Mike Pence Poaches Heritage Foundation Staff After Tucker CarlsonNick Fuentes Blowup
Mother JonesDEC 2025
Pence-led Group Hires Heritage Staff
Is Heritage Foundation strengthening conservatism with bold reform, or abandoning its principled intellectual foundation?
Above: Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence participates in a television interview outside of the funeral service of former Vice President Dick Cheney at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. on Nov. 20, 2025. Image credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
The Spin
Narrative A
Mike Pence's think tank poaching Heritage staff reveals the organization's desperate attempt to undermine genuine conservative reform. These departures represent those unwilling to adapt to the new direction needed for the movement, clinging instead to failed policies of the past. Heritage's evolution under new leadership actually strengthens conservatism by rejecting outdated dogma.
Narrative B
The Heritage Foundation has abandoned its founding principles by embracing Trumpian populism over Reagan conservatism. The mass exodus of top scholars to Pence's organization demonstrates that serious policy experts refuse to work at an institution that now defends executive overreach and stifles free-market research. Heritage's transformation from principled think tank to power-hungry political operation leaves conservatism without its intellectual anchor.
Metaculus Prediction
Public Figures
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© 2026 Improve the News Foundation. All rights reserved.Version 6.18.0
© 2026 Improve the News Foundation.
All rights reserved.
Version 6.18.0