The Sunday Read: ‘How the Claremont Institute Became a Nerve Center of the American Right’

The Daily

The New York Times

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4.5 • 97.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 September 2022

⏱️ 59 minutes

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Summary

The Claremont Institute, a right-wing think tank in California, has in recent years become increasingly influential in Republican circles. In 2016, its goal was to turn Donald J. Trump into a legitimate candidate — and then it did . The journalist Elisabeth Zerofsky traces the origins of the divisive organization, explaining how it made the intellectual case for Trumpism but also how, with ties to Ron DeSantis and John Eastman, the think tank has become a home for “counterrevolutionary” politics that go far beyond the former president.

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0:00.0	Quote, a Hillary Clinton presidency is Russian roulette with a semi-auto.
0:11.7	With Trump, at least you can spin the cylinder and take your chances.
0:16.7	Unquote.
0:20.9	So that is a short excerpt from a September 2016 essay from the Claremont Institute,
0:27.7	a right-wing think tank.
0:29.7	My name is Elizabeth Zorowski and I'm a contributing writer to the New York Times magazine.
0:34.5	I've been reporting on the right and far right across Europe for the last five years.
0:39.5	And over the past year, I've focused on growing liberal movements in America.
0:45.2	The essay I just quoted was written by one of Claremont's senior fellows, Michael Anton,
0:50.6	who ended up serving in the Trump administration.
0:53.5	The Claremont Institute often uses belligerent and sometimes extreme language.
0:58.8	For example, another senior fellow said essentially that the 80 million or so people who voted
1:05.2	for Joe Biden were not real Americans.
1:09.0	They didn't have an appreciation for America.
1:12.6	Claremonters aren't easy to get access to, which is maybe why the institute isn't better
1:17.4	known to the public.
1:19.3	They call themselves counter-revolutionaries who want to re-found America.
1:25.8	This is extreme, obviously.
1:28.6	But nevertheless, the institute has become more and more influential as the American right
1:34.5	has moved ever further rightward.
1:37.6	Prominent right-wingers like Ben Shapiro and Jack Pasobic have intersected with it.
1:43.2	Even Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
	...

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