The durability of political movements is rarely secured by charisma alone. While Donald Trump remains the gravitational centre of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) universe, the movement’s long-term viability depends on the institutionalisation of its ideas. In this regard, the Trump-aligned think tank ecosystem represents a deliberate and strategic effort to embed MAGA ideology into the machinery of American governance. This is not merely a populist revolt – it is an elite-driven project to reconstitute the intellectual foundations of the American state.

MAGA’s think tank network

The MAGA think tank network – comprising the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), Heritage Foundation, Center for Renewing America (CRA), Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), and others – functions as a counter-establishment. It is a parallel intellectual infrastructure designed to supplant the liberal internationalist consensus that has dominated American policymaking since the mid-20th century. These institutions are not peripheral; they are central to the Trump administration’s second-term agenda, providing policy blueprints, personnel pipelines, and ideological coherence.

This ecosystem is not monolithic, but it is unified by a shared commitment to America First nationalism, executive supremacy, and cultural restoration. It is a fusion of economic protectionism, anti-globalism, and civilisational conservatism. The goal is not simply to win elections but to reshape the ideological foundations of the American state. In this sense, the MAGA think tank network is engaged in a Gramscian struggle for ideological hegemony.

MAGA’s Own Machiavelli

At the heart of this intellectual insurgency is Michael Anton, whose role exemplifies the Machiavellian turn in Trumpist thought. Anton’s 2016 essay “The Flight 93 Election” was a clarion call for existential politics—a framing of the Trump candidacy as a last-ditch effort to save Western civilisation from liberal decay. Drawing on Leo Strauss, Machiavelli, and with what some claim are at least echoes of Carl Schmitt, Anton articulated a vision of politics as war by other means. His work provided the philosophical scaffolding for Trumpism, elevating it from populist impulse to governing doctrine.

Anton’s influence has only deepened in Trump’s second term. As Director of Policy Planning, until recently, he’s less a commentator than a strategist. Most notably, Anton is the lead author of the 2025 National Security Strategy – a document that crystallises the ideological transformation of U.S. foreign policy under MAGA. The strategy rejects the universalist pretensions of liberal internationalism and instead affirms a realist-nationalist vision: America’s security is rooted in its sovereignty, its cultural cohesion, and its willingness to act unilaterally in defence of its interests.

The 2025 NSS emphasises strategic decoupling from China, the primacy of energy independence, and the use of economic tools – tariffs, sanctions, and industrial policy – as instruments of geopolitical leverage. It frames alliances as conditional partnerships, not moral obligations, and redefines global leadership as the projection of strength rather than the stewardship of norms. In short, it is Trumpism in doctrine form – a blueprint for a world order remade in the image of American nationalism.

MAGA Architecture

The institutional architecture surrounding Anton is formidable. AFPI, founded by Trump alumni Brooke Rollins and Larry Kudlow, is the most explicitly Trump-centric think tank. It produced a 250-page “America First Agenda” that mirrors the administration’s priorities. Heritage Foundation, through its Project 2025 initiative, has pivoted from Reaganite conservatism to MAGA maximalism. CRA, led by Russell Vought (Trump’s director of the office of budget management), advances Christian-nationalist governance, while CPI serves as the movement’s recruitment and messaging hub.

The funding scaffolding behind these institutions is equally strategic. AFPI received $1 million from Trump’s leadership PAC and grew its revenue to $23 million by 2022. Heritage coordinated with over 100 groups to produce Project 2025. CRA and CPI benefit from dark money networks and private equity donors aligned with nationalist economics. This financial infrastructure is not merely about sustaining operations – it is about building a parallel state.

Liberal establishment leans into MAGA

Yet what is striking, but not surprising to close observers of US power, is the extent to which traditional liberal elite institutions are quietly converging with Trumpism’s core – not its rhetoric or style, but its strategic imperatives. Institutions like Brookings, CSIS, and even elements within AEI have begun to echo themes of great power competition, industrial policy, and national resilience. The language may be technocratic, but the underlying logic – of reasserting sovereignty, decoupling from China, and fortifying domestic capacity – mirrors MAGA’s strategic worldview.

Even the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), long a bastion of liberal internationalism, has subtly recalibrated. In its 2025 annual report, CFR emphasised “transition, disruption, challenge, and opportunity” as the defining features of the new era. It has expanded bipartisan outreach, hosting forums with state and municipal leaders from across the political spectrum. While CFR has not embraced MAGA ideology, it has acknowledged the permanence of the shift. As Senator Jeanne Shaheen noted in a CFR speech, “There is no going back to the world of January 2025”. CFR’s senior fellows now speak less of restoring the liberal order and more of adapting to a multipolar, transactional world.

This convergence is not ideological fealty but pragmatic adaptation. Liberal elite think tanks are recalibrating to remain relevant in a shifting policy landscape. They are absorbing elements of Trumpism’s core – executive assertiveness, economic nationalism, and cultural security – while maintaining a veneer of institutional continuity. In doing so, they are helping normalise the very ideas they once opposed.

American power is network power

American power is sustained through the reproduction of elite consensus across foundations, universities, and think tanks but also, critically, intersecting with major corporations and billionaires, and agencies of the American state. The MAGA ecosystem represents a rupture in the liberal consensus, but not in the pursuit of power. It seeks to maintain American dominance by discarding the liberal veneer and embracing a rawer form of hegemony.

In this emerging order, alliances are conditional, institutions are dispensable, and norms are negotiable. The MAGA movement is not withdrawing from the world—it is remaking it in its image. And the intellectual foundations of that remaking are being laid not in Foggy Bottom (state department), but in the offices of AFPI, Heritage, and Claremont.

In this context, Trump is both central and peripheral. He is the charismatic figurehead, but the real power lies in the institutions being built around him. These think tanks are not dependent on his presence; they are designed to endure beyond his tenure. Their intellectual foundations are being laid not in campaign rallies but in white papers, policy memos, and strategic blueprints. The MAGA movement is becoming a regime – not just of politics, but of ideas.

And in this regime, Michael Anton is the high priest. His authorship of the 2025 National Security Strategy cements his role not just as a theorist but as a doctrinal architect. His writings are not mere commentary; they are policy. His vision is not speculative; it is operational. He embodies the fusion of intellect and power that defines the new MAGA elite. In the years to come, it will be Anton and his cohort—not Trump alone—who determine the trajectory of American conservatism—and perhaps the world order itself.

Inderjeet Parmar is a professor of international politics and associate dean of research in the School of Policy and Global Affairs at City St George’s, University of London, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and writes the American Imperium column at The Wire. He is an International Fellow at the ROADS Initiative think tank, Islamabad, on the board of the Miami Institute for the Social Sciences, USA, and on the advisory board of INCT-INEU, Brazil. Author of several books including Foundations of the American Century, he is currently writing a book on the history, politics, and crises of the US foreign policy establishment.

This article went live on October twenty-fifth, two thousand twenty five, at five minutes past three in the afternoon.

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