Heritage Explains

With the push for green energy, governments around the world have pushed for (and passed) subsidies for so-called “renewable” energy like wind and solar. The US passed large subsidies of this kind under the Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022. But these policies do not have the effect of creating long-term stability in the American energy grid. Here to explain why is Mar...

In addition to Russia and North Korea, nuclear bad actors can also be found in Iran, where the regime has been plotting a nuclear buildup for decades. Now, the Trump Administration has initiated talks with the Iranians. Here to explain what we may expect from these negotiations is Rob Greenway, Director of the Allison Center for National Security, here at the Heritage Foundation. — Follow Rob Gree...

The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. This is the beginning of Article III, section 1 of the US constitution, establishing the federal judiciary. Nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, and usually serving for life, federal judges serve a key role in the...

It’s clear that the Trump administration’s commitment to securing the southern border is working. But the question now is, how do we keep it working? What changes need to be made to the immigration system to keep us from heading back to the uncontrolled illegal migration of the Biden years? One critical component, argues Heritage Immigration expert Lora Ries, is the reform of the asylum system, en...

In the summer of 2020, with the George Floyd Riots in full swing, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser decided that 16th Avenue would gain a new status in American history. She designated the two block section of the Avenue closest to the white house as Black Lives Matter Plaza. The slogan was painted in 35-foot yellow letters on the street. Whether they wanted to or not, DC residents and visitors were forced t...

From the earliest times of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Francis Collins, and apparently the entire scientific community insisted that the virus emerged from nature, jumping from an animal species to humans.  Many pointed out the flaws in this reasoning, finding the possibility of COVID leaking from a laboratory much more likely. Scientific organizations, leftist politicians, and corporate...

At the direction of President Trump, Education Secretary Linda McMahon is now preparing the Department of Education for what she refers to as its “final mission”: winding down the department itself. This will be a complicated process, but here to explain what it may look like is Lindsey Burke, Director of the Center for Education Policy here at the Heritage Foundation.   — Follow Lindsey Burke on...

This week, President Trump addressed a joint session of Congress. Clocking in at over an hour and forty minutes, the speech was the longest address a president has delivered to America’s legislature in recent history. It covered the president’s accomplishments so far in his administration, from DOGE to border enforcement to economic policy, as well as shedding some light on the president’s plans f...

President Trump’s posture toward the war in Ukraine is very different from his predecessor. To understand what we might expect to see in Ukraine over the next few weeks, months, and years, I sat down with Rob Greenway, Director of the Allison Center for National Security, here at the Heritage Foundation — Follow Rob Greenway on X: https://x.com/rc_greenway?lang=en Learn more about The Heritage Fou...

American taxpayer money can be used to great effect, and we like to think that our civil institutions would always be dedicated to delivering such good return on investment. But that is not always so. The Trump Administration’s DOGE effort has shed much light in recent weeks on waste, fraud, and abuse throughout the federal government. Now the spotlight has been turned on NIH.  Heritage Foundation...

On January 28th, President Trump signed an executive order on banning the use of federal funds for so-called “gender transitions”. But some states Attorneys general have taken exception to this, and filed suit. Here to explain their position, and its likelihood for success, is Heritage Senior Legal Fellow, Sarah Parshall Perry.  — Follow Sarah Perry on X: https://x.com/SarahPPerry Follow Chloe Col...

$32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru. $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala. Hundreds of millions of dollars to fund “irrigation canals, farming equipment, and even fertilizer used to support the unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,” benefiting the Taliban This sounds like the wishlist of a crazy progressive NGO. But it’s not. These...

Over just the last week, the number of daily border crossings has crashed compared to the Biden administration. Border enforcement in the interior has been seriously undertaken. The US military has been deployed to assist Customs and Border Protection.  Here to walk us through the details of this Sea Change is Lora Ries, Director of the Border Security and Immigration Center, here at the Heritage...

The executive order is a tool the Constitution places at the president’s disposal, allowing him to effect changes within the executive branch of government. As President Donald Trump steps into office this week, he has signed many such orders, which have already had a broad impact on the way the federal government works. I sat down with Heritage Fellow Steve Groves to better understand these chang...

One of the key components of the incoming Trump administration was securing the southern border. President Trump campaigned heavily on this issue, and now it is time to implement policy to deliver. To get a sense of what the Trump administration may pursue in the first hundred days of the new administration, I sat down with Simon Hankinson, Senior Reseaarch Fellow in the Border Security and Immigr...

One of the key components of the incoming Trump administration was securing the southern border. President Trump campaigned heavily on this issue, and now it is time to implement policy to deliver. To get a sense of what the Trump administration may pursue in the first hundred days of the new administration, I sat down with Simon Hankinson, Senior Reseaarch Fellow in the Border Security and Immigr...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from your friends at the Heritage Foundation! This week, we bring you a classic of the Christmas season.  “A Visit from St. Nicholas” was composed by New York writer and businessman Clement Clark Moore in 1823. Now over 200 hundred years old, it remains one of the most well-known and iconic American poems ever. It established many key characteristics of Santa Cla...

President Trump has promised new policies on border enforcement, designed to make Americans safer and to protect national sovereignty. To this end, he has selected career law enforcement officer Tom Homan as his Border Czar. I sat down with Tom to ask him about this new position and specifically, to shed light on one of the more contentious parts of Trump’s vision: the removal of illegal aliens fr...

In May of 2023, a man named Daniel Penny boarded a subway car in New York City. During transit, a man named Jordan Neely began to threaten Penny and the other passengers on the car. Expressing a desire to defend himself and others, Penny, an ex-Marine, put Neely in a chokehold until the train arrived at the next station. Shortly after the incident ended, Neely unfortunately died.  New York has bro...

Tariffs have been a hotly debated point in American politics since the country began. President-elect Donald Trump has demonstrated his support for tariffs, receiving criticism from both the left and some sections of the right. To understand the conservative approach to tariffs, we sat down with Richard Stern, the director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget here at the Heritage...

Mercy Otis Warren was a writer and playwright whose thought informed the American Revolution and the years following. As Thanksgiving of 2024 nears, Brenda Hafera, Assistant Director of the Simon Center for American Studies, here at the Heritage Foundation, thought it appropriate to reflect on Mrs. Warren’s thoughts, particularly those on gratitude. Heritage Social Media Manager Christian Lasval s...

George Washington. Abraham Lincoln. Martin Luther King, Jr.  These names are (hopefully) familiar to just about every kid growing up in the United States of America. They’re individuals who shaped the times that they lived in, whose impact has trickled down even to the present day. We remember them in order to understand how our country has developed over time, but also to learn from them, excepti...

The election has swung decisively toward conservatives. But Inauguration Day is not until January 20th and the new Congress will not be in session until January 3rd. What happens between now and then? Connor Semelsburg, Government Relations Director for the Heritage Foundation, and Sarah Ursprung, Director of Government Relations for Heritage Action for America.  — The Heritage Foundation: www.her...

As of early this morning, Wednesday November 6th, Donald J Trump has won the presidency of the United states of America. There are still several house and senate races that are up in the air, but conservative policy has won a decisive victory in this cycle.  I sat down with Heritage Senior Legal Fellow, Hans von Spakovsky, to get his take on the events of last night and this morning.  — Hans von S...

A future Trump or Harris administration would take fundamentally different approaches to critical facets of American life. One such facet, an issue that has been at the forefront of both political campaigns, is the southern border.  Here to explain what to expect from a potential Harris or Trump administration on the border is Lora Ries, Director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at Th...