The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing US think tank, has been identified as the organisation behind the 'Project 2025' blueprint for Donald Trump's second term. The foundation has had a close relationship with British politicians, including Suella Braverman, who recently defected to Reform UK. Braverman accepted a trip valued at over £9,000 from the foundation last year to give a speech in which she claimed the US-UK special relationship was "in tatters."
Braverman praised the foundation as "the brightest beacon of liberty, aspiration, and prosperity" and described it as a "giant, towering over the policy think tank landscape." However, critics—including Joe Mulhall, Hope Not Hate's Director of Research—say Project 2025 provided a roadmap for "many of the most troubling elements of Trump's second term," such as centralisation of executive power and purging the federal civil service.
The foundation, established in 1973, says its mission is to promote conservative policies based on free enterprise, limited government, and traditional American values. It claims influence over Ronald Reagan's administration and, more recently, over Trump, who initially distanced himself from Project 2025 but later endorsed its proposals. Other UK figures linked to the foundation include Robert Jenrick, Liz Truss, and former Tory chairman Oliver Dowden.
