In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an American conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation (@Heritage). Heritage is best-known for opposing military aid to Ukraine and for their political initiative called Project 2025, a potential blueprint for a Trump presidency.
1/23
Before we begin, I want to justify this soup that focuses heavily on US domestic politics. As a strong supporter of Ukraine, I see Donald Trump as a threat to Ukraine’s existence, and the reasoning for that can be found in this previous soup:
Heritage was founded in 1973, but it took a leading role in conservative politics during the Reagan presidency, whose policies were mostly taken from the foundation’s book series called Mandate for Leadership. Project 2025 is the ninth iteration of this series.
3/23
The influence of the Heritage Foundation on US public policy shouldn’t be underestimated - it’s been often ranked as one of the most influential think tanks in the US. They were a central organization in developing the Reagan Doctrine, which provided military and other...
4/23
...support to anti-communist resistance movements in Afghanistan, Cambodia and other countries. Historically, Heritage has been hawkish, supporting US-led wars like the Gulf War and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq during the “war on terror”.
5/23
In 2015, after Trump announced his candidacy for the 2016 US presidential elections, Heritage were highly skeptical of him. The leader of Heritage’s advocacy group even stated that “Donald Trump’s a clown. He needs to be out of the race.”
6/23
After Trump won, the foundation started lobbying their own candidates for his cabinet. Hundreds of people from their database received jobs in government agencies, and in 2018 Heritage claimed that Trump had embraced 64% of proposed policies in the foundation’s agenda.
7/23
After Trump lost the re-election in 2020, Heritage hired a bunch of former Trump administration officials, including Mike Pence, and in 2021 they hired Kevin Roberts as the president. Roberts claimed that he considered the role of Heritage as “institutionalizing Trumpism.”
8/23
Just like Viktor Orban of Hungary (who they later invited to visit the US), the Heritage Foundation began embracing national conservatism as its main ideology around 2022. They’ve even established a co-operational friendship with the Hungarian-state funded Danube Institute.
9/23
After Roberts took over the foundation, it has completely reversed its position on sending military aid to Ukraine. This came to many as a surprise, as in Feb 2022, one Heritage paper stated that “Without question, supporting Ukraine is in U.S. and European interests.”
10/23
Many prominent anti-Ukraine and pro-Kremlin figures have been associated with the think tank, including conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson and Soros-funded conspiracy theorist Vivek Ramaswamy:
Today, Heritage Foundation is also the most quoted think tank in the Russian media. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov has parroted Heritage rhetoric, and Zvezda, the news site of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation shows clips from “The Kevin Roberts Show”.
12/23
In Apr 2023, Heritage also published their latest entry to the Mandate for Leadership series, Project 2025. The foundation has called the series its “policy bible”, and many have suggested that Project 2025 would be a blueprint for a potential Trump presidency.
13/23
Project 2025 would give Trump control over the Justice Department, giving him the right to cut entire federal agencies. It would also integrate Christian Nationalism to level of government policy, and calls for ban on pornography and further limitations on abortions.
14/23
Another interesting aspect of the proposal is the recommendation for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to stop its “efforts to curtail online propaganda campaigns”, stating that the federal government shouldn’t make judgment on what’s true and what isn’t.
15/23
The project suggests that nonpartisan civil servants should be replaced with Trump loyalists, education budgets should be slashed, and that the president should be in control of the FBI and would have power to investigate his political opponents.
16/23
When it came out in 2023, Project 2025 went mostly unnoticed. But in 2024, the Democrats started warning the public of the project’s extreme and potentially dangerous agenda. Soon after this, a NBC poll results stated that just 4 percent viewed Project 2025 favorably,...
17/23
...while 57 percent held a negative view. Perhaps due to this, Trump completely distanced himself from the project, stating that some of the proposals were “absolutely ridiculous and abysmal”, even though some of the most controversial ideas in it were his.
18/23
Trump even claimed to “Have no idea who is in charge of it,” even though he took a private flight with its leader in 2022 to a Heritage conference, where he stated that “They’re going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do.”
19/23
After the controversy, the foundation had to add a disclaimer to their website stating that Project 2025 is not Trump’s plan, also creating a web page “to counter the left’s worst lies about Project 2025.” Washington Post called it a “huge blunder from Trump’s allies”.
20/23
Interestingly, the foreword for the Heritage president Kevin Roberts’ book was written by the VP candidate JD Vance. In it, JD praises Roberts’ “conservative vision.” For some reason, the book’s publishing date was pushed for after the Nov 2024 elections.
21/23
But, there’s more! In 2024, multiple reports accused Trump loyalist and Project 2025 operative John McEntee for sending sexually explicit messages to girls as young as 18. Incidentally, McEntee has said that he supports a total ban on pornography.
22/23
What worries me about Project 2025 is that an organization that has so much power over US foreign policy seems to be siding with authoritarian regimes like Orban’s Hungary, and is turning the US into one at the same time. I personally see it as an attack against democracy.
23/23
My book titled “Vatnik Soup - The Ultimate Guide to Russian Disinformation” has been published, you can order it here:
In today’s Wumao Soup, I’ll introduce how and where the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) online propaganda and influence operations work. Due to China’s massive population and advances in AI, CCP-aligned online content has become increasingly visible.
1/20
Like Russia’s troll farms, China has its own troll army: the “50 Cent Party” or “Wumao” refers to state-linked online commentators who are reportedly paid ¥0.50 per post to steer discussions away from criticism and amplify CCP narratives on social media.
2/20
Back in 2017, a research paper estimated that the Wumao produced almost 500 million fabricated comments annually to distract readers and shift topics. In that sense, Wumao operates very similarly to the Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” model:
In today’s Vatnik Soup and the “Degenerate Russia” series, I’ll show you the brutal reality of Russian war crimes, in particular the horrific tortures and sexual abuses of children, women and men.
Buckle up, this one is not for the faint-hearted.
1/24
For over a decade now and as part of their “firehose of falsehood” propaganda strategy, Russia has been spreading false narratives targeted at right-wing/conservative audiences, portraying russia as a bastion of Christian, traditional,family values.
In the previous “degenerate Russia” series we discussed Russia’s insanely high divorce rates, rampant domestic violence, high murder rates, thriving neo-Nazi culture, corruption of the Orthodox Church, and their massive demographic problem:
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explore how Russia is working with Iran, and how the recent Israel–US strikes on Iran could affect the war in Ukraine. Iran has been one of Russia’s key allies in their genocidal war, but in reality the partnership is deeply one-sided.
1/21
Historically, Russia/USSR has been involved in numerous wars in the Middle East, invading Afghanistan for nearly a decade and desperately trying to keep Syria’s authoritarian leader, al-Assad, in power before his eventual downfall.
2/21
While initially supportive of Israel, the Soviet Union quickly pivoted to backing its enemies, fueling antisemitism, terrorism, and chaos in an already tense region. At times, this meant near-open war, like when Soviet Air Force MiG-21s were shot down by Israel over Egypt.
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll re-introduce a Latvian politician and former MEP, Tatjana Ždanoka. She’s best-known for her history in the Communist Party of Latvia, for her pro-Russian politics in the country, and her connections to Russian intelligence.
1/22
Based on Ždanoka’s speeches and social media posts, she has a deep hatred towards the people of Latvia. The reason for this can only be speculated, but part of it could be due to her paternal family being killed by the Latvian Auxiliary Police,…
2/22
…a paramilitary force supported by the Nazis, during the early 1940s. Ždanoka became politically active in the late 80s. She was one of the leaders of Interfront, a political party that supported Latvia remaining part of the USSR.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce the main themes of Russian disinformation on TikTok. Each day, there are thousands of new videos promoting pro-Kremlin narratives and propaganda.
It’s worth noting that Russians can only access European TikTok via VPN.
1/10
There is currently a massive TikTok campaign aimed at promoting a positive image of Russia. The videos typically feature relatively attractive young women and focus on themes of nationalism and cultural heritage.
2/10
Ironically, many of these videos from Moscow or St. Petersburg are deceptively edited to portray Ukraine in a false light — claiming there is no war and that international aid is being funneled to corrupt elites.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about Finland and how pro-Kremlin propagandists have become more active in the Finnish political space since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For the first time since 2022, they’ve gained some political power in Finland.
1/16
Russia’s political strategy in countries with Russian-speaking minorities (such as Finland and the Baltics) is typically quite similar: it seeks to rally these minorities around issues like language and minority rights, and then frames the situation as oppression.
2/16
At the same time, Russian speakers are extremely wary and skeptical of local media, and instead tend to follow Russian domestic outlets like Russia-1 and NTV, thereby reinforcing an almost impenetrable information bubble.