law, enacting the first wave of the ‘Bush tax cuts’ that would add approximately $1.5 trillion to the national debt over the 2002-2011 decade, excluding interest. The …

George W. Bush Dick Cheney Paul O'Neill Dennis Hastert Trent Lott +3 more tax-policy bush-administration supply-side-economics wealth-transfer deficit-spending +4 more
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State Policy Network (Madison Group) Founded - State-Level Think Tank Coordination

| Importance: 8/10

In 1986, the Madison Group was established as an informal confederation of state-level think tanks and their supporters, named after the Madison Hotel in Washington, DC where they first met. This network, which would be formalized as the State Policy Network (SPN) in 1992, represented the extension …

Thomas A. Roe American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Heritage Foundation South Carolina Policy Council Heartland Institute think-tank-infrastructure state-capture alec-coordination powell-memo-implementation coordinated-networks
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A Nation at Risk Report Launches Education Reform Industry, Lays Groundwork for Privatization

| Importance: 8/10

On April 26, 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education released “A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform,” a report that fundamentally reshaped American education discourse and laid the ideological groundwork for decades of privatization efforts. The …

National Commission on Excellence in Education Secretary of Education Terrel Bell Ronald Reagan Heritage Foundation education privatization reagan-era manufactured-crisis school-choice +1 more
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Heritage Foundation Expands to 100+ Staff with $10 Million Budget During Reagan Administration Peak Influence

| Importance: 8/10

The Heritage Foundation reached over 100 staff members and a $10 million annual budget by 1983, representing explosive growth during the Reagan administration’s implementation of Heritage policy recommendations. In just six years since Ed Feulner became president in 1977, Heritage had grown …

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CNP Completes "Three-Legged Stool" with Heritage and ALEC - Coordination Infrastructure Operational

| Importance: 10/10

By the end of 1981, Paul Weyrich had established the three core institutions that would serve as the infrastructure for conservative movement coordination for the next four decades: Heritage Foundation (policy research), ALEC (state legislation), and CNP (coordination hub).

Weyrich co-founded …

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Reagan Signs Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA) - Top Rate Slashed from 70% to 50%, Corporate Tax Cuts Total $150 Billion Over Five Years

| Importance: 9/10

On August 13, 1981, President Ronald Reagan signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA) into law, enacting one of the largest tax cuts in American history. The Act reduced the highest marginal individual income tax rate from 70% to 50% and the lowest rate from 14% to 11%, implementing an …

Ronald Reagan Jack Kemp William Roth David Stockman Heritage Foundation +3 more tax-policy reagan-administration supply-side-economics corporate-corruption wealth-transfer +4 more
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Ronald Reagan Elected President, Conservative Infrastructure Achieves Powell Memo Goals

| Importance: 10/10

Ronald Reagan wins the presidency in a 44-state Electoral College landslide, marking the triumph of the conservative infrastructure deliberately built over nine years in response to the Powell Memo blueprint. Reagan’s victory demonstrates the effectiveness of coordinated institutional power …

Ronald Reagan Heritage Foundation Paul Weyrich Edwin Feulner Edwin Meese III +2 more reagan-presidency conservative-movement heritage-foundation powell-memo electoral-victory +1 more
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Reagan Aide Edwin Meese Coordinates with Heritage on "Mandate for Leadership"

| Importance: 9/10

Edwin Meese III, senior aide to Ronald Reagan’s presidential campaign, makes a surprise appearance at a Heritage Foundation dinner honoring the team chairmen and co-chairmen working on the “Mandate for Leadership” project, demonstrating direct coordination between the Reagan …

Edwin Meese III Ronald Reagan Edwin Feulner Heritage Foundation Charles Heatherly heritage-foundation mandate-for-leadership reagan-campaign conservative-coordination campaign-policy-coordination
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Edwin Feulner Becomes Heritage Foundation President, Beginning 36-Year Tenure Building Conservative Policy Infrastructure

| Importance: 9/10

Edwin J. Feulner Jr., co-founder of the Heritage Foundation in 1973, assumed the presidency of the conservative think tank in 1977, beginning what would become a transformative 36-year tenure that built Heritage from a modest Capitol Hill operation with 9 staff members into the preeminent …

Edwin Feulner Heritage Foundation Paul Weyrich Richard Scaife Joseph Coors +3 more heritage-foundation conservative-movement think-tank-influence institutional-capture dark-money +4 more
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Richard Mellon Scaife Becomes Heritage Foundation's Primary Donor

| Importance: 8/10

Billionaire Richard Mellon Scaife emerges as the Heritage Foundation’s largest and most crucial donor, contributing $420,000 in 1976 alone - representing 42 percent of the foundation’s total $1 million annual budget. Scaife’s massive financial commitment transforms Heritage from a …

Richard Mellon Scaife Heritage Foundation Scaife Family Charitable Trust Joseph Coors Edwin Meese III billionaire-funding think-tank-expansion conservative-infrastructure political-influence narrative-control +2 more
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Heritage Foundation Organizational Profile: Conservative Policy Infrastructure and Corporate Capture Mechanism

| Importance: 9/10

Comprehensive organizational analysis reveals the Heritage Foundation’s structure as a systematic corporate capture mechanism. Founded by Paul Weyrich, Edwin Feulner, and funded with Joseph Coors’ $250,000 seed money, Heritage grew from startup to $100M+ annual revenue by 2010s, reaching …

Heritage Foundation Paul Weyrich Edwin Feulner Joseph Coors Richard Mellon Scaife +3 more organizational-profile think-tank-infrastructure corporate-capture revolving-door dark-money +2 more
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ALEC Founded to Coordinate Corporate Model Legislation Across State Legislatures

| Importance: 9/10

Conservative activist Paul Weyrich, with Representatives Henry Hyde and others, founds the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in Chicago—the same year Weyrich co-founds the Heritage Foundation with financial backing from beer magnate Joseph Coors. ALEC is established specifically to …

Paul Weyrich Henry Hyde American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) Heritage Foundation Joseph Coors +1 more alec state-capture model-legislation corporate-lobbying conservative-movement +1 more
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