WASHINGTON — Former Donald Trump economic adviser Stephen Moore resigned from the conservative Heritage Foundation Thursday amid fierce backlash — and pressure from donors — over think tank president Kevin Roberts’ defense of Tucker Carlson platforming white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
Moore served for more than a decade as a fellow at one of the largest right-of-center think tanks in Washington, DC, yet didn’t reference the internal revolt over Roberts’ embrace of Carlson or subsequent apology for his choice of words — though sources told The Post the economist was facing pressure to depart.
“After 12 happy and productive years, I have decided to resign my position as senior visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation in order to concentrate my work load on continuing to build up @Comm4Prosperity [Committee to Unleash Prosperity] and the mounting influence of our daily Hotline,” Moore posted on X.
He then quoted Roberts’ predecessor as Heritage boss: “As Ed Feulner would say: ‘onward.’”
The Committee to Unleash Prosperity cofounder had been asked by donors to that group to leave Heritage, one source familiar with Moore’s exit told The Post.
Moore’s wife, Anne, had also proclaimed in a since-deleted tweet that Roberts didn’t deserve “a second chance” and that her “husband will be submitting his resignation.”
Anne Moore has since taken down her X account.
“When you fail to do the right thing in the first place from such a place of privilege, you don’t get a second chance,” Anne Moore wrote a little after 8 a.m. Thursday, in response to a post from former “View” co-host Meghan McCain. “My husband will be submitting his resignation after twelve meaningful years at Heritage.”
Moore, a senior economic adviser to President Trump’s 2016 campaign and key architect of his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, declined to comment further when The Post contacted him Friday.
In a statement, Heritage Foundation executive vice president Derrick Morgan praised Moore as “a gifted communicator for free markets,” and “an important partner to Heritage as a visiting fellow.”
“We look forward to other opportunities to work with Steve in the future,” Morgan added.
Moore’s departure comes after some members of Heritage’s antisemitism task force — including one of its cofounders, Luke Moon — have also cut ties with the think tank and issued a list of requests to Roberts before they would agree to “move forward together.”
“We think there’s a real problem with anti-semitism on the right,” Moon said Friday, “and we think we need to deal with it aggressively, and that’s the whole purpose of all that has transpired over the past week.”
The requests, which included taking down the video of Roberts’ initial defense of Carlson, issuing an apology to conservative Christians and Jews who “believe that Israel has a special role to play both biblically and politically,” and condemnation of “antisemitic content” produced by Carlson, were first reported Tuesday by National Review.
Fuentes, 27 — who has been designated by the Anti-Defamation League as a “white supremacist leader,” repeatedly made antisemitic statements on his video livestream show “America First,” and tweeted earlier this year that he was on “Team Hitler” — sat with Carlson, 56, for a more than two-hour interview released Oct. 27.
In the sitdown, which has since racked up 17 million views on X, Fuentes denounced the influence of “organized Jewry” in American politics and proclaimed himself “a fan” of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
Carlson, in the same interview, accused American Christians who support the state of Israel of being heretics with a “brain virus.”
On Oct. 30, Roberts issued a video statement lashing out at a “venomous coalition” that he said was “sowing division” on the political right and trying to “cancel” Carlson for putting Fuentes on “The Tucker Carlson Show.”
“We will always defend our friends against the slander of bad actors who serve someone else’s agenda. That includes Tucker Carlson, who remains, and as I have said before, always will be a close friend of the Heritage Foundation,” he said.
“The venomous coalition attacking him are sowing division. Their attempt to cancel him will fail,” declared Roberts, while adding: “I disagree with and even abhor things that Nick Fuentes said … but canceling him is not the answer either.”
The Heritage leader has yet to remove that video and has instead placed some blame on his former chief of staff Ryan Neuhaus, who resigned Monday, for authoring his remarks.
In a second video message on Oct. 31, Roberts condemned Fuentes’ “vicious antisemitic ideology, his Holocaust denial, and his relentless conspiracy theories that echo the darkest chapters of history.”
In a third statement Wednesday, Roberts claimed: “My use of the phrase ‘venomous coalition’ was a terrible choice of words. It caused justified concern — especially among friends and allies who know how seriously Heritage has fought, and continues to fight, against the rise of antisemitism.”
“Everyone has the responsibility to speak up against the scourge of antisemitism no matter the messenger,” he said. “Heritage and I will do so, even when my friend Tucker Carlson needs challenging.”
“The new ‘conservative’ position is we’re for free speech unless you oppose war with Iran? This whole thing is so bizarre and embarrassing,” Carlson responded in a statement to The Post that same day.
The former Fox News host has since said he welcomed Fuentes to discuss his “semi-coherent” views because “basically, in the end I decided, Nick Fuentes can’t be cancelled,”
Carlson also called Fuentes “enormously talented” and “the most influential voice for men under 30 in the United States.”
Heritage Foundation staff convened at DC headquarters on Wednesday, a meeting at which Roberts apologized for his handling of the incident and some members of the think tank raised concerns about Heritage’s relationship with Carlson and broader issues of antisemitism in the conservative movement.
Several staffers had spilled in private chats beforehand that they were “disgusted” with Roberts and felt attacked “for calling out Tucker for playing footsie with literal Nazis.”
Others stood by Roberts and urged him not to step down as their leader.
“My Heritage colleagues know — as do you — the work ahead is too important,” Roberts added in his Nov. 5 statement following the staff town hall, affirming that he would remain at the Heritage helm. “Our conservative movement must be willing to wrestle with hard conversations — not avoid them.”
