Heritage Foundation's Kevin Roberts: Conservatives must get 'uncomfortably honest about our present crisis'

Heritage Foundation president Dr. Kevin Roberts emphasized in his Tuesday speech at the National Conservatism conference in Washington, D.C., that America's true source of greatness is the family and that conservatives unapologetically oppose that which serves to weaken it — even if championed by fair-weather friends within the Trump coalition — and defend that which serves to strengthen it.

Roberts, whose organization's so-called Project 2025 caused so much consternation on the left last year, further stressed the need for conservatives both to get "uncomfortably honest about our present crisis" and to reject the "temptation to separate the personal from the political, to believe that our private lives are of no concern to our public work," as "that separation is a lie."

'The family's decline is not a law of nature; nor is it an unstoppable force.'

Roberts, among the first speakers at this year's NatCon, noted at the outset of his speech that whereas the stability of the great empires of yesteryear's Europe rested on the monarchs' bloodlines and on the strength of their thrones, America "bet her future on something humbler yet infinitely stronger" — "on what Chesterton called 'the most extraordinary thing in the world': an ordinary man and an ordinary woman bound in covenant love, passing on their faith and virtue to ordinary children."

"We staked it all on the American family," continued Roberts. "The family is the seedbed and safeguard of our grand experiment in ordered liberty — the source and summit of our political order, the true origin of our exceptionalism."

Roberts noted that whereas America's political architecture is still outwardly intact — "the Constitution that gives our body politic its structure remains in its glass case at the National Archives" — "the American family, the spiritual heart and soul that animates that Constitution, has grown weak, fractured, and hollow."

Photo by Lambert/Getty Images

The Heritage Foundation president noted that the weakening of American families — evidenced by a declining marriage rate, delayed marriages, an all-time low fertility rate, a staggeringly high number of abortions, and crushing loneliness among young Americans — was no accident but rather "the result of a deliberate campaign to uproot the most fundamental institution of human life."

"You can call this campaign liberalism or enlightenment, rationalism or modernity — the name doesn't matter," said Roberts. "What matters is realizing that our current crisis has been centuries in the making."

Roberts indicated that American conservatives are now in a position to do something about this crisis, which was brought about with the help of radical feminists and industrialists who dragged the mother out of the home; eugenicists like Margaret Sanger who promoted the notion that "children are a burden"; and educational activists like John Dewey who "shifted children's formation from home and church to state institutions."

"The family's decline is not a law of nature; nor is it an unstoppable force," said Roberts. "It's the product of human choices — and human choices can change."

"The American people have entrusted us with the power of government. They are asking us to make America great again. They are urging us to usher in a new golden age in American life. To honor their request, we have one clear task," said Roberts. "We must do intentionally what the founders did instinctively: stake our future on virtuous and ordinary mothers and fathers."

'[Prudence] demands that we ask of every policy, every proposal: Will this strengthen the American family?'

Roberts suggested that it's not enough to seek an end to DEI and Pride flags; to combat the "uniparty" interventionists' prioritization of the "family of nations" over the families of Americans; and to rethink policies that work on the assumption that "maximizing GDP is an overriding and unspoken goal."

Conservatives must take back their homes and live by example — entering into marriage, embracing its commitments, and remaining faithful through its trials; welcoming children into the home and giving them the love, discipline, and kitchen-table education they need to prosper; and ruling with prudence, which Roberts noted is the "opposite of ideology."

Roberts noted that prudence "recognizes that the interest of the family and the national interest are not merely aligned — they are one and the same. [Prudence] demands that we ask of every policy, every proposal: Will this strengthen the American family? Will it advance the common good of the American people? Will it cultivate the virtues without which liberty cannot endure?"

Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images

"If the answer is no," continued Roberts, "even if the proposal aligns with some past ideological commitment, prudence requires that we reject it."

'Prudence is not a retreat from conviction.'

Tariffs, for example, may have been imprudent years ago but, based on the needs of the family today, may be prudent now, suggested Roberts. He suggested further that conservatives ruling with prudence may simultaneously demand the deregulation of certain industries such as construction — in the interest of helping young couples afford homes — but greater regulation of other industries, such as pornography, sports betting, and social media, which adversely impact children and the family.

"Prudence is not a retreat from conviction. It's the application of conviction to reality," stressed Roberts. "In this moment, conviction and reality both tell us the same thing: The surest test of any policy, any law, any reform is whether it fortifies the institution upon which the future of our nation stands."

Roberts' apparent willingness to upset libertarians and strike at the liberal status quo is par for the course at the National Conservatism conference, a project of the Edmund Burke Foundation chaired by Israeli-American philosopher Yoram Hazony.

The project defines "national conservatism" as "a movement of public figures, journalists, scholars, and students who understand that the past and future of conservatism are inextricably tied to the idea of the nation, to the principle of national independence, and to the revival of the unique national traditions that alone have the power to bind a people together and bring about their flourishing."'

There have been several NatCon conferences in recent years both at home and abroad. Past guests and speakers include Vice President JD Vance, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.), Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), elements of Blaze Media, and a host of international leaders of various political stripes.

The momentum and influence enjoyed by elements of the national conservatism movement have not gone unnoticed by liberals, who have lashed out in various ways, some more forceful than others.

Last year, for example, police stormed the NatCon conference in Brussels on the orders of a leftist mayor who appeared eager to shut down the event.

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Meet The Pivotal Figure Who Helped Resurrect The American Right

Is Frank S. Meyer's vision of 'fusionism' still the best path forward for the American right?

MAGA meets the machine: Trump goes all in on AI

The technology once confined to science fiction has now become reality, and its impact will be revolutionary. When artificial intelligence first broke through, many MAGA supporters reacted with suspicion. They saw it as another weapon for woke elites — a way to erase inconvenient facts and reshape public opinion, potentially with government support.

President Donald Trump acted to block that threat. His recent executive order directs the federal government to contract only with AI companies that “prioritize truthfulness and ideological neutrality.”

A MAGA-aligned council of AI policy experts will make the next golden age of American exceptionalism possible.

That’s a strong start, but MAGA weakens itself if it treats AI solely as a threat. I learned that firsthand, working in the field before most people even knew what AI was. It’s coming whether we like it or not.

Meanwhile, other nations — including enemies such as China — have committed to developing AI. If they reach artificial superintelligence first, the consequences could be catastrophic. Our technologists understand the stakes. America must lead in this arena, not trail behind.

Winning over MAGA

Despite what’s at stake, MAGA has a dearth of people who support or even understand AI — at least, until recently, when President Trump delivered remarks at the “Winning the AI Race” summit hosted by the "All-In" podcast at the Hill and Valley Forum.

That change is monumental. Imagine a few years ago, when an AI bot put you in TikTok prison for violating the site’s “terms of service” — as I was — and someone told you that a re-elected Donald Trump would participate in an AI summit with the big Silicon Valley companies and MAGA-aligned leaders.

That’s why people like James Burnham are key to bridging the gap between the Silicon Valley and the MAGA base.

Burnham bridging the gap

At the summit, I met with Burnham, a former senior lawyer at the Department of Government Efficiency and now head of the AI Innovation Council, to talk about MAGA’s role in shaping the future of artificial intelligence.

He may share the name of the author of “Suicide of the West” — a man often called the intellectual godfather of neoreaction and one of the first practitioners of psychological warfare — but the resemblance ends there. This Burnham is an unapologetic optimist, a happy warrior, and an original MAGA activist determined to unite the movement’s best minds with the tech right.

His goal: Mend fences and help define AI policy for the years ahead.

“I was there when Trump went down the golden escalator,” Burnham told me. “My hope is that I can help bridge the gap between true MAGA and the tech right.”

Some might see him as an unlikely figure for the role, given that his enthusiasm for AI matches that of Silicon Valley’s most bullish innovators. But for Burnham, advancing American AI is more than a defensive measure against hostile nations. It’s an opportunity to create America’s next golden age.

As he told the New York Post: “Artificial intelligence is a revolutionary technology with the potential to make the United States wealthier and greater than it has ever been.”

The AI we deserve

Burnham’s perspective is not exactly shared by much of MAGA — and understandably so. After all, as recently as last year, we were terrified that woke tech companies would use AI to clamp down on our speech. Having had that experience, our instinct might be to try to kill the technology in its crib.

sankai via iStock/Getty Images

But that’s simply not realistic — and not just because China will develop AI without us. The Silicon Valley’s left will then seize the mantle of the future. We can’t allow that to happen, not least of all because the left doesn’t deserve that kind of credit. All leftists want out of AI is the world’s smartest and most vigilant woke hall monitor.

America can — and must — do better than that.

But if we’re going to do better, we need the tech world to be willing to talk to us. That’s why people like Burnham are so critical. You win more flies with honey than with vinegar — just ask AIs themselves.

Unlike AI, however, a MAGA-aligned council of AI policy experts won’t just flatter the people it engages with. It will make the next golden age of American exceptionalism possible.

No country for angry young men

When one of Donald Trump’s strongest voting blocs starts to fall off after just six months of a largely successful second term, it’s time for some soul-searching.

Not just because the midterms loom or because 2028 is already on the horizon. The demographic in question — young men — will shape, defend, and lead this country well beyond the next election. If they’ve grown too cynical to bother, the rest of us may be left holding the bag.

When the past and present betray a generation, expect that generation to reshape the future.

Trump’s 2024 performance with 18- to 29-year-old men marked the best Republican showing since George W. Bush won that demographic in 2004 — the last time the GOP won the popular vote. Young men backed Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, then defected to Bill Clinton in the 1990s. Bush 43 pulled them back temporarily, but by the time Obama, Hillary, and Biden came along, Democrats had captured their hearts — and their votes.

Yikes. That’s no way to live. Yet today’s young men are angrier, more cynical, more disruptive — and more serious. They don’t want to “save” Social Security. They want to be saved from it. They aren’t starting out wide-eyed like the Boomers. They didn’t get the luxury of being idealists first and realists later. They started with realism, forged by debt, disillusionment, and betrayal.

These young men want a way of life back. They want accountability for the people who stole it from them.

The average 25-year-old white male is already more “based” than his Reagan-voting grandfather ever was or ever could be. And he’s not finding any comfort in Fox News. So the question is: Will anyone offer him a white pill before he plants the flag of “I just don’t care any more” at the 50-yard line of American life?

This generation won’t follow unless they’re given a mission worth sacrificing for. Trump’s brand won’t carry them forever. They can’t afford homes. They can’t find wives who aren’t steeped in feminist dogma. They can’t compete in a DEI-rigged job market. And now they’re expected to watch the people who ruined their future skate by without consequences?

That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.

Young men like my son don’t want slogans. They want justice. They want our leaders to treat domestic traitors at least as ruthlessly as we’ve treated our allies in trade negotiations. They’ve seen enough memes. If the memes don’t end in prison time, they’ll see them as mockery. They want consequences — and they want them handed out with severe prejudice.

That’s the instinct of men who’ve been cornered for too long. Dread it, run from it — it’s coming. Unless we offer them something better, they’ll start making something worse.

Don’t count on them to keep voting Republican just because the Democrats are just that bad. That’s a losing bet. These young men reject the old paradigms — left, right, Reagan, Bush. Whatever. They’ve even begun questioning the biblical dispensationalism that guided American foreign policy for decades.

When the past and present betray a generation, expect that generation to reshape the future.

Our shot at shaping that future is now. If we fail to hold the deep state accountable yet again, then we’d better produce an economic boom big enough to distract from the urge to burn everything down.

We’ve convinced ourselves that soft, passive men define the modern male. But history — and nature — doesn’t work that way. Sooner or later, the animal comes roaring back — and a new generation rises, looking to settle scores.

Better get ready.

Vance identifies the perfect mascot for the Democrats — then outlines what America actually needs

The Claremont Institute kicked off its "Golden Age Agenda" in San Diego on Saturday by honoring Vice President JD Vance with its 2025 Statesmanship Award.

The conservative think tank appears to regard Vance, who is far and away the front-runner in the 2028 Republican nomination contest, according to a recent Emerson College Polling survey, as best positioned and dispositioned to carry on President Donald Trump's project of "American renewal and greatness."

Vance provided additional insights into what his leg of the race might look like should he be handed the baton, as well as into the nature of the left.

Ahead of the vice president's remarks, however, Ryan Williams, the institute's president, reflected on President Donald Trump's selection of Vance to be his running mate — a decision that was made nearly a year ago and just days after the attempted assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Williams emphasized that Trump's "gutsy pick" broke the mold of conventional Republican vice presidential selections, as the decision appeared to be motivated not by improving the president's chances of winning Ohio nor by reassuring the establishment.

If anything, Vance actually terrified the establishment, as evidenced by various deep-pocketed Republican donors' open denigration of the Appalachian populist and Rupert Murdoch's reported lobbying campaign to dissuade Trump from picking Vance.

Photo by Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Williams suggested that Vance was instead chosen because of who he is and what he stands for.

Vance is a "premier advocate" "for a transformative course correction after years of middle American economic stagnation, a bipartisan blindness on the importance of secure borders and sovereignty, and a return to prudence and strategic clarity in foreign policy," said Williams.

What's more, "Vance's story is an American story — a kid rising from tough family circumstances in middle America; serving his country honorably in the Marines and then making his way in law and business; becoming a senator from his home state and then ascending to the vice presidency. This kind of success and political ascent is really only possible in America."

After expressing gratitude for the award as well as to both the institute and his wife, Vice President Vance — fresh off casting the tiebreaking vote in the Senate last week to pass the president's "big, beautiful bill" — provided a survey of the political landscape.

Vance noted that rather than learn their lesson after their trouncing at the polls in the 2024 election, the Democrats have embraced the politics that alienated so much of the electorate, as evidenced by Democrats' support for "33-year-old communist" Zohran Mamdani in the New York Democratic primary.

'They hate the people in this room.'

Whereas Trump's victory in 2024 was "rooted in a broad, working- and middle-class coalition, Mamdani's coalition is almost the inverse of that," said Vance.

"If you look at his electoral performance, precinct by precinct, what you see is a left that has completely left behind the broad middle of the United States of America. This is a guy who won high-income and college-educated New Yorkers, and especially ... young, highly educated New Yorkers, but he was weakest among black voters and weakest among those without a college degree. That's an interesting coalition," said the vice president.

Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

After pointing out the various contradictions manifest on the left, Vance underscored that the elites-championed coalition of "Islamists, gender studies majors, socially liberal white urbanites, and Big Pharma lobbyists" is not bound together by shared affinities — not even the ideas of Thomas Jefferson or Karl Marx — but by hatred.

"They hate the people in this room. They hate the president of the United States. And most of all, they hate the people who voted for that president of the United States in the last election in November," continued Vance. "This is the animating principle of the American far left."

While careful not to conflate everyday Democrat voters with the American far left, Vance said the label accurately applies to the party's leadership, who are "arsonists" willing to "make common cause with anyone willing to light the match."

'There is something about Western liberalism that seems almost suicidal or at least socially parasitic.'

The vice president further suggested Mamdani is a perfect mascot for the Democratic Party, as he "captures so many of the movement's apparent contradictions in a single human being" and is "not trying to build prosperity. He's trying to tear something down."

After faulting the left for lacking a positive vision for the future, Vance discussed ways of maximizing American prosperity and continuing to usher in the "golden age" promised by Trump on Jan. 20.

The vice president noted that by employing the "stick" that is tariffs and the "carrots" that are lower taxes and fewer regulations, the administration hopes to make it easier to save, invest, build businesses, work dignified jobs, and support a family in the United States.

Vance made abundantly clear that this work under way to bring about American renewal is not another liberal project that treats the U.S. as an economic zone and an "idea" with an infinitely replaceable population.

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

"We are not just producers and consumers," said Vance. "We are human beings made in the image of God, and we love our home, not just because we earn a living here but because we discover our purpose and our meaning here."

"Every Western society, as I stand here today, has significant demographic and cultural problems. There is something about Western liberalism that seems almost suicidal or at least socially parasitic. It tends to feed off of the healthy host until there's nothing left," continued the vice president.

"They've gotten awfully good at tearing things down, but they haven't gotten good at building back."

'This country is not a contradiction.'

After hammering themes of disorientation, disenchantment, and disaffiliation and emphasizing the importance of social cohesion and satisfying the "obligations that we have to our fellow countrymen," he then identified a number of remedies, many of which the Trump administration is presently pursuing, including defending American sovereignty by securing the border and protecting citizens from "unfair foreign taxes" and "preserving the basic legal privileges of citizenship" like voting or access to state-run benefits programs. He indicated that the government must also avoid entangling Americans "in prolonged, distant wars."

Vance noted further that citizenship in the 21st century not only means respecting American heritage but necessarily building upon it "together as one American family" — to advance "groundbreaking innovations and to leave homes, and libraries, and factories that our descendants will look at someday and feel a sense of awe."

"This country is not a contradiction," he concluded. "It's a nation of countless extraordinary people across many generations. It's a land of profound ingenuity and tradition and beauty, but more importantly, it's our home."

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Exclusive: Vance on Mamdani: ‘Who the hell does he think that he is?’

Vice President JD Vance tore into the Democratic rising star Zohran Mamdani in a Sunday night speech over his apparent ingratitude and disregard for American tradition as he vies to helm the United States' largest city.

During his keynote speech for the Claremont Institute on Sunday, Vance methodically detailed how Mamdani's mayoral candidacy insults the very culture, history, and generosity of the country that allowed him to succeed, according to a transcript exclusively obtained by Blaze News. Mamdani, whose family fled political persecution in Uganda, won the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City and is shaping up to be the front-runner in the contested race against current NYC Mayor Eric Adams (independent).

"If our victory and President Trump's victory in 2024 was rooted in a broad, working- and middle-class coalition, Mamdani's coalition is almost the inverse of that," Vance said.

'Hatred ... this is the animating principle of the American far left.'

Photo by Adam Gray/Getty Images

Although he campaigned on progressive policies that are typically targeted toward "underprivileged" and protected classes, Mamdani won high-income, college-educated voters. He also did particularly well in New York City's gentrified neighborhoods, like Ridgewood and Bushwick. At the same time, he struggled among black voters and voters without a college degree.

"That's an interesting coalition," Vance noted. "Maybe it works in the New York Democratic primary. I don't think it works particularly well in the United States at large."

"His victory was the product of a lot of young people who live reasonably comfortable lives but see that their elite degrees aren't really delivering what they expected," Vance added. "And I say that not to criticize them, because I think that we should care about all the people in our country. ... But we have to be honest about where its coalition is. It is not the downtrodden. It's not for Americans. It is not about dispossession. It's about the elite."

Vance describes Mamdani and his supporters' progressive worldview as ultimately paradoxical, uniquely motivated by a disdain for the American tradition.

"How could privileged whites march around with a straight face and decry white privilege?" Vance asked. "How could progressives pretend to love conservative Muslims despite their views on gender and sexuality? The answer is obvious. ... The radicals at the far left, they don't need a unifying ideology of what they're for, because they know very well what they're against."

"What unites Islamists; gender studies majors; socially liberal, white urbanites; and Big Pharma lobbyists? It isn't the ideas of Thomas Jefferson or even Karl Marx," Vance added. "It's hatred ... this is the animating principle of the American far left."

Photographer: Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Vance takes issue with the progressives' disregard for American history and, by proxy, for American values. In Mamdani's case, Vance criticizes his ungrateful attitude toward the very country that welcomed him and allowed him to prosper.

"The person who wishes to lead our largest city had, according to multiple media reports, never once publicly mentioned America's independence today in earnest," Vance said. "But when he did so this year, this is what he said, an actual quote: 'America is beautiful, contradictory, unfinished. I am proud of our country, even as we constantly strive to make it better.' There is no gratitude in those words, no sense of owing something to this land and the people who turned its wilderness into the most powerful nation on Earth."

"I wonder, has he ever read the letters from boy soldiers in the Union army to parents and sweethearts that they'd never see again?" Vance asked. "Has he ever visited the grave site of a loved one who gave their life to build the kind of society where his family could escape racial theft and racial violence? Has he ever looked in the mirror and recognized that he might not be alive were it not for the generosity of a country he dares to assault on its most sacred day? Who the hell does he think that he is?"

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Buckley’s Life on the Firing Line

When William F. Buckley Jr. died in 2008, the United States lost its most articulate champion of conservative ideas. Over the course of a 60-year career in the public eye, Buckley did just about everything: published books and articles, lectured, wrote a newspaper column, edited a national magazine, advised politicians, and even ran for office. He was fortunate to live long enough to see the hopes he nourished as a young man come to pass when, after long and patient work, conservatives captured the Republican Party, elected a conservative president, and, most of all, promoted the policies that brought about the collapse of communism.

The post Buckley’s Life on the Firing Line appeared first on .

Rubio, Vance outline the 'work of a generation,' next steps for the American renewal: 'This is a 20-year project'

Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed ways forward for the country under the Trump administration and beyond at the American Compass New World Gala on June 3.

Although the two Republicans, who appear to be contenders in the 2028 presidential election, hit different beats, they were largely singing the same tune about prioritizing Americans, strengthening the country, and abandoning the failed globalist thinking that has undermined security, prosperity, and dignity in the United Sates.

Their outlooks on the future provided some indication of the staying power of President Donald Trump's vision as well as how it might evolve in the years to come.

Returning to reality

Rubio kicked off his speech by countering the progressive notion that human nature changes over time, stressing that "technologies change, the clothes we wear change, even languages change, governments change — a lot of things change, but the one thing that is unchanged is human nature."

Rubio suggested that this static nature accounts for why history often repeats itself and helps explain humans' unshakable "desire to belong," which naturally scales up to nationalism, despite nationhood being a relatively "new concept" in the grand scheme of things.

"If you put humans anywhere — a handful of people anywhere — one of the first things they start doing is trying to create things that they can join or be a part of," said Rubio. "The advent of the nation-state is a normal evolution of human behavior because people think it's important to belong to something, and being part of a nation is important. And I think that's really true, obviously, increasingly in how geopolitical decisions are made."

'We've undermined our position in the world.'

Despite man's immutable desire to belong and the naturalness of this desire's expression in nationalism, Rubio suggested that many in the West nevertheless entertained the fantasy that the dissolution of the Soviet Union meant the inevitable and imminent universalization of liberal democracy — that "the entire world is going to become just like us"; that "nationhood no longer mattered when it came to economics"; "that right now the world would no longer have borders"; and that it didn't matter where things were made.

Rubio noted that this idealistic outlook "became part of Republican orthodoxy for a long time," which accounts for why the GOP long proved indifferent to the outsourcing of labor and the offshoring of productive capacity.

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

The decades-long flirtation with liberal globalism "robbed a nation of its industrial capacity, of its ability to make things," thereby hurting the economy, hurting the country, robbing people of jobs, and eating away at the social fabric of the nation, suggested Rubio.

"What you find is because of all of those years of neglect, because of the loss of industrial capacity, we didn't just undermine our society, we didn't just undermine our domestic economy — we've undermined our position in the world," said the secretary of state, whose department recently signaled an interest in taking up the mantle of Western civilization.

'You can never be secure as a nation unless you're able to feed your people.'

Now that America and the rest of the world are facing a "crunch," the days of illusion are over, and geopolitics are adjusting accordingly.

Rubio indicated that the Trump administration is undertaking a reorientation of domestic and foreign approaches "to take into account for the fact that you can never be secure as a nation unless you're able to feed your people and unless you're able to make the things that your economy needs in order to function and ultimately to defend yourself."

Accordingly, Rubio suggested that the country moving forward needs to:

make decisions with the nation-state in mind and engage the world "in a way that prioritizes our national interest above all else";
guarantee America's access to the requisite "raw material and industrial capacity that is at the core both of the decisions that we're making and the areas that we're prioritizing"; and
rectify trade imbalances with fully developed countries.

While this direction is possibly good news for the American people, it bodes poorly for stubborn champions of the globalist dream.

Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

New York Times opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie, for instance, recently complained about the MAGA vision for the future.

The MAGA movement is waging war on the nation's economic future, rejecting two generations of integration and interdependency with the rest of the world in favor of American autarky, of effectively closing our borders to goods and people from around the world so that the United States might make itself into an impenetrable fortress — a garrison state with the power to dictate the terms of the global order, especially in its own hemisphere. In this new world, Americans will abandon service-sector work in favor of manufacturing and heavy industry.

After presenting the possibility of a powerful, indomitable, and reindustrialized America as a terrifying prospect, Bouie stumbled upon the truth of the project under way, stating, "The aim, whether stated explicitly or not, is to erase the future as Americans have understood it and as they might have anticipated it."

Kicking bad habits

Oren Cass, founder of American Compass, pressed Vance about the project of "reshoring and reindustrialization" that the Trump administration is pursuing.

Vance noted that at its core, the project is about addressing "stagnating living standards" affecting normal Americans "who just want to start a family, work in a decent job, earn a livable salary, and have dignified work."

'The complete disconnect between their views on foreign policy and economic policy made me realize, again, that we're governed by people who aren't up to the job.'

The vice president suggested that the offshoring of industry, an under-investment in technology, heavy industrial regulation, and high energy costs are among the factors that have made it difficult for "normal people who work hard and play by the rules to have a good life."

He also identified a "misalignment between the ... normal Americans and the talking heads in Washington" and an unworkable separation of the making of things from the innovating of things — a issue he raised in his March speech at the American Dynamism Summit — as problems warranting remedy.

Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

Blaze News previously noted that in his American Dynamism speech, Vance suggested that the Trump administration plans to help innovators wean off cheap foreign labor and begin on-shoring industry, partly by incentivizing manufacturing and investment inside the United States with tax cuts and other policy instruments; by erecting tariff walls around critical industries; by reducing regulations and the cost of energy; and also by enforcing immigration law and securing the border to drain the pool of cheap illegal alien labor.

In his conversation with Cass on Tuesday, Vance reiterated that America needs to effectively get innovators and labor back on the same page and in the same country and to ensure that educational institutions are equipped to supply them with talent.

Vance also criticized "pro-globalization" elements of the leadership class who are indifferent to "whether a given part of the supply chain existed here, or China, or Russia or somewhere else" yet frequently champion foreign entanglements fought with outsourced munitions and technologies.

"The complete disconnect between their views on foreign policy and economic policy made me realize, again, that we're governed by people who aren't up to the job," Vance told Cass, "until four months ago when the American people actually gave the country a government it deserved. And obviously we're in the very early days, but I think that we've done more in four months to solve these problems. But this is not a five- or a 10-year project. This is a 20-year project to actually get America back to common-sense economic policy."

When asked by NBC News' Kristen Welker last month whether he figured the MAGA movement could survive without him as its leader, President Donald Trump said, "Yes, I do. ... I think it's so strong. And I think we have tremendous people. I think we have a tremendous group of people. We talked about a number of them. You look at Marco, you look at JD Vance, who's fantastic."

Trump added that Vance is "a fantastic, brilliant guy" and "Marco is great."

A straw poll conducted at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February reportedly found that 61% of the over 1,000 attendees said they would support Vance as the future GOP standard-bearer.

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Trump-backed conservative wins Polish presidency, can torpedo Tusk's liberal agenda: 'Rebuff to the Brussels oligarchy'

Polish boxer-turned-historian Karol Nawrocki met last month with President Donald Trump and attended an event at the White House marking the National Day of Prayer. Nawrocki reportedly shared with Polish media that Trump told him he would win the Polish presidential election.

Trump was right again.

Nawrocki, backed by Poland's national-conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) Party, defeated the liberal mayor of Warsaw — whom Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem deemed a "train wreck" — in Poland's presidential election runoff on Sunday. The results, published on Monday, showed that Nawrocki beat Rafał Trzaskowski 50.89% to 49.11%, thereby securing a five-year term.

'You picked a WINNER!'

Upon taking office on Aug. 6, Nawrocki can continue former President Andrzej Duda's work of preventing Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk's "globalist liberal government" from simultaneously advancing its leftist, pro-European Union agenda and from undoing the reforms undertaken by the previous PiS government.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Nawrocki on his "hard-earned victory," noting that "together, the United States and Poland will forge the most ambitious alliance in our shared history on defense, energy, and commerce."

Trump said in a Truth Social post, "Congratulations Poland, you picked a WINNER!"

Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Nawrocki noted in response that his top priorities are a "strong alliance with the USA, as well as partnership based on close cooperation."

In addition to opposing illegal immigration and the EU's ruinous migration frameworks, the former boxer made abundantly clear on the campaign trail his opposition to leftist social policies, promising to axe any legislation that threatens to weaken Poland's pro-life legislation or normalize non-heterosexual unions, reported the Catholic News Agency.

Nawrocki also emphasized that Poland's national culture is rooted in traditional Catholic values, telling supporters, "Poland's strength lies in its faith and family values."

'It's bad news for the EU, Ukraine and women.'

Homeland Security Secretary Noem likened Nawrocki to Trump last month at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Poland and suggested that under his leadership, Poland could "steer Europe back toward conservative values."

Various European conservatives and populists celebrated Nawrocki's victory, including Jordan Bardella, the president of France's right-wing populist National Rally party, who tweeted, "The Polish people have spoken and their free and democratic choice must be respected, including by the Brussels leaders who ardently hoped for their defeat."

"Faced with a European Commission whose authoritarian policies and federalist ambitions are brutalizing national sovereignty, Karol Nawrocki's victory in the Polish presidential election is welcome news," said Marine Le Pen, former National Rally president. "It is a rebuff to the Brussels oligarchy, which intends to impose a standardization of legislation on member states, contrary to any democratic will."

Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán Viktor called the election a "nail-biter," calling the outcome a "fantastic victory."

Western liberals, meanwhile, clutched pearls and ramped up their fear-mongering.

Adam Simpson, a lecturer at the University of South Australia, wrote, "Nawrocki's win has given pro-Donald Trump, anti-liberal, anti-EU forces across the continent a shot in the arm. It's bad news for the EU, Ukraine and women."

The White House

Simpson acknowledged that it's harder to frame Nawrocki as "Russia-friendly" — a framing routinely used by critics of other national conservatives and populists in the region.

'More anti-European, nationalist and pro-Trump.'

It'd be an especially hard case to make that Nawrocki is sympathetic to Moscow given he has called Russia a "barbaric state," recommended cutting off diplomatic relations with the Kremlin, and has personally been put on a Russian wanted list after leading efforts to topple Soviet monuments while director of the Museum of the Second World War and head of the Institute of National Remembrance, reported ABC News.

Nevertheless, critics have made hay out of the incoming Polish president's vow to oppose NATO membership for Ukraine and suggestion that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy "treats Poland badly."

Piotr Buras, head of the European Council on Foreign Relations' Warsaw office, told the Washington Post that Nawrocki will be a "much more radical politician" than his predecessor — "more anti-European, nationalist and pro-Trump."

Anne Applebaum, the Atlantic staff writer who smeared as propagandists early proponents of the pandemic lab-leak theory and wasted ink last year imagining parallels between Trump and various 20th-century dictators, made sure to repeatedly label Nawrocki as an "authoritarian populist."

In the wake of the election, Tusk, now facing some calls to step down, indicated the Polish parliament will hold a confidence vote on his government.

Jacek Sasin, a PiS parliamentarian, suggested that Tusk was a "completely frivolous man who got a red card from the Poles."

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