Overview
The Heritage Foundation recently screened a racist film based on the white nationalist “great replacement theory.”
The film was released by Tucker Carlson’s network.
Heritage’s relationship with Carlson has led to a series of defections by staff, board members and trustees.
On September 16, 2026, The Heritage Foundation screened the documentary “Replacing Europe: Following the World’s Deadliest Migration Route,” released by Tucker Carlson’s network. The Mass Deportation Coalition (MDC), a group supported by dozens of conservative and Republican organizations nationwide, promoted the event on X. Heritage and Muckraker, the media outlet that produced the film, are both MDC coalition partners.
Carlson’s site promotes the film with the line: “The replacement is real.” The trailer claims that Western governments scheme to make native Europeans minorities in their home cities.
What is the racist “great replacement theory”?
This premise invokes the great replacement conspiracy theory, a racist and xenophobic belief that elites seek to replace white Europeans (and Americans) with non-white immigrants. In the last decade, mass shooters professing belief in the great replacement theory have carried out a string of attacks around the world, and is considered to be one of the most dangerous conspiracy theories in circulation today.
In an interview with Anthony Rubin, Muckraker’s founder and one of the filmmakers behind “Replacing Europe,” Carlson made the thesis of the supposed racial “replacement” explicit. Carlson claimed that “mass migration” to Europe has “reshuffled the cultures of Europe completely” and “in many cities, natives are now the minority.” He also claimed this was part of a plan: “This was not an accident” and it “didn’t happen organically.” Carlson also claimed postwar refugee rules were designed to eliminate Europe’s white-majority countries, which he described as the bedrock of “our civilization.”
Rubin, speaking about African migrants in Europe, claimed that “if you point a camera at them, look if there’s no police around, they will slit your throat.” Rubin likened groups of people of different races to fish that cannot share an aquarium, saying that “there are great people from Africa … but on the whole, certain fish don’t mix in the same aquarium.” Carlson agreed, saying that “there’s a real difference between someone from El Salvador and someone from Sierra Leone …on many levels.”
Heritage president has defended Tucker Carlson
In October 2025, Heritage president Kevin Roberts defended Carlson after the former Fox News host conducted a friendly two-hour interview with white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. Carlson did not challenge Fuentes over his racist beliefs or push back when Fuentes spoke of “organized Jewry in America.” Roberts’s defense of Carlson led to a series of defections by Heritage trustees, board and staff members. Although Roberts apologized to his staff, Heritage’s decision to screen a film produced by Carlson’s network shows that the foundation has not broken with the controversial commentator.
Ryan Neuhaus, who calls himself a “Builder” of the MDC, promoted the screening on his X account, calling it “an incredible film.” Neuhaus was Roberts’s chief of staff at The Heritage Foundation and wrote the script for the video defending Carlson.
At the MDC’s July yacht party, organizers planned to show the film’s trailer. According to the MDC, the boat company refused because it did not “meet their standards.” In September, Heritage hosted a screening of the whole film.
Founded in 2026, the Civil Defense Institute is a nonpartisan investigative research organization. We research people, organizations and networks whose conduct undermines civil society and Americans’ freedom to participate in public life. Our work examines extremist and conspiracy-driven campaigns, foreign influence, organized harassment and the institutions that enable them.