RECOMMENDED READING
A who’s who of Republican elites is set to gather this evening at the National Building Museum for a swanky gala hosted by American Compass, the institutional home of conservative economic populism in Washington.
The black-tie affair is nominally being held to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the think tank, which was founded in 2020 by the conservative economist and former Mitt Romney adviser Oren Cass. But among American Compass’s supporters in the capital, the event is broadly understood to represent a victory lap of sorts, marking the ascendancy of Cass’s brand of economic populism in the Trump era and the newfound prominence of two of American Compass’s primary political allies: Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — both of whom are scheduled to speak at tonight’s event.
Yet despite American Compass’s success in establishing itself as a buzzy hub of new conservative economic thinking in Washington, the gala comes at a particularly fraught moment for this ascendant wing of the GOP.
Recommended Reading
Realignment Conference: The Future of Populism
American Affairs’s Julius Krein, American Compass’s Wells King, and the Niskanen Center’s Samuel Hammond discuss the new right, populism, and the debate over neoliberalism.
American Scream
American Compass’s Wells King reviews Michael Strain’s new book The American Dream Is Not Dead (But Populism Could Kill It).
This small but influential think tank is charting a controversial course for Trump’s populism
Controversial think tank American Compass is working to make sure President Trump’s economic populism lasts well beyond his term — infuriating segments of the conservative establishment along the way. Oren Cass, the group’s founder Read more…
