NEW YORK — The leader of a conservative think tank that is orchestrating plans for a sweeping overhaul of the federal government in the event of a Republican presidential election victory said the country is in the midst of a “second American Revolution” that will be bloodless “if the left lets it be.”
Kevin Roberts, chairman of the Heritage Foundation, made the comments Tuesday Steve Bannon“War Room” podcast, where he added that Republicans are “taking this country back.”
Democrats are “furious right now” because the right is winning, Roberts told the former U.S. congressman. Dave-bratone of the podcast’s guest hosts, as Bannon is serving a four-month prison sentence. “And so I’m going to bring this answer full circle and encourage you with some substance that we’re in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left lets it.”
Roberts’ comments shed light on how a group that promises to have significant influence on a potential second term for the former president Donald Trump reflects on this moment in American politics. The Heritage Foundation is the driving force behind Project 2025, a sweeping road map for a new GOP administration that includes plans to dismantle aspects of the federal government and fire thousands of civil servants in favor of Trump loyalists who will uncomplainingly implement a far-right agenda.
His call for revolution and vague references to violence also raised concerns among some Democrats, who saw it as a threat.
“This is chilling,” former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson wrote on the social media platform X. “Their idea of a second American Revolution is to undo the first.”
James Singer, a spokesman for President Joe BidenThe party’s re-election campaign referenced this week’s Fourth of July holiday in an emailed statement.
“248 years ago tomorrow, America declared independence from a tyrannical king, and now Donald Trump and his allies want to make him one at our expense,” Singer said, adding that Trump and his allies “dream of a violent revolution to destroy the idea of America itself.”
Roberts, whose name Bannon was recently mentioned to The New York Times as a possible chief of staff for Trump, also said in the podcast that Republicans should be encouraged by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on immunity.
He said Monday’s decision — which gives presidents broad immunity from prosecution — is “critical” to ensuring that a president does not have to “second-guess or triple-guess every decision he makes in his official capacity.”
In an emailed statement Wednesday, Roberts reiterated his comments from the podcast, saying that Americans “are engaged in the Second American Revolution to take back power from elites and despotic bureaucrats.”
“These patriots are committed to a peaceful revolution at the ballot box,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s the left that has a long history of violence, so it’s up to them to allow a peaceful transition of power.”
Roberts pointed to the protests following the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, some of which descended into crime, vandalism and violence. Democrats, in turn, have accused their Republican counterparts of violence, citing the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol in which Trump supporters tried to violently overturn his loss to President Joe Biden.
Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, said Roberts’ comments about a “second American Revolution” were “a little bit scary but also illuminating.” The 1,000-page Project 2025 handbook calls for far-reaching changes in government, including rolling back protections for the LGBTQ community and embedding Christianity more deeply in society.
“Roberts, the Heritage Foundation and its allies in Project 2025 want to reorder and fundamentally change American society,” Beirich said. “He’s said the quiet part out loud.”
