Secret Pentagon Memo Has Heritage Foundation Fingerprints

Here is more from the Washington Post:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reoriented the U.S. military to prioritize deterring China’s seizure of Taiwan and shoring up homeland defense by “assuming risk” in Europe and other parts of the world, according to a secret internal guidance memo that bears the fingerprints of the conservative Heritage Foundation, including some passages that are nearly word-for-word duplications of text published by the think tank last year.

The document, known as the Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance and marked “secret/no foreign national” in most passages, was distributed throughout the Defense Department in mid-March and signed by Hegseth. It outlines, in broad and sometimes partisan detail, the execution of President Donald Trump’s vision to prepare for and win a potential war against Beijing and defend the United States from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama Canal.

The interim guidance is nine pages. Several passages throughout are similar to a longer 2024 report by the Heritage Foundation, some of which are nearly identical, according to The Washington Post’s analysis of both documents. One of the Heritage report’s co-authors, Alexander Velez-Green, is now in an interim role as the Pentagon’s top policy official.

The Heritage report, published in August, recommends that the Pentagon prioritize three core issues: Taiwan invasion deterrence, homeland defense, and increased burden sharing among allies and partners — which the Hegseth guidance mirrors. The congressional aide said it was readily apparent to Capitol Hill staff that the document bore the influence of the conservative think tank.

 

The article goes on to note that Maj. Gen. Garrick Harmon, the head of strategy and plans at Africa Command, recommended that they read the Heritage report, which has been circulated by at least one official within the command.

Think Tank Quickies (#513)

• Career civil servants and foreign service officers who staffed the State Department's Policy Planning Staff office, which has historically served as the secretary of State's in-house think tank, were all let go and reassigned into limbo without clarity on their next jobs. 
• Despite Trump's past disavowals, many of the individuals involved in drafting Project 2025, such as Russell Vought and Brendan Carr, have been tapped to serve in prominent positions in his Administration.
• Several Cabinet-level officials, including the secretaries of education, agriculture, veterans affairs, and housing, have worked for AFPI. Trump's attorney general, Pam Bondi, reported earning $520,000 from AFPI in 2024. John Ratcliffe and Kash Patel, Trump's directors of the CIA and FBI, served as members of the group's American Security Team.  All told so far, AFPI doled out nearly $2.6 million to incoming Trump Administration officials in recent years.
• Former acting Labor Secretary Julie Su is joining The Century Foundation as a senior fellow.
• Left-leaning economic policy think tank Groundwork Collaborative has added a pair of former Biden Administration staffers as progressives gear up to try and extract policy wins in this year's tax fight.
• Former Biden economist Jed Kolko has joined JPMorgan's think tank.
  
• National Institute for Deterrence Studies (NIDS), a "think tank" based in Fairborn, Ohio.
• Atlantic Council Global Foresight 2025 survey of hundreds of experts reveals that most believe the world will be worse off in 2035 than it is today.
• The Treasury Department has frozen funding disbursements to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). 
• A fairly new group known as the Ben Franklin Fellowship is helping pick who to place where at the US State Department.

New Zealand Sacks Top Diplomat Over Talk at Think Tank

Here is more from the New York Times:

New Zealand on Thursday recalled its top diplomat in Britain after he made comments questioning President Trump’s understanding of history at a public event, in a sign of the unease and sensitivities around expressing disagreements with the Trump administration.

Phil Goff, New Zealand’s high commissioner to Britain — the equivalent of an ambassador between Commonwealth countries — made the comments in London on Tuesday at an event about the war in Ukraine and peace in Europe.

Mr. Goff spoke up with a question after a speech by Finland’s foreign minister, Elina Valtonen, at the Chatham House think tank, in which she spoke about the role of Europe in the face of Russian aggression and resolving the war in Ukraine.

 

While so-called Chatham House Rules, which say that the speakers at an event can be quoted but not identified, are often used by the think tank, the institute does hold events that do not adhere to that restriction.

Trump-Aligned Think Tank AFPI Planning 100-Year MAGA Plan

Here is more from Axios:

Well-funded MAGA forces close to the White House are preparing a "100-year plan" to try to sustain Trumpism long after President Trump leaves office.

Why it matters:

Top executives at the America First Policy Institute tell Axios that the group is scaling up as an incubator for the America First movement beyond Jan. 20, 2029 — promising to proselytize its policies for the next century.

The big picture: The institute was launched in 2021 — by now-Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, now-Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Larry Kudlow, a Fox Business host who was a first-term Trump official — to help keep Trump's ideas in the political ether after he left office.

• During the president's Mar-a-Lago exile and through his 2024 comeback bid, the institute became something of an administration in waiting, pumping out policy papers and staffing up with Trump 1.0 alums.

Now AFPI is retooling as a shadow White House policy shop — and training ground for future administration talent.

• The group — along with America First Works, a sister organization focused on political work and policy advocacy — just moved into a posh new office on Pennsylvania Avenue next to the Willard InterContinental, wedged between the White House and Capitol.

 

Axios notes that Greg Sindelar, CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), is interim president and CEO, replacing Rollins.  Also, Chad Wolf, Trump's former acting Homeland Security secretary, will be AFPI's executive vice president and chief strategy officer.

Think Tank Quickies (#512)

• Biden's Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo joins the Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) as a distinguished fellow.
  
• An armed man arrested at the US Capitol said he planned to burn down the Heritage Foundation.
  
• Brooke Rollins' disclosures show she made $1 million at AFPI.
• AFPI executive, Heidi Overton, expected to join Trump Domestic Policy Council.
  
• The Cato Institute is launching an external affairs department, led by Chad Davis and with Simone Shenny as director of external affairs.
• A new analysis from FOIAengine, a product developed by online data journalism platform PoliScio Analytics, found that the Heritage Foundation, which spearheaded Project 2025, used more than 7,700 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to research 1,400 federal officials in preparation for implementing the Trump agenda.
• Jessica Chen-Weiss is the inaugural director of the new Johns Hopkins SAIS Institute for America, China and the Future of Global Affairs.
  
• Alexander Velez-Green is now performing the duties of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.  He was previously named senior adviser to Under Secretary of Defense for Policy nominee Bridge Colby.  He most recently was senior policy adviser at the Heritage Foundation and has worked for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), the RAND Corporation, and the Center for a New American Security (CSAS).
• Mastermind of Iran's US influence effort appointed head of ministry think tank.
  
• Trump tried to destroy USDA's in-house think tank.
  

Defense Department's In-House Think Tank to Be Cut

Here is more from Breaking Defense:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “disestablishing” the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, a key office responsible for high-level strategic analysis, according to a memo obtained by Breaking Defense.

The memo, dated today and signed by Hegseth, directs the Pentagon’s Performance Improvement Officer and Director of Administration and Management to reassign all civilian employees to other “mission critical positions” inside the department, while military personnel will return to their service to receive new billets.

Simultaneously, the Pentagon’s top acquisition official is directed to “ensure that the necessary steps are taken” by department contracting authorities to terminate “all ONA contracts awarded for ONA and ONA-related requirements.” A number of DC think tanks and research organizations will likely be impacted by these cancelled contracts.

 

ONA is often described as the in-house think tank for the US Defense Department.

DOGE "Breaks Into" US Institute of Peace

Just days after Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) officials, accompanied by the FBI, tried to enter the US Institute of Peace (USIP), the (now former) Acting President and CEO George Moose said that DOGE "broke into" the think tank.

Here are more details from the New York Times: 

A simmering dispute between the Department of Government Efficiency and an independent agency dedicated to promoting peace broke into an open standoff involving the police on Monday, as Elon Musk’s government cutters marched into the agency’s headquarters and evicted its officials.

The dramatic scene played out in Washington on Monday afternoon as Mr. Musk’s team was rebuffed from the U.S. Institute of Peace, an agency that President Trump has ordered dismantled, then entered it with law enforcement officers. Agency officials say that because the institute is a congressionally chartered nonprofit that is not part of the executive branch, Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk do not have the authority to gut its operations.

“DOGE just came into the building — they’re inside the building — they’re bringing the F.B.I. and brought a bunch of D.C. police,” Sophia Lin, a lawyer for the institute, said by telephone as she and other officials were being escorted out.

George Moose, who was fired as the institute’s acting president last week but is challenging his dismissal, accused Mr. Musk’s team of breaking in. “Our statute is very clear about the status of this building and this institute,” he told reporters. “So what has happened here today is an illegal takeover by elements of the executive branch of a private nonprofit corporation.”

A spokesman for Mr. Musk’s team directed an inquiry to the White House. An administration official blamed the institute for not complying with an executive order signed by Mr. Trump in February, which listed the institute as one of four governmental entities to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law” and directed them to “reduce the performance” to the minimum required by law within 14 days.

 

On Friday, DOGE sent all but three of USIP's board members an email telling them they have been terminated. 

The remaining board members — Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Peter Garvin, the president of the National Defense University — later replaced Mr. Moose as acting president with Kenneth Jackson, a State Department official who was involved in the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

USIP lawyers said the think tank is preparing to sue the Trump Administration over the removal of the board. 

Update: USIP staffers reportedly removed locks and disabled internet and phone lines to try to stop the takeover, according to the Daily Caller.

Think Tank Quickies (#511)

• The Heritage Foundation made a $200,000 ad buy supporting Trump's Cabinet nominations. 
• The Heritage Foundation erected a 30-by-60-foot banner on the side of its Capitol Hill building congratulating Donald Trump.
  
• Asian companies asking which think tanks will rise under Trump.
• Dark Money is tainting Washington think tanks.
• Hanwha launches Korea Chair at UK think tank IISS.
  
• Former head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, named the new co-chair of the Bilderberg Group.
• Michael Anton, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute going into the Trump Administration, recorded a podcast in 2021 with "dark enlightenment" blogger Curtis Yarvin.
• As China's think tanks seek wider influence, is more autonomy the answer?
  
• "Hosted annually by the Tax Foundation, a think tank that generally favors lower taxes, and sponsored by major corporations, Tax Prom is Washington networking par excellence." 
• Why are Hong Kong think tanks facing a bleak future?
• American Compass has launched a new online magazine, Commonplace, aiming to be the "intellectual home of the new right-of-center" with a focus on political, economic, and cultural concerns.
  

DOGE, FBI Try to Enter Think Tank on Trump's Chopping Block

Here is more from The Hill:

U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) officials said several members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) arrived unannounced with FBI agents on Saturday but were denied access to the building after being approached by their counsel.

“They were met at the door by the Institute’s outside counsel who informed them of USIP’s private and independent status as a non-executive branch agency.  Following that discussion, the DOGE representatives departed,” Gonzo Gallegos, USIP’s director of communications, said in a statement to The Hill.

 

 Here is a statement from USIP about the incident.

Last month, President Trump signed an executive order that will significantly shrink the size and scope of USIP.

Trump Signs Executive Order to Dismantle the Wilson Center

Here is more from The Hill:

President Trump on Friday signed an executive order that aims to eliminate seven federal agencies, including ones that focus on media, libraries, museums and ending homelessness.

The president directed the government entities “be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” insisting they “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel.” It ordered the heads of each entity submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget confirming full compliance within seven days.

The president targeted the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which is the parent company of Voice of America’s (VOA), as well as the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, which is a think tank, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, which is an agency that supports libraries, archives and museums in every state.

 

Here is a link to the executive order.

Last month, Trump signed a similar executive order that will significantly shrink the size and scope of the US Institute of Peace (USIP).

Brookings May Become a Lobbying Shop

Here is more from Politico:

MORE DISCONTENT AT BROOKINGS: Employees of the Brookings Institution have sent another anonymous letter to the think tank’s trustees complaining about the management of the organization by its President Cecilia Rouse, Daniel reports.

— “After one year of her tenure, Brookings does not have a clear direction nor guidance from Dr. Rouse on where we are headed as an organization nor how to navigate the current political climate,” the letter asserts. The letter, sent last week, also argues that Rouse, the former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Biden White House, hasn’t given any guidance on how Brookings is handling federal freezes on grants.

— It requests that the board send out an independent anonymous survey to ask Brookings staffers to assess Rouse’s performance and a town hall meeting with co-chairs of the board for employees to express their concerns.

— It also says that there’s been a brain drain of employees from the think tank last year and alleges that 25 percent of Brookings’ full-time employees have left the think tank since Rouse started.

— The letter goes on to say that Brookings scholars and researchers have been told to avoid topics like DEI that are being criticized by the Trump administration and that the message was “perceived as a form of censorship and a violation of scholar independence.”  

— The letter, which is signed by “The Brookings community,” also says that there has been no search for a replacement for its chief development officer and that Rouse has relied on a consulting firm to handle fundraising instead. A recent internal presentation about fundraising shows that Brookings only “partially met” a $2 million annual fundraising goal for the “President’s Special Initiative Funds.”

— Brookings is also considering moving itself from a 501(c)(3) to a 501(h), which would allow the think tank to do lobbying to have more impact, according to internal slides of a recent executive leadership meeting. But an employee of Brookings said the potential move is making some scholars nervous because it could weaken the nonpartisan nature of Brookings.

 

Here is a previous Think Tank Watch piece about the discontent at Brookings.

Think Tank Document Prepared for Kremlin Demands Hardball for Ukraine Negotiatoins

Here is more from the Washington Post:

Russia should work to weaken the U.S. negotiating position on Ukraine by stoking tensions between the Trump administration and other countries while pushing ahead with Moscow’s efforts to dismantle the Ukrainian state, according to a document prepared for the Kremlin.

The document, written in February by an influential Moscow-based think tank close to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), lays out Russia’s maximalist demands for any end to the conflict in Ukraine. It dismisses President Donald Trump’s preliminary plans for a peace deal within 100 days as “impossible to realize” and says that “a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine crisis cannot happen before 2026.”

The document also rejects any plan to dispatch peacekeepers to Ukraine, as some in Europe have proposed, and insists on recognition of Russia’s sovereignty over the Ukrainian territories it has seized. It also calls for a further carve-up through the creation of a buffer zone in Ukraine’s northeast on the border with Russian regions such as Bryansk and Belgorod, as well as a demilitarized zone in southern Ukraine near Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. The latter would affect the Odessa region.

The document, which was obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post, highlights the challenges still facing Trump in reaching any agreement with Russia for a peace deal, now that Kyiv has endorsed Washington’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, appearing to bridge a divide between the two countries.

 

The think tank was not named by the newspaper, but it says the think tank works closely with the FSB's Fifth Service, the division that oversees operations in Ukraine.

Think Tank Quickies (#510)

• President Biden delivers major speech at Brookings, his last think tank speech as president.
• National security officials in Biden Administration trying to land coveted senior fellow posts at think tanks.
  
• Brooke Rollins, co-founder of think tank AFPI, confirmed as Trump's Agriculture Secretary.
• Think tank funders are also part of the 150-member Rockbridge Network, a secretary group of MAGA donors.
• Fred Smith, founder and longtime president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), passed away.
• American Sunlight Project: "A think tank that researches disinformation and advocates for policies that promote democracy."
• Heritage lobbying arm alum Michael Needham, who currently holds a top post at the conservative policy groups American Compass and American 2100, will be counselor to the State Department.
  
• Heritage Foundation's Robert Greenway is on the landing team for the CIA.
• The Heritage Foundation is going to spend $1 million on a campaign to pressure Republican senators into backing Pete Hegseth for SecDef.
  
• China chides CSIS' Cuba report.
  

Federal Funding Freeze Hits Think Tanks Hard

Here is more from the Wall Street Journal:

The Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank, has received notification from the State Department formally terminating grants for several China-focused projects, including research on how Beijing tries to use international institutions to advance its interests, and a program to train Latin American journalists on how to monitor Chinese influence operations in that region.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a Canberra-based think tank, said the U.S. funding halt has prompted it to stop work on China-related research and data projects—worth about $1.2 million—that focused on cybersecurity and technology issues. The think tank’s China work has often been cited by members of the U.S. Congress.

To help finance its work, ASPI is planning to charge access fees for some of its more popular research, particularly on China-related projects that require significant resources to produce and maintain, Cave said. “In an ideal world, we want it to be free-for-all public good, but in this situation, we don’t have much of a choice.”

U.S. government grants have accounted for roughly 10% to 12% of ASPI’s funding and financed roughly 70% of its China research since 2019, which included studies on Chinese disinformation and data-harvesting operations, according to the institute. In its latest annual report, ASPI said it received nearly 3 million Australian dollars—about $1.9 million at current rates—in U.S. State Department grants during the 2022-2023 financial year, which supported work on issues including disinformation and protection against intellectual property theft.

 

A number of think tanks have lost funding or are likely to lose significant sources of funding due to cuts from the Trump Administration.