The New Right: America 2.0

by Ahmed Badran and ChatGPT

In just over a decade, American conservatism has transformed from a fragmented grassroots rebellion to a coherent ideological movement backed by elite institutions and intellectuals. Known as the New Right, this coalition has now entered the execution phase of its long-term strategy, with President Donald J. Trump’s second term serving as the vehicle for a systematic restructuring of the American state.

From Tea Party to Trump: The Collapse of Old Conservatism

The Tea Party movement of 2009 was the beginning of the end for the Reagan-Bush era consensus. Positioned against the financial crises of 2008 and Obama administration’s stimulus and healthcare expansion, it was reactive, decentralized, and primarily concerned with fiscal discipline and limited government. But embedded within that protest were deeper frustrations: cultural alienation, loss of political power, and mistrust of elite institutions. Trump’s 2016 campaign gave voice to these sentiments—abandoning ideological orthodoxy in favor of nationalism, populism, and disruption.

Trump first term, however, was ideologically inconsistent. Despite victories in deregulation and judicial appointments, it failed to consolidate power or dismantle the administrative state. Trump’s 2020 loss created an opening—not for retreat, but for ideological realignment. From 2021 to 2024, conservative intellectuals and strategists built a foundation.

Core Grievances Driving the New Right

At the heart of the New Right project is a systemic critique of America’s existing institutions. What distinguishes this movement is not just what it opposes, but its clarity of purpose in replacing what it sees as broken. These grievances are not abstract—they are rooted in lived experience, policy failures, and long-standing cultural conflicts:

• Administrative Overreach: The federal bureaucracy acts as an unelected fourth branch of government, insulating itself from electoral accountability. Examples include the resistance Trump faced from within agencies like the DOJ and CDC during his first term, which many in the New Right see as proof of a "deep state" that subverts elected leadership.

• Cultural Wars: Elite institutions—including media, academia, and corporations —have embraced progressive ideologies around race, gender, and identity. This is evident in mandatory DEI training across federal agencies and the widespread adoption of gender identity frameworks in public education and healthcare.

• Globalization’s Fallout: Free trade, open borders, and financial deregulation have deindustrialized the American heartland and empowered global elites. Policies like NAFTA and the rise of China are seen as catalysts for the erosion of manufacturing jobs and local sovereignty.

• Liberalism’s Limits: The liberal promise of individual autonomy has morphed into cultural fragmentation. The New Right argues that social cohesion has collapsed under the weight of moral relativism, and that institutions no longer reflect shared values.

What makes the New Right distinct is its strategic posture: it no longer seeks coexistence with these trends. It aims to replace them—with a new regime built on purpose, hierarchy, tradition, and technological ambition.

The Intellectual Engine Powering America 2.0

The New Right draws strength from a cross-disciplinary alliance of intellectuals and strategists across four major domains: political power, economic prosperity, social order, and foreign policy. Their ideas form a blueprint not just for political change, but for civilizational renewal—where the institutions of state, markets, culture, and diplomacy are all re-engineered to support a post-liberal vision of national purpose.

Political Power: Centralizing the Executive and Reprogramming the State

Strategic Goal: Dismantle liberal pluralism and reengineer the federal government as a top-down, ideologically aligned engine of national purpose.

• Curtis Yarvin – Tech entrepreneur and blogger, advocates for a CEO-style executive government to replace democracy’s “illusion of consent.”

• Russell Vought – Architect of Project 2025, which outlines the infrastructure to staff and realign the administrative state with loyalists.

• Adrian Vermeule – Harvard law professor, promotes “common good constitutionalism,” using law as a vehicle for public morality, not liberal individualism.

Policy Manifestation: Schedule F, agency purges, legal reinterpretation of executive power, reorientation of judicial nominations.

Economic Prosperity: Innovation, Deregulation, and Strategic Industrialism

Strategic Goal: Replace managerial bureaucracy and global finance with elite builders and sovereign technocrats who drive long-term national wealth.

• Peter Thiel – Tech investor who champions post-democratic innovation; funds aligned candidates and tech-ethno-nationalist projects.

• Marc Andreessen – Venture capitalist behind the “Techno-Optimist Manifesto", advocates radical deregulation and ambitious infrastructure building.

• Tyler Cowen – Libertarian economist, proposes “state capacity libertarianism,” blending free-market thinking with competent state intervention.

Policy Manifestation: Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, 10-to-1 deregulation mandate, AI and biotech deregulation, tariffs to reindustrialize.

Social Order: Restoring National Morality and Cultural Coherence

Strategic Goal: Reverse the moral relativism of liberalism and restore a cohesive American identity rooted in religion, tradition, and family.

• Patrick Deneen – Notre Dame political theorist and author of Why Liberalism Failed, calls for regime change away from liberal autonomy toward civic virtue and hierarchical community.

• Adrian Vermeule – Sees the Constitution as a tool to enforce public morality, not individual rights.

Policy Manifestation: Gender redefinition in federal law, federal ban on DEI, restrictions on abortion and gender transitions, religious liberty protections.

Foreign Policy: National Sovereignty and Civilizational Realignment

Strategic Goal: Withdraw from global liberalism and build alliances with nationalist regimes that share a tradition-first vision of the world.

• Yoram Hazony – Political theorist and chair of the National Conservatism conference, proposes a “post-liberal order” based on civilizational states and traditional values.

• Peter Thiel – Supports economic and technological decoupling from China, and reshoring supply chains.

Policy Manifestation: Paris Accord withdrawal, bilateral security partnerships, tariffs on strategic rivals, foreign aid freeze and reevaluation.

Together, these figures provide the scaffolding for a new American regime: one that blends hierarchy with innovation, tradition with disruption, and sovereignty with elite stewardship.

What America 2.0 Means

The Trump administration’s second term is not a repeat of 2017—it is more deliberate, more ideological, and more prepared. We are witnessing the construction of a parallel governing operating system. What began as reaction—first to Obama, then to liberalism writ large—has matured into a coherent project of regime change. The New Right is not interested in incremental reform. It seeks to reassert moral clarity, centralize political power, and elevate a new elite class capable of building a different kind of America.

The implications are clear: the liberal-democratic model is no longer assumed. It is being contested, replaced, and redefined. America 2.0 isn’t coming. It’s already here.