Project Esther is Heritage’s latest ideological weapon. Framed as an effort to combat antisemitism, it aims to criminalise pro-Palestinian activism and equates criticism of Israel with support for terrorism.
For decades, the Heritage Foundation has been one of the most influential right-wing think-tanks in the United States, shaping Republican policy since the Reagan era. But its influence now stretches far beyond America’s borders. From gutting climate policy to criminalising dissent, Heritage’s authoritarian agenda is leaving its mark on UK politics, its fingerprints increasingly visible in policy debates and alliances across the British right.
With the return of a pliable and easily swayed Donald Trump, the Washington-based think-tank is poised to exert unprecedented influence. It must be rubbing its hands in glee and taking an early victory lap.
Its most radical initiatives, Project 2025, which outlines a sweeping plan to dismantle key institutions in a second Trump term, and Project Esther, which targets pro-Palestinian activism under the guise of combating antisemitism, are fast becoming cornerstones of a rising authoritarian agenda on both sides of the Atlantic.
Project 2025: rewriting the American state
First published in 2023, Project 2025: Mandate for Leadership – The Conservative Promise runs over 900 pages and proposes a total overhaul of the US federal government. It calls for slashing civil service jobs, gutting federal agencies, eliminating climate and LGBTQ+ policies, and erasing diversity and equity programmes from government.
The project is authored by Trump loyalists including Russ Vought, who was appointed as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Trump administration. Vought argues that federal bureaucracy is an existential threat to the country and that it should dramatically downsize.
Project 2025 has faced strong resistance from progressives and centrists alike, with even Trump publicly distancing himself from it. Yet despite the President claiming he had “nothing to do with it,” former Heritage official Paul Dans, who led the project until July 2024, stated that Trump’s return to power was “way beyond my wildest dreams.”
Indeed, several policies in Trump’s second-term agenda closely mirror Project 2025’s 900-page manifesto. One of them is the eliminating the Department of Education, something Trump has begun pursuing via executive order and staff cuts, though a full shutdown would require congressional approval. On his first day back in office, Trump signed an order ending all DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) programmes in the federal government, corresponding with Project 2025’s call to dismantle DEI efforts across agencies.
But Project 2025 isn’t the only fascistic Heritage Foundation plan drawing attention. Several months into Trump’s second term, and the think-tank leaders are discussing another contentious policy paper.
Project Esther: silencing pro-Palestine dissent
Launched during the Biden era, Project Esther is Heritage’s latest ideological weapon. Framed as an effort to combat antisemitism, it aims to criminalise pro-Palestinian activism and equates criticism of Israel with support for terrorism. Created by the same minds that produced the Christian nationalist Project 2025, Project Esther has received support from some evangelical Christian organisations but not from major Jewish organisations. The name “Esther” is a reference to the Book of Esther, a biblical narrative about a Jewish queen who saves her people from persecution.
As Aljazeera reports, the Heritage Foundation has been open about its intention to transform “Project Esther” into government policy under a second Trump administration. Its strategy document was published on October 7, 2024, to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel. It states that it hopes “Project Esther” would present “an opportunity for public-private partnership when a willing administration occupies the White House”
Numerous Black, Brown and Jewish elected representatives who voiced any criticism of Israel, including Senators Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, are targeted and “collectively mischaracterised as members of “Hamas Support Organisations (HSO)”, part of a “Hamas Support Network,” notes Aljazeera.
The New York Times digs deep
In May, the New York Times published an in-depth investigation into Project Esther and its efforts to suppress pro-Palestinian activism in the US. The report revealed that in late April, the Heritage Foundation sent a delegation to Israel to meet with senior officials, including the country’s foreign and defence ministers, as well as US ambassador and Trump ally Mike Huckabee.
According to the NYT, Heritage’s Project Esther proposes a sweeping crackdown, including purging university curricula, defunding institutions, revoking student visas, and labelling critics of Israel as part of a “terrorist support network.” The goal, the report suggests, is to silence dissent and criminalise opposition to Israeli policy.
While Heritage frames Project Esther as a “groundbreaking” national strategy to combat antisemitism, claiming it targets only supporters of Hamas, critics argue it’s a thinly veiled attack on progressive activism more broadly, one that exploits genuine concerns about antisemitism to justify authoritarian measures.
“Project Esther exclusively focuses on antisemitism on the left, ignoring antisemitic harassment and violence from the right,” wrote investigative journalist Katie Baker, who authored the New York Times piece. “It has drawn criticism from many Jewish organisations amid increasing calls for them to push back against the Trump administration.”
Stefanie Fox, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, was even more direct:
“Trump is pulling straight from the authoritarian playbook, using tools of repression first against those organising for Palestinian rights. And in so doing, sharpening those tools for use against anyone and everyone who challenges his fascist agenda.”
And it’s hard to disagree. On the presidential campaign trail, Trump pledged to deport foreign nationals who support Palestinian resistance. Since returning to office, he has followed through by appointing hardline pro-Israel figures to key intelligence and national security roles. Among them is South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, who once introduced a bill cracking down on criticism of Israel on the grounds of “ensuring the security of God’s chosen people”, and was appointed as Trump’s secretary of homeland security.
And since Trump’s inauguration, Heritage’s proposals have begun to materialise with federal threats to university funding, crackdowns on campus protests, and legislative efforts to deport legal residents that echo Project Esther’s extreme recommendations.
Victoria Coates, former deputy national security adviser to Trump and the vice president at Heritage who oversees Project Esther, confirmed the plan is already underway: “The phase we’re in now is starting to execute some of the lines of effort in terms of legislative, legal and financial penalties for what we consider to be material support for terrorism.”
The pressing question is how much of these contentious, authoritarian plans will influence politics closer to home, in the UK and across Europe?
The Transatlantic expansion
Authoritarianism is gaining ground in Europe under the guise of cracking down on pro-Palestinian activism. From the Netherlands, where political leaders sided with Israeli football fans who rampaged through Amsterdam last November, to Germany, where pro-Palestinian groups have long faced state repression, the signs are growing. Aljazeera reports that since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, activists in Germany have faced surveillance, police violence, frozen bank accounts, and sweeping bans on demonstrations and events. Groups like Samidoun, a pro-Palestinian advocacy group based in Canada, known for organising solidarity protests and events, particularly in support of Palestinian prisoners, have been outlawed outright.
Palestine Action
Even in the UK, similar authoritarian measures are beginning to take hold. In early July, MPs voted overwhelmingly to designate Palestine Action a terrorist organisation under anti-terrorism laws, placing it in the same legal category as al-Qaeda and ISIS.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper introduced the order just days after Palestine Action activists broke into RAF Brize Norton, Britain’s largest airbase, and sprayed two military aircraft with red paint, causing what police described as millions of pounds in damage .
Palestine Action describes itself as a direct-action group targeting the arms industry in the UK. It says it is “committed to ending global participation in Israel’s genocidal and apartheid regime.” Yet the government claims it is a “terrorist” outfit.
Manaal Siddiqui, a spokesperson for the group, said it was unprecedented for Palestine Action to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
“The majority of the proscribed groups are international. The majority of them take actions in very, very different ways. Palestine Action would be a complete outlier. It’s a draconian approach for the government to stifle protests that they just don’t like. It’s genuinely terrifying for anyone who cares about civil liberties in the UK.”
Project 2025 comes to Europe
Similarly, the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 agenda is no longer confined to American politics, it’s going global. In June, Heritage president Kevin Roberts travelled to France to meet with far-right leaders, signalling that Project 2025 is not just a domestic policy roadmap, but part of a broader international crusade.
The French newspaper Le Monde described Roberts as one of the most “zealous ideologues” of Trump’s second presidency, known for his radical metaphors about “burning it all down” to rebuild America in a nationalist, reactionary image. A Louisiana native and historian by training, Roberts has led the think-tank since 2021, earning nearly $1 million annually. A regular at Mar-a-Lago, he has formed a close relationship with Vice President JD Vance, the nationalist Catholic revered by far-right movements on both sides of the Atlantic.
In Europe, the ideological export of Heritage-style conservatism is already taking root. Across recent elections, discreet yet growing networks have worked to support far-right parties, with playbooks strikingly similar to that of Project 2025. These ultra-conservative forces seek to dismantle progressive policies and replace them with ultra traditionalist and fundamentalist Christian values of a particular kind, leaving little space for feminists, LGBTQ+ advocates, and other marginalised groups.
Surge in attacks against LGBTQ+ community
And minority groups are indeed already very much being targeted.
In February, ILGA-Europe, a leading LGBTQ+ rights organisation, issued a stark warning: LGBTQ+ identities are being “weaponised to erode the foundations of freedom and democracy across Europe.”
Polish sociologist Elżbieta Korolczuk, associate professor at Södertörn University in Sweden, sees a pattern. “They [the ultraconservatives] are also producing knowledge. They publish papers, they publish amicus briefs for court proceedings and so on. And they share those,” she told France24.
She argues that the targeting of LGBTQ+ communities is deliberate. “Because they are a minority. They are going after the weakest. That’s very clear.”
Korolczuk has no doubt that many European ultraconservative groups are cooperating with like-minded peers in the US, like the Heritage Foundation. “I think Project 2025 will be used as a blueprint in some European elections as well,” she said.
What about Britain?
As we know, the Heritage Foundation has long-standing ties to the British right, including some of the most prominent figures in the Conservative Party.
Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel, and Oliver Dowden are among several senior Tories who have close connections with the US think-tank. Since the release of Project 2025 in April 2023, a number of high-profile Conservative politicians, including Lord David Frost and former prime minister Liz Truss, have delivered speeches at Heritage Foundation events, allying themselves with its hard-right agenda.
The Heritage Foundation is also a member of the Atlas Network, a global alliance of right-wing think-tanks that share close ties with UK-based groups clustered around 55 Tufton Street, the Westminster address synonymous with Britain’s libertarian-conservative lobby. Figures like Truss, Jenrick, Patel, Matt Goodwin, and Nigel Farage have all contributed to Heritage events.
In fact, Nigel Farage has used his first year in Parliament not to represent his Clacton constituents, whom he has mentioned just four times in the Commons, but to promote his affiliation with the US radical right. According to reports by DeSmog and the Mirror this week, Farage has made multiple trips to the US to deliver speeches to hard-right groups linked to Donald Trump, often using the platform to push his anti-climate agenda, while making nearly £1 million on top of his MP’s salary.
The Heritage Foundation is no longer just a hard-right Washington think-tank, it’s a global force in the rising tide of reactionary politics. With Project 2025 and Project Esther, Heritage is advancing a vision that seeks not only to reshape America, but to realign the world order along authoritarian, Christian nationalist lines. As these policies begin to take hold in Europe, the question is no longer whether the far right is gaining momentum, but how far it will go.
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is author of Right-Wing Watch
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