For years, self-proclaimed constitutional conservatives claimed to be the last defense against government tyranny. They built their entire movement around warnings of executive overreach, insisting they were the true defenders of the Constitution. Yet now, as Donald Trump openly defies the separation of powers and consolidates control, they are silent—or worse, helping him.
The Heritage Foundation, which once claimed to stand for limited government, wrote the blueprint for Trump’s power grab: Project 2025. This plan is to gut the civil service, replace career government employees with Trump loyalists, and strip independent agencies of their authority. Russell Vought, a key architect of this scheme for Heritage, now serves in Trump’s administration, pushing policies that undermine checks and balances. These so-called conservatives aren’t fighting tyranny, they are building it.
Trump ignores court rulings, calls for political prosecutions, and even talks about a third term, an outright violation of the Constitution. If Barack Obama had done any of this, these groups would have been screaming about dictatorship. Now? They make excuses or look the other way.
The Federalist Society, once dedicated to “originalism” now promotes the dangerous idea of a unitary executive, giving Trump dictatorial control. The Heritage Foundation and Turning Point USA, which claim to fight big government, have stopped caring about executive overreach. Right-wing media like Fox News and The Daily Wire, once loud critics of government power, now act as Trump’s propaganda machine.
And where are the so-called patriots who insisted they needed all the guns to fight government tyranny? For years, militias and far-right groups claimed they were armed to resist exactly this kind of abuse. Now that Trump is openly undermining democracy, they’re nowhere to be found. Their silence proves their “principles” were just partisan talking points.
Even Republican lawmakers who built their careers on fiery speeches about the Constitution—Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Mike Lee—have either backed Trump’s power grabs or cowardly stayed quiet. The truth is, they never cared about the Constitution—they cared about keeping power.
Only a handful of conservatives, like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, have stood up to Trump. The rest have abandoned their principles in favor of loyalty to one man. The so-called constitutional conservative movement has exposed itself as a fraud.
The Constitution is only as strong as those willing to defend it. The people who spent years claiming that role are failing the test. If they won’t stand up now, they should stop pretending they ever cared in the first place.
History will remember this moment. It will remember their silence, their cowardice, and their betrayal of the Republic. The question isn’t whether Trump will try to seize more power—he already has. The question is: will anyone who swore to defend the Constitution actually do it?
