The Heritage Foundation is celebrating the Supreme Court’s fascistic presidential immunity ruling on Monday that gives the president leeway to carry out a wide range of actions with impunity, saying in chilling statements that the decision is “vital” for the far right’s ongoing “second American Revolution.”
The president of the Heritage Foundation — the group behind the christofascist Project 2025 — said on far right media show Real America’s Voice on Tuesday that the concentration of power in the president is important for their quest to defeat the left and “tak[e] this country back.” The remarks were highlighted by Media Matters for America.
“Let me speak about the radical left. You and I have both been parts of faculties and faculty senates and understand that the left has taken over our institutions,” said the group’s president, Kevin Roberts.
Roberts went on to deliver an open threat of violence toward the left.
“[I] just want to encourage you with some substance that we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be,” Roberts said.
In their dissents, the Supreme Court’s liberals warned that the Court’s immunity ruling would pave the way for presidents — including Donald Trump, if he’s reelected — to assassinate political rivals or commit other murders without facing consequences as long as they were deemed “official acts.”
Legal experts have said that this interpretation of the conservative supermajority’s decision is correct and that the president would be legally able to commit any number of criminal acts, including murder.
Roberts’s statements are an alarming show of the right’s seeming thirst for Trump to carry out his desires freely — like inciting a white supremacist mob to overturn the results of the 2020 election — in order to advance the right’s extremist plans, as laid out in Project 2025.
Trump appears ready to carry out severe repression if he is elected. In speeches, he has likened the left to “vermin” that he has pledged to “root out”; he has also promised to punish pro-Palestine campus protesters, telling donors that he would deport and violently suppress protesters who oppose his vow to help Israel “finish the job” in Gaza.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.