Heritage Foundation's "Project Esther" Emerges as Blueprint for Trump's Crackdown on Pro-Palestinian Movement
The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind the controversial Project 2025, has developed a comprehensive strategy to dismantle pro-Palestinian activism across the United States, with the Trump administration already implementing key elements of the plan just months into the president's second term.
Project Esther, unveiled quietly in October 2024 on the anniversary of Hamas's attack on Israel, outlines a systematic approach to target pro-Palestinian supporters through deportations, defunding, legal action, and social ostracism. The initiative proposes categorizing a broad spectrum of Israel's critics as part of a "terrorist support network," thereby justifying severe governmental and social consequences for Palestinian rights advocates.
Trump Administration Embraces Esther's Roadmap
Since President Trump's return to office, his administration has mirrored several of Project Esther's recommendations with remarkable precision. The administration has begun revoking visas for foreign students critical of Israel, withheld federal funding from universities over antisemitism allegations, and initiated deportation proceedings against legal residents supporting Palestinian causes.
"The phase we're in now is starting to execute some of the lines of effort in terms of legislative, legal and financial penalties for what we consider to be material support for terrorism," Victoria Coates, a former deputy national security adviser and Heritage Foundation vice president overseeing Project Esther, told The New York Times.
The administration's arrest of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil for deportation due to his political views exemplifies Project Esther's strategy in action. According to Axios, this represents part of a broader effort to "cast pro-Palestinian protesters as Hamas supporters" and use anti-terrorism and immigration laws to suppress campus demonstrations.
Comprehensive Strategy Targets Multiple Fronts
Project Esther outlines 19 specific "desired outcomes" and 28 "necessary conditions" to achieve its goals of dismantling Palestinian solidarity movements. The document proposes preventing non-U.S. citizens who support Palestinian rights from accessing universities, ensuring social media platforms prohibit what it defines as "anti-Semitic content," and providing evidence of alleged "criminal activities" by Palestine advocates to the executive branch.
"We must engage in lawfare, the document states, advocating for the strategic use of legal actions to pressure adversaries.
The plan targets academic institutions explicitly, calling for the removal of educational content perceived as sympathetic to Hamas-supporting narratives and the dismissal of faculty members deemed supportive of such positions. Project Esther highlights "Middle East/North Africa or Islamic studies" programs as having professors "hostile to Israel," leading the Trump administration to pressure elite universities to reform these academic departments.
Universities Already Under Pressure
The Heritage Foundation's strategy appears to be working. At Trump's request, Columbia University has appointed a provost to review its Middle East department "starting immediately". The administration has also withheld billions of dollars in federal funding from universities, claiming they allowed antisemitism to proliferate during campus protests.
According to the Jewish Voice for Peace Academic Advisory Council, many universities had already begun adopting Project Esther's agenda even before Trump's inauguration, including
"firing faculty for extramural speech, interfering in their syllabi, and banning organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace."
The document heavily references Canary Mission, a website focused on doxxing and discrediting pro-Palestine students, in its footnotes. Activists suspect the Trump administration has utilized this website, along with other pro-Israel organizations, to target students for deportation.
Scale of the Pro-Palestinian Movement
The crackdown comes in response to what Harvard Kennedy School research identifies as unprecedented mobilization. From October 7, 2023, to June 7, 2024, the Crowd Counting Consortium recorded nearly 12,400 pro-Palestine protests and over 2,000 pro-Israel protests in the United States.
The Harvard study notes that "since January 2017, when CCC first started counting protest events and their crowd sizes, the current pro-Palestine protest wave involves the largest, most sustained US protests sparked by a foreign event". Researchers concluded that the pro-Palestine movement "has not been violent" at both the national level and specifically regarding student encampments in spring 2024.
Critics Denounce Assault on Civil Liberties
Civil liberties advocates have strongly criticized Project Esther as an attack on fundamental constitutional rights. Stefanie Fox, director of Jewish Voice for Peace, told Democracy Now that Project Esther "has nothing to do with Jewish safety, and is intended solely to destroy the Palestinian liberation movement that threatens Zionism, but it can be used against all marginalized communities and movements and democracy itself".
"We see clearly that Project Esther laid out a roadmap for the Trump administration to sharpen the legal regimes that will best advance MAGA goals, Fox added.
The Arab Center DC notes that Project Esther fits within "the broader US policy of unconditional support for Israel," describing how "a new body of laws and regulations has emerged in the United States and Canada to suppress any pro-Palestinian solidarity and activism".
International Context and Timing
Project Esther was developed in direct response to the growing protests against American support for Israel's military actions in Gaza, which United Nations experts and human rights organizations have characterized as genocidal. The Heritage Foundation delegation traveled to Israel in late April 2025 to engage with influential political figures, including foreign and defense ministers, as well as U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee.
The document emerged amid what the Arab Center DC describes as "increasing public pressure against both governments' complacency toward Israel's genocide in Gaza". This international context has intensified scrutiny of Project Esther's domestic implementation.
Digital Warfare and Social Media Targeting
Project Esther specifically targets digital platforms and the social media presence of pro-Palestinian advocates. The plan calls for purging social media platforms of content deemed antisemitic and undermining trust among organizations within the movement.
The strategy includes targeting activists' "ability to use social media" as part of broader efforts to isolate and discredit the Palestinian rights movement. This digital component represents a significant expansion of traditional protest suppression tactics into the online sphere.
Legal and Financial Pressure Campaign
The document advocates for comprehensive "legal, private investigations" into pro-Palestine organizations to "reveal criminal misconduct" and undermine their legitimacy. This approach combines traditional legal challenges with financial pressure through defunding initiatives.
Universities face particular vulnerability under this strategy, as federal funding represents a crucial revenue source that the administration can use to leverage compliance. The Heritage Foundation's plan explicitly calls for cutting public funding to institutions that fail to meet its criteria.
Academic Freedom Under Siege
The targeting of Middle East studies programs represents what critics characterize as a fundamental assault on academic freedom. The Notre Dame analysis emphasizes that universities' adoption of Project Esther's agenda constitutes "fundamental violations of academic freedom and basic Constitutional Rights".
Faculty members face particular scrutiny under the plan, which seeks to "undermine the credibility of pro-Palestine faculty and staff," leading to employment termination. This creates a chilling effect on academic discourse surrounding Middle Eastern politics and Palestinian rights.
Immigration Enforcement as a Political Tool
Project Esther's focus on foreign students and faculty represents a significant expansion of immigration enforcement for political purposes. The plan involves identifying foreign students and faculty who violate their visas, prompting them to either leave the U.S. voluntarily or face deportation.
This approach transforms immigration law into a tool for political suppression, raising concerns about the broader implications for academic exchange and international education. The strategy particularly targets students who participate in or express sympathy for pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Future Implications and Resistance
As Project Esther's implementation continues, civil liberties organizations are mobilizing resistance efforts. The Jewish Voice for Peace Academic Advisory Council has called on universities to "recognize the threat posed by Project Esther and Project 2025 and take concrete action".
The Heritage Foundation's Victoria Coates has outlined an aggressive timeline for implementation, stating, "We will organize rapidly, take immediate action to 'stop the bleeding,' and achieve all objectives within two years." This accelerated schedule suggests that intensified enforcement actions will be taken in the coming months.
Legal challenges to the implementation of Project Esther are likely, particularly regarding First Amendment protections for free speech and academic freedom. The administration's strategy of expanding executive power to deport immigrants with fewer judicial restraints may ultimately require Supreme Court review.
Democracy and Dissent
Project Esther represents a significant test of American democratic institutions and the protection of dissent. The systematic targeting of a political movement through governmental and extra-governmental pressure raises fundamental questions about the limits of executive power and the preservation of civil liberties.
The initiative's success or failure will likely influence future approaches to political opposition and protest movements across the ideological spectrum. As the Heritage Foundation pursues its two-year timeline for dismantling pro-Palestinian activism, the response from universities, courts, and civil society will determine whether Project Esther becomes a lasting transformation of American political discourse or faces successful resistance from constitutional protections and democratic institutions.
The ongoing implementation of Project Esther's recommendations demonstrates the concrete policy consequences of think tank advocacy and the potential for systematic suppression of political movements through coordinated governmental action. As this strategy unfolds, it will serve as a crucial test of America's commitment to protecting dissent and maintaining democratic space for political opposition.