The Next Wave: How Religious Extremism is Reclaiming Power

Money is being channelled into an assault on rights across Europe – advanced by Americans and benefiting Russia. It is a dedicated campaign with long-term implications. Katherine Stewart reports

Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation. Photo: PA/Alamy

On 26 May, Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation – one of America’s most influential conservative think tanks – gathered with leaders of the French far-right at the Interallied Union Circle, an exclusive club on Paris’s right bank.

The invitation card promised a conversation on “the future of conservatism in France and the West”. In an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, Roberts explained that “we’re worried about the West, about France”.

The next day, the US State Department made the plan official.

In a strategic memo, it stated that “Europe has devolved into a hotbed of digital censorship” and “restrictions on religious freedom”. It declared the administration’s intention of exporting the Trump worldview by promoting a “shared heritage as opposed to globalist conformity”.

The Heritage Foundation’s role in Donald Trump’s second administration cannot be overstated. The organisation coordinated ‘Project 2025’ – the 900-plus page roadmap for this presidency, along with collaborative support from more than 100 ‘conservative’ organisations.

Approximately 140 members of the first Trump administration, including six Cabinet members, were involved in the creation of Project 2025, and many of the document’s contributors have taken up positions in the current administration.

Roberts himself is a close friend of Vice President JD Vance and an outspoken booster of the Trump regime. “Immigration is one of the greatest threats to us – God bless Donald Trump for fixing it”, he has enthused.

The gathering at the Interallied Union Circle was organised by Alexandre Pesey and his wife Kate Pesey, who oversee nationalist training and activist groups that receive support from Pierre-Edouard Sterin, the French nationalist-Catholic billionaire.

During his visit to Paris, which lasted three days, Roberts met with a range of figures on Europe’s far-right. Not all of them were French. As a matter of fact, Project 2025 is coming for all of Europe – and beyond.

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