Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Oct 7, 2024 24 tweets 14 min read Read on X
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.

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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:

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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.

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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...

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...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”.

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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.”

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.”

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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:

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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”.

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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.

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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.

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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.
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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.

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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,...

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...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.

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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.”

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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”.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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My book titled “Vatnik Soup - The Ultimate Guide to Russian Disinformation” has been published, you can order it here:

kleart.dk/webshop/p/vatn…

Or if you prefer Amazon:

amazon.com/Vatnik-Soup-Ul… Image

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Jul 28
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian politician and First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Sergey Kiriyenko. He’s best known for running both domestic and foreign disinformation and propaganda operations for the Kremlin.

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On paper, and in photos, Kiriyenko is just as boring as most of the Kremlin’s “political technologists”: between 2005-2016 he headed the Rosatom nuclear energy company, but later played a leading role in the governance of Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine.

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What is a political technologist? In Russia, they’re spin doctors & propaganda architects who shape opinion, control narratives, and manage elections — often by faking opposition, staging events, and spreading disinfo to maintain Putin’s power and the illusion of democracy.

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Read 21 tweets
Jul 27
Let me show you how a Pakistani (or Indian, they're usually the same) AI slop farm/scam operates. The account @designbonsay is a prime example: a relatively attractive, AI-generated profile picture and a ChatGPT-style profile description are the first red flags.

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The profile's posts are just generic engagement farming, usually using AI-generated photos of celebrities or relatively attractive women.

These posts are often emotionally loaded and ask the user to interact with them ("like and share if you agree!").

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Then there's the monetization part. This particular account sells "pencil art", which again are just AI-generated slop.

Country code for the phone number is in Pakistan.

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Read 5 tweets
Jul 15
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American lawyer and politician, Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee). He’s best-known for opposing the aid to Ukraine, undermining NATO by calling the US to withdraw from the alliance, and for fighting with a bunch of braindead dogs online.

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Like many of the most vile vatniks out there, “Based Mike” is a lawyer by profession. He hails from the holy land of Mormons, Utah, where he faces little political competition, allowing him to make the most outrageous claims online without risking his Senate seat.

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Before becoming a senator, Mike fought to let a nuclear waste company dump Italian radioactive waste in Utah, arguing it was fine if they just diluted it. The state said no, the public revolted, and the courts told poor Mikey to sit down.

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Read 23 tweets
Jul 14
While Ukrainians are terror bombed on a daily basis, rich Russians live in Europe like kings and queens.

This young lady lives in Portugal, and travels freely to Ibiza...
...the Alps...
... and of course Paris.
Read 5 tweets
Jul 7
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American national security policy professional and the current under secretary of defense for policy, Elbridge Colby (@ElbridgeColby). He’s best-known for fighting with cartoon dogs online and for halting military aid to Ukraine.

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Elbridge "Cheese" Colby earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. Before entering government, he worked at top think tanks and in the intelligence community, focusing on nuclear policy and strategic planning.

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Cheese quickly became a key voice for a “China First” strategy, arguing the US must prioritize military buildup in Asia over commitments in Europe or the Middle East. He sees (or saw, rather) Taiwan as the core test of US credibility.

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Read 23 tweets
Jul 6
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’m going to talk about… Vatnik Soup! As some of you know, we also have a website where you can find every soup ever published. The site also has other useful resources, making it the most comprehensive resource on Russian disinformation & vatniks.

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Unfortunately, Elon has flagged the website as malware, as he might not be very happy about the soups I wrote about him - so far, they have garnered over 60 million views on X/Twitter.

The “freedom of speech” spokesperson doesn’t seem too keen on free speech, after all.

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The heart & soul of the website is of course the soups page. There you can find all 360+ soups, which can be sorted chronologically, by popularity, etc. You can also search for soups by title or even in the soup text:

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vatniksoup.com/en/soups/
Read 15 tweets

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