Controversial GOP think tank leader exits after backlash to radical rebrand

Backlash over his controversial JD Vance-inspired ideological shift has forced a conservative think tank leader to step down, according to a report on Wednesday.

The Bulwark's Joshua Tait described how John A. Burtka IV has resigned as president of Intercollegiate Studies Institute after "rebranding itself around JD Vance style pugnaciousness." The organization was founded in Delaware in 1953, and conservative movement voice William F. Buckley Jr. was its first president.

"Under his leadership, ISI tilted toward an edgier, post-liberal identity, and, according to critics, a 'no enemies to the right' ethos," Tait wrote.

But not everyone at the think tank liked that move.

"Last November, two ISI board members urged the board to fire Burtka, saying he had—behind the board’s back—dropped ISI’s educational project to focus on hard-right podcasting with Burtka at the center and Vance as the willing figurehead of their new agenda," Tait explained. "One of Burtka’s first guests on his podcast was neoreactionary blowhard Curtis Yarvin."

"To old-fashioned conservatives, 'the battle for the heart and soul of the American Conservative Movement' has long been waged inside foundations and think tanks. But in this case, though, Burtka may have been done in by something other than ideology. In the wake of the announcement, a former board member tweeted: 'If something can’t go on forever, it won’t,'" Tait wrote.

ISI’s chairman of the Board of Trustees, Mark C. Henrie, announced Burtka was stepping down "after careful personal and professional discernment."

"We suspect—with like-minded conservatives fleeing from there—Burtka won’t be moving to Hungary," Tait added.