Since Kevin Roberts took the helm of the Heritage Foundation two years ago, the half-century-old institution has seen a transformation in how it approaches key issues as former President Trump keeps pushing the right in a more populist direction.
Most notably among those is foreign policy, particularly relating to U.S. aid to Ukraine. In 2022, the hugely influential think tank’s advocacy arm, Heritage Action, surprised Washington by fully shedding its once-hawkish policies to oppose an aid package to Ukraine.
Roberts acknowledged at the time the organization “blindsided D.C. policymakers.”
“Since then, there has been a huge coalescing on the political right around what I will call the Heritage position,” Roberts said in an interview.
“We are in a period when conservatives have to be prioritizers,” he said. “We’re neither isolationists nor interventionists. But we are ruthlessly objective about a reality in the United States we lament, which is that we’re economically weaker, we’re militarily weaker, we’re morally weaker, we’re socially weaker.”
“While it might be nice to wield American military power, whenever and however we want with blank checks, it is impossible,” Roberts said.
He added that under his leadership, the Heritage ecosystem has significantly expanded its state-based lobbying operations — building on Roberts’s experience in leading the state-based Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Whereas in the past Heritage groups would be working in only three or four states on one or two issues, Roberts says it is now active in 28 states on all seven of its major policy priorities, which include crime, election administration, slashing regulations and spending and anti-abortion issues.
“[As] the [conservative] movement figures out what a post-Trump movement looks like — that could be next year, or it could be 2029 after he has left office after his second term — Heritage is going to play a leading role, if not the leading role, in that,” he said.