The American conservative movement is facing a profound and public reckoning over antisemitism, generational divides, and the very soul of its ideology. In the wake of recent controversies involving prominent right-wing figures, the Heritage Foundation, and the legacy of neoconservative foreign policy, the right finds itself at a crossroads—one that is forcing painful questions about its past, present, and future.
It all began to boil over in early November 2025, when Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host turned influential podcaster, invited Nick Fuentes onto his show. Fuentes, a self-avowed racist and Holocaust denier, used the platform to air a litany of antisemitic and white nationalist views. According to The Boston Globe, Fuentes declared that “organized Jewry is ruining America,” and that “these Zionist Jews need to be taken down,” without challenge or pushback from Carlson. Carlson, for his part, did not press Fuentes on his history of praising Adolf Hitler or his calls for the annihilation of American Jews—statements that have been widely condemned across the political spectrum.
The fallout was swift and fierce. Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation—a think tank once synonymous with Ronald Reagan’s brand of conservatism—initially rushed to defend Carlson. He asserted that while he might “abhor some of Fuentes’s opinions, canceling him is not the answer either,” and insisted that Heritage would not turn against Carlson. Roberts emphasized that the foundation’s priority was “focusing on our political adversaries on the left, not attacking our friends on the right.” As reported by the Washington Examiner, this stance ignited a civil war within the conservative movement. Some saw Roberts’s defense as a principled stand for free debate; others viewed it as a moral abdication that enabled bigotry to fester.
The controversy quickly exposed deep generational and ideological rifts. Gabe Guidarini, chairman of the Ohio College Republican Federation, told the Washington Examiner that the schism reflects a clash between an older, establishment conservative base and a younger, Trump-inspired cohort. “A lot of old school conservative groups have tried to keep the economic austerity, foreign policy hawkishness, and compassionate conservatism in the equation by latching on to [President Donald] Trump, but the majority of the Republican Party now believes what Trump actually talked about in 2015,” Guidarini observed. He added that the Trump movement’s “underpinning is repurposed Buchananism, which appeals more to young people and Catholics.”
Indeed, a Pew Research Center poll from March 2025 found that 50% of Republicans aged 18 to 49 have an unfavorable view of Israel, compared to just 23% of those over 50. The generational divide played out within the Heritage Foundation as well, with younger staffers expressing support for Roberts’s original comments and voicing skepticism toward Christian Zionism and traditional pro-Israel stances.
Yet many conservatives are alarmed by what they see as a drift toward cynicism, conspiracy, and provocation. Bethany Mandel, a longtime movement commentator, lamented to the Washington Examiner that “among many younger conservatives, there’s clearly a lack of grounding in what the movement actually stands for. They’ve absorbed the aesthetics of rebellion but not the principles behind it.”
The crisis reached a tipping point when, in response to mounting pressure, the Heritage Foundation fired its chief of staff and Roberts issued a public apology for his initial defense of Carlson and for describing Carlson’s critics as a “venomous coalition.” Roberts admitted his mistake and reiterated Heritage’s commitment to fighting antisemitism: “Everyone has the responsibility to speak up against the scourge of antisemitism, no matter the messenger. Heritage and I will do so, even when my friend Tucker Carlson needs challenging.”
Still, the damage was done. The controversy prompted several organizations and individuals—including senior fellow Steven Moore, the National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, and the Coalition for Jewish Values—to sever ties with Heritage. Former Heritage fellow Joel Griffith warned that mainstream organizations lending credibility to figures like Fuentes “indicates to people that this is an acceptable point of view.”
The debate over antisemitism within the right was further inflamed by a series of incidents: a conservative student magazine at Harvard published Nazi-like rhetoric, and leaked messages from Young Republican chapters revealed casual engagement in racist, antisemitic, and violent talk. Vice President JD Vance dismissed these messages as “a stupid joke,” refusing to condemn Carlson’s podcast. Former President Donald Trump, for his part, has not unequivocally disavowed Fuentes, and in 2022 hosted him for dinner at Mar-a-Lago alongside Kanye West, another figure associated with antisemitic remarks.
Meanwhile, high-profile conservative voices drew a moral line. Senator Ted Cruz delivered a speech decrying the rise of “antisemitism on the right,” warning that it is “a poison” and “an existential crisis in our party.” House Speaker Mike Johnson echoed these sentiments, declaring Fuentes’s views “blatantly antisemitic, racist, and anti-American,” and emphasizing conservatives’ obligation to “call out antisemitism wherever it is.” National Review published an editorial condemning efforts by Carlson, Fuentes, and others to “remake the Republican Party and the conservative movement into one that is hostile toward Israel and the Jewish people.” Conservative commentator Rod Dreher, despite his friendship with Carlson, blasted the interview as “a two-man Unite the Right rally,” and implored fellow conservatives to find the courage to “speak out against this stuff.”
Yet, as the right wrestles with antisemitism, it is also grappling with the legacy of neoconservative foreign policy. The recent death of former Vice President Dick Cheney at age 84 reignited debates about America’s role in the world. Cheney’s legacy—described by The American Conservative as “one of the worst foreign policy disasters in U.S. history,” with over 4 million deaths attributed to the “War on Terror”—is sharply at odds with the isolationist rhetoric that fueled Donald Trump’s rise. While Senators Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, and Tom Cotton praised Cheney’s “aggressive” approach to foreign policy, Trump himself has remained silent, offering no public condolences and lowering flags only as legally required. This, too, highlights the disconnect between the old guard’s hawkishness and the MAGA movement’s populist, anti-interventionist base.
Amid these overlapping controversies, some see an opportunity for the right to rediscover its conscience. “For the first time in years, a moral line was drawn—and enforced—not by liberals or the media but by conservatives themselves,” wrote Jeff Jacoby in The Boston Globe. But others worry that the infection runs deep and that the backlash may be fleeting. The conservative movement stands at a crossroads, forced to choose between the principles that built it and the forces now threatening to tear it apart.
As the dust settles, one thing is clear: the debate over antisemitism, ideological identity, and America’s place in the world is far from over—and its outcome will shape the future of the American right for years to come.
