Princeton University professor Robert P. George resigned Monday from the board of trustees of the Heritage Foundation, intensifying a weeks-long crisis that has engulfed one of the nation’s most venerable conservative think tanks.
His departure deals a significant blow to the organization and follows internal turmoil sparked by Heritage President Kevin Roberts’ public defense of Tucker Carlson after the podcaster hosted white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes on his podcast.
In a statement posted to Facebook, George said he could not remain on the board without “a full retraction” of Roberts’ Oct. 30 video, which defended Carlson against what Roberts described as a “venomous coalition” of critics.
After the video, Roberts retracted his support of Fuentes, but has stubbornly refused to criticize, condemn, or disassociate himself or Heritage from Carlson’s advocacy of antisemitism.
“I have resigned from the board of the Heritage Foundation,” George wrote. “I could not remain without a full retraction of the video released by Kevin Roberts, speaking for and in the name of Heritage, on October 30th. Although Kevin publicly apologized for some of what he said in the video, he could not offer a full retraction of its content. So, we reached an impasse.”
George added that while Roberts is “a good man,” he indicated he also made “a serious mistake.”
According to George, they differed on what accountability required.
“I’m sad to be leaving the Heritage board,” he wrote.
He concluded with a plea that Heritage remain faithful to “the moral principles of the Judeo-Christian tradition” and to the conviction that every human being is “created equal” and endowed with “unalienable rights.”
Newsmax has reached out to George and the Heritage Foundation for comment.
The resignation of George will only further undermine Heritage’s reputation as a leading conservative think tank.
George, widely considered one of the most significant conservative intellectuals of his generation, joined the Heritage board in 2019.
A Princeton legal philosopher and former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, George has long advocated for classical conservative principles grounded in natural law, constitutionalism, and religious liberty.
His reputation as a moral traditionalist and bridge-builder within conservative intellectual circles made his clash with Roberts unusually consequential — and symbolic of a broader struggle over the movement’s direction.
Crisis Triggered by Carlson Interview
The turmoil began in late October when Tucker Carlson posted a two-hour interview with Nick Fuentes, during which the 27-year-old extremist praised Joseph Stalin, repeated antisemitic conspiracy theories, and denied the Holocaust.
Carlson, for his part, accused Christian supporters of Israel of having a theological “brain virus.”
Roberts responded three days later with a video condemning attempts to “cancel” Carlson.
“We will always defend our friends,” he declared, calling Carlson “a close friend of the Heritage Foundation.”
The reaction inside Heritage was immediate and explosive.
According to internal chats reported by the New York Post, senior staff described themselves as “embarrassed” and “disgusted.” One wrote it was “the most embarrassed I’ve ever been to be a Heritage employee.”
Neither Roberts nor the Heritage Foundation has criticized Carlson for hosting Fuentes — and they have not publicly distanced themselves from the antisemitic views aired in the interview or in his many podcasts and statements that major Jewish and Christian groups have deemed antisemitic.
The board has continued to stand behind Roberts throughout the controversy.
Days after the Carlson-Fuentes interview, George himself posted a pointed message on his X account warning conservatives that their movement “simply cannot include or accommodate white supremacists or racists of any type, antisemites, eugenicists, or others whose ideologies are incompatible with belief in the inherent and equal dignity of all.”
While he did not reference Carlson or Roberts by name, his message was widely understood as an implicit rebuke.
The New York Post later reported that George was “furious” over Roberts’ defense of Carlson and had been urging fellow trustees to remove him.
The controversy has already triggered a wave of resignations.
Senior Heritage fellows — including Stephen Moore, Christopher DeMuth, and Adam Mossoff — have resigned in the wake of Heritage’s actions.
The think tank’s antisemitism task force, Project Esther, officially left Heritage, but only after more than a dozen additional members or advisers quit.
Earlier this month, Roberts convened a staff forum to discuss the crisis with several senior Heritage staff openly calling on Roberts to resign.
One participant told the forum, “All the conservatives I know at organizations, institutions, everywhere, are just appalled at what’s happened … and I have to tell you, if you don’t dump Tucker Carlson publicly, we’re not going to repair that damage.”
Jewish Groups Publicly Criticized Heritage
Morton Klein, President of Zionist Organization of America, called for Roberts to resign and has urged Jewish and Christian donors to suspend contributions until Heritage demonstrated a clear break from Carlson and other extremists pushed by Carlson.
Klein said Heritage has already been “hemorrhaging” support from evangelical and Jewish donors.
“I resigned from the Heritage antisemitism task force because Heritage leadership failed to stand against the voices of antisemitism on the political right,” former Rep. Michele Bachmann, an evangelical and former presidential candidate, said as she quit Heritage’s antisemitism task force.
“Inexplicably, consistent voices of antisemitism on the political right were embraced and, worse, defended by the leadership of Heritage Foundation.”
While Roberts has insisted he opposes antisemitism and Holocaust denial, critics argue that refusing to distance Heritage from Carlson — and by extension Fuentes — signals a dangerous shift.
George made that warning explicit in his earlier X statement, arguing that the conservative movement faces a challenge from “those who reject our commitment to inherent and equal human dignity.”
“They openly preach white supremacy and the hatred of Jews,” he wrote. “It is incumbent upon those of us who maintain the ‘ancient faith’ … to make clear … we will not permit the integrity of our movement … to be compromised.”
Carlson’s Growing Antisemitism
Carlson has on more than one occasion suggested that Israel — or “Zionists” — exert undue control over U.S. policy, the media, or public discourse.
For example, at a memorial for Charlie Kirk he stated: “So it’s about 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem … and Jesus shows up and he starts telling the truth about people … they just go bonkers” then mocked the idea. “Why don’t we just kill him? That’ll shut him up …” he said, while laughing.
The Anti-Defamation League said, “Carlson’s remarks dangerously reinforced the belief that Jews killed Jesus, and that Jews have been a malevolent force throughout history.
“This antisemitic myth has led to expulsions and murders of Jews for centuries.”
In another episode of his podcast, Tucker said that Kirk was killed because of the many enemies he had, and described Kirk’s recent opposition to an Israeli attack on Iran as creating some angry ones.
Many have noted that Carlson regularly uses language that implies Israel or an Israeli lobby “controls” or “pulls the strings” in U.S. politics or media — language that echoes classic antisemitic conspiracy tropes about Jewish control of governments, banks, and media.
In a recent broadcast, Carlson claimed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was telling everyone he knows that he controls President Donald Trump and tells him what to do.
Carlson provided no source material for such claims.
Carlson has also tied the Jeffrey Epstein scandal to the Israeli government, claiming that Epstein was a secret operative of the Mossad.
Despite several investigations into the Epstein matter, no evidence has surfaced that he worked for any foreign intelligence agency, including Israel’s.
In Carlson’s documentary series “The 9/11 Files” and other segments, Carlson has given air to the idea that the official 9/11 narrative is false and that neoconservatives (often overlapped with pro-Israel Jews in discourse) or Israel helped engineer or allowed the attacks in order to advance a “greater Israel” agenda.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, argued that conservatives need to reject Carlson’s antisemitism.
“Fuentes and Carlson have a right to say what they are saying. But every one of us has an obligation to stand up and say it is wrong,” he said.
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