President Donald Trump’s son is celebrating the departure of prominent voices from the conservative Heritage Foundation, the right-wing think tank behind the widely criticized Project 2025 and many of his father’s most controversial policies.

Heritage has been losing key players ever since President Kevin Roberts voiced strong support for the “close friend” of the foundation, far-right podcaster Tucker Carlson — after Carlson delivered a softball interview with Christian nationalist leader Nick Fuentes. Many see Fuentes as promoting white supremacy, racism, antisemitism, misogyny, and Islamophobia.

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that even more staffers are leaving Heritage and being welcomed by former Trump vice president Mike Pence’s political group, Advancing American Freedom (AAF).

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HuffPost called it a “mass defection,” while The Daily Beast suggested that Heritage is imploding.

“Pence told the Journal he had long admired the Heritage Foundation,” the WSJ reported, “but sees the group now ‘abandoning its principles.’ He said Heritage had ‘fallen because it had embraced elements of isolationism, stopped backing Ukraine in the war with Russia, supported some tariffs and backed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as HHS secretary, among other things.”

“Why these people are coming our way is that Heritage and some other voices and commentators have embraced big-government populism and have been willing to tolerate antisemitism,” Pence said.

More than a dozen Heritage staffers are headed to Pence’s group, following the exit of several top voices including  Princeton professor Robert P. George, who was once described by The New York Times as America’s “most influential conservative Christian thinker.”

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Kim Holmes, a former Assistant U.S. Secretary of State wrote, “The scholars joining AAF are among the best Heritage had. We should all be extremely grateful to Mike Pence for welcoming them.”

He called it “obvious” that the Heritage Foundation is now in a “deep state of crisis,” and said it is “long past time for the Board of Trustees to show responsibility and leadership to fix this very sad state of affairs.”

Adding that “only the board can save Heritage now,” Holmes noted, “I say all this as a former Executive Vice President of The Heritage Foundation who resigned four and half years ago because I could not in good conscience follow the new direction demanded by the Board.”

In a statement, Pence said: “AAF is honored to welcome these principled conservative scholars to the team. They bring a wealth of experience, a love of country, and a deep commitment to the Constitution and Conservative Movement that will further the cause of liberty.”

Meanwhile, Donald Trump Jr. had a very different take.

“Personally, I think it’s great news for Heritage that a bunch of Trump-hating RINOs are leaving,” he wrote. “Anyone who would want to go work for Mike Pence’s globalist never-Trump organization isn’t MAGA and definitely doesn’t put America First!”

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The head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division says she has ordered an investigation into the firing of a local school bus driver who posted an “English-only” sign, alleging the situation implicates “DEI wokeness.”

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, in announcing the investigation, called the firing “deeply concerning.”

Pennsylvania’s CBS 21 News reported that “Diane Crawford, 66, said she never thought writing a note would cost her so much.”

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The note read: “Out of respect to English-only students, there will be no speaking Spanish on this bus.”

“I didn’t mean to be racially insensitive or anything like that,” Crawford said. “Maybe I should have worded it (differently). Maybe it should have said, ‘No bullying in any language,’ but I didn’t mean it to be anything but to correct him.”

CBS 21 reported that “Crawford claimed she never got to explain that the sign was put up to encourage safe and respectful behavior and that it was directed at a bilingual student who allegedly had a history of riling up other students in Spanish.”

She also alleged that she was fired overnight, but the local school district and bus contractor in a joint statement said they “jointly reviewed the situation in accordance with established procedures. The investigation concluded after the subcontractor provided a written admission confirming that the signage had been installed on her bus. At that point, the relevant facts of the situation were fully known and discussed among District and Rohrer leadership.”

Civil rights litigator Patrick Jaicomo in a social media post directed toward Assistant Attorney General Dhillon asked: “Can you lay out the possible legal basis for your concerns?”

“I’d also be interested to hear whether you think someone acting under color of state law can prohibit the speaking of Spanish,” he wrote. “That seems like it would violate the 1st [and] 14th Amendments, no?”

Jaicomo added, “If I wanted to enforce civil rights, I’d investigate a school bus driver’s violation of the 1st and 14th Amendments under color of state law. If I wanted to score cheap political points, I’d investigate ‘DEI wokeness.’ Then again, there’s a reason I don’t work for the gov’t.”

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President Donald Trump has not abandoned his efforts to acquire Greenland — indeed, he is pressing ahead. On Sunday night, the president named Louisiana Republican Governor Jeff Landry, a Trump ally, as a special envoy to the autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, a decision that angered both Greenlanders and Danes.

“Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Landry quickly responded: “It’s an honor to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S. This in no way affects my position as Governor of Louisiana!”

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Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, blasted the move.

“I’m deeply upset about the appointment and the statement, which I find completely unacceptable,” Løkke Rasmussen told Danish media TV2, as CNBC reported.

Trump, CNBC noted, “has refused to rule out the use of force” to acquire Greenland, whose “leaders have criticized the U.S. administration’s calls for the country to become a U.S. territory.”

The New York Times likened the appointment of a special envoy to the situations in Ukraine and the Middle East, at least in one respect — in each case, the president “tapped someone close to him to manage all of these as priorities.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul called the appointment of a special envoy “outrageous.”

“Imagine,” he wrote, “if Mexico appointed a special envoy to make Louisiana a part of Mexico? Our ally Denmark deserves more respect than this.”

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Valerie Morkevičius, an associate professor of political science, charged that Governor Landry is proclaiming “his support for violating an ally’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

She noted: “US foreign policy these days operates at the corner of shame and shambolic.”

The Times reported that “the appointment drew condemnation from Greenland and further deteriorated the relationship between the United States and Denmark, which used to be close allies.”

“You cannot annex other countries,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark and Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen of Greenland said in a joint statement on Monday. “Not even by invoking international security. Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders, and the United States must not take over Greenland.”

Mikkel Runge Olesen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, called Landry’s appointment a “significant escalation.”

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