DeSmog

Christopher DeMuth

Christopher DeMuth

Credentials

Background

Christopher Clay DeMuth”4“CURRICULUM VITAE: Christopher Clay DeMuth” (PDF), January 1, 2012. Retrieved from ChristopherDemuth.com. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog. is the former president of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and a former distinguished fellow5Hudson Institute Thanks Distinguished Fellow Christopher DeMuth,” Hudson Institute, September 29, 2023. Archived August 28, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/dVeth at the Hudson Institute.6Christopher DeMuth,” The Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation. Archived July 23, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/9q28E He is a former board member of Donors Capital Fund (DCF),7Board of Directors,” Donors Capital Fund. Archived February 24, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/7aItm a group that, together with its sister organization, DonorsTrust, has been described as the “dark money ATM” of the conservative movement in the US.8Exposed: The Dark-Money ATM of the Conservative Movement,” Mother Jones, February 5, 2013. Archived July 23, 2015. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/Iw7IB

AEI is an influential think tank in Washington. According to a July 1997 report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRO), titled “Moving A Public Policy Agenda: The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations,” DeMuth commented in AEI’s 1994 annual report that AEI was “delighted to be members in good standing of the Washington Establishment, called upon many times each day for Congressional testimony, media commentary, and advice on all manner of current policy issues.” According to the NRCO report, during the 1990s, “AEI staff … actively sought to influence economic, regulatory, welfare, health, and other social policies, appearing on national media several times a day. […]”9Sally Covington. “Moving A Public Policy Agenda: The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations,” The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, July 1997. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

DeMuth is also the chairman of the National Conservatism Conference,10A Conference in London, UK: Christopher DeMuth,” National Conservatism. Archived July 23, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/56HOT a project of the Edmund Burke Foundation that features prominent conservative speakers internationally.11Overview,” National Conservatism. Archived June 1, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/8b9X5

According to his profile at the Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation, where he received the 2017 Bradley Prize, DeMuth was staff an assistant to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1970, where he worked on “urban and environmental policy” and served as administrator for information and regulatory affairs in the Office of Management and Budget and executive director of the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief during President Ronald Reagan’s first term.12Christopher DeMuth,” The Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation. Archived July 23, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/9q28E

According to a National Review profile piece, DeMuth’s grandfather founded DeMuth Steel Products, which is no longer held by his family.13John J. Miller. “The Man Who Saved AEI,” National Review, January 8, 2009. Archived August 1, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/yufOW Following his graduation in 1968, DeMuth worked on the congressional campaign of James L. Farmer, co-founder of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). After working in the Office of Management and Budget under the Reagan administration, DeMuth became managing director of consulting business Lexecon. He then went on to buy Regulation, a magazine published by AEI, and kept it in print.14John J. Miller. “The Man Who Saved AEI,” National Review, January 8, 2009. Archived August 1, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/yufOW

Stance on Climate Change

February 10, 2017

“[G]lobal warming is not a ‘hoax,’ as Mr. Trump has said. But the public and scientific debates over climate change have involved several hoaxes, one of which is the deliberate conflation of causation, degree, consequence and policy response,” DeMuth wrote in the Wall Street Journal in an article titled “The Method in Trump’s Tumult.”15Christopher DeMuth. “The Method in Trump’s Tumult,” Wall Street Journal, February 10, 2017. Archive URL: http://archive.is/Mz6da. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

February 9, 2007

“The successive IPCC climate change reports contain a wealth of valuable information, but there has been a longstanding effort to characterize them as representing more of a ‘scientific consensus’ than they probably are, and to gloss over uncertainties and disagreements within the IPCC documents themselves,” DeMuth wrote in response to an article in The Guardian.16Climate Controversy and AEI: Facts and Fictions,AEI, February 9, 2007. Archived March 4, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/377bS 17Ian Sample. “Scientist offered cash to dispute cimate study,” The Guardian. Archived August 2, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/9D9jH

September 2001

Christopher DeMuth, writing at “Energy Crunch,” an AEI publication, declared that “The Kyoto Treaty Deserved to Die”:18The Kyoto Treaty Deserved to Die,” The American Enterprise Online. Archived June 5, 2008. Originally published in Energy Crunch, September 2001. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

“The key features of the climate change debate are large degrees of uncertainty and a long time horizon. Although it is fairly well-established that the Earth’s atmosphere has warmed somewhat (one degree Fahrenheit) during the past century, it’s not clear why this happened. The warming may have been due to human impositions (the burning of fossil fuels and other incidents of industrial growth), or to natural solar or climate variations, or to some of each. Whatever the causes, we don’t know if future warming trends will be large or small, or whether the net environmental and economic consequences (including both beneficial and harmful effects) may be large or small.”

Key Quotes

October 19, 2022

“In recent years, a strange new ideology, commonly called ‘woke progressivism,’ has swept American institutions—universities and schools, business and finance, media and culture, government and even the military. Central to this ideology are the doctrines of ‘white supremacy’ and ‘systemic racism,’ which hold that African Americans (and certain other minorities) are pitiful, helpless victims of embedded social oppression, with little or no agency of their own. Other prominent woke canons are those of sexual fluidity and transgenderism, elite superiority and fitness to rule over the common man and woman, and the need to police and sanction dissent from the new orthodoxy”, DeMuth commented in a piece titled “How I became friends with Ayaan Hirsi Ali.”19AHA Foundation Board Chairman Chris DeMuth reflects on his friendship with Ayaan Hirsi Ali and AHA’s 15 years defending liberty for all,” ahafoundation, October 19, 2022. Archived July 26, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/5vvIr

He added:

“The march of wokeism, like the march of Islamism, is more than an intellectual movement. It has already claimed many innocent victims, from university professors to stand-up comedians. And its victims include its supposed beneficiaries. Many mayors, police officials, and public prosecutors have responded to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Defund the Police’ movements by handcuffing police protection in many neighborhoods and effectively decriminalizing looting, shoplifting, and similar offenses. These steps, taken in the name of ‘social justice,’ have produced a surge in urban crime and killing that has disproportionately afflicted black citizens. Similarly, the aggressive promotion of sex-change surgery on unwitting children has left many girls (and boys) permanently disfigured.”

February 4, 2020

DeMuth said the following during his opening remarks for the National Conservatism Conference in Rome, Italy:20Christopher DeMuth: Adios Davos | NatCon Rome 2020,” YouTube video uploaded by user “National Conservatism,” February 13, 2020. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

“Many have convinced themselves that today’s threat of authoritarianism comes from not the left, but from the right. We take a different view. We regard ourselves as direct descendants and rightful heirs of the Glorious Revolution of the 1980s, led by Ronald Reagan and Saint John Paul the Great, and also by Margaret Thatcher. We think we are vindicating the victories of national independence in Central and Eastern Europe of 1989.”21Christopher DeMuth: Adios Davos | NatCon Rome 2020,” YouTube video uploaded by user “National Conservatism,” February 13, 2020. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

[…]

“[Our world] is beset by hegemonic progressivism, which seeks to quarantine religious observance, traditional culture, bourgeois social norms, and the family itself, and which has set the stage for mainstream anti-Semitism.”22Christopher DeMuth: Adios Davos | NatCon Rome 2020,” YouTube video uploaded by user “National Conservatism,” February 13, 2020. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

[…]

“We have an inspiring European vision of confident democracies devoted to the liberty and prosperity of their people, of free nations, competing and collaborating, admiring, criticizing, nudging and learning from their neighbors, and the occasional ethnographic joke will be permitted too, so long as it is in good taste.”23Christopher DeMuth: Adios Davos | NatCon Rome 2020,” YouTube video uploaded by user “National Conservatism,” February 13, 2020. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

February 15, 2011

DeMuth said in Congressional testimony before the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy:24Christopher DeMuth. “Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy,” AEI, February 15, 2011. Archived July 24, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/uWeRH

“Environmental initiatives are often highly popular, and EPA, beset as it always is by interest groups whose métier is exaggeration and alarmism, may find it difficult to see past the lobbying fog: it may underestimate as well as overestimate popular support in a way that constituency-minded legislators would not.”

February 15, 2000

The following is from Christopher Demuth’s “After the Ascent” Francis Boyer Lecture, discussing “politics and government in the super-affluent society”:25Christopher DeMuth. “After the Ascent: Politics and Government in the Super-Affluent Society” (PDF), American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Feburary 15, 2000. Archived July 26, 2024. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

“A separate problem is presented by the Kyoto Protocol, the agreement placing sharp restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions that the administration negotiated but has said it will not submit to the Senate in its current form. The administration’s efforts to begin enforcing the Protocol by regulation, and Congress’s efforts to prevent enforcement pending Senate action, have obscured a more fundamental difficulty. If the Protocol, or anything like it, were ratified, it would commit the United States to costly environmental efforts under the continuing supervision of one or more international bodies. Compliance would presumably be subject to our domestic legislative and regulatory procedures—that is, to our constitutional form—but, once again, the Executive would have the upper hand in developing policy and presenting the Congress with political faits accomplis. It is important to notice in this respect that the crafting of international agreements involves the participation of “non-governmental organizations” (“NGOs”—the international euphemism for private interest groups) on more formal, quasi-official terms than in domestic rule-making under our administrative procedure laws.”

Key Actions

July 8–10, 2024

DeMuth gave the opening address at the National Conservatism (NatCon) conference in Washington, DC:26Christopher DeMuth | 5 Years at NatCon | NatCon 4,” YouTube video uploaded by user “National Conservatism,” July 16, 2024. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog. 27NatCon 4,” National Conservatism. Archived July 9, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/M0rcL

Christopher DeMuth | 5 Years at NatCon | NatCon 4. Source: YouTube:28Christopher DeMuth | 5 Years at NatCon | NatCon 4,” YouTube video uploaded by user “National Conservatism,” July 16, 2024. Archived August 6, 2024. Archived .mp4 on file at DeSmog.

May 15–17, 2023

DeMuth spoke at the NatCon conference in London, UK, on Representation and the Common Good.”29A Conference in London, UK: Christopher DeMuth,” National Conservatism. Archived July 23, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/56HOT

Christopher DeMuth | Representation and the Common Good | NatCon UK. Source: YouTube.30Christopher DeMuth | Representation and the Common Good | NatCon UK,” YouTube video uploaded by user “National Conservatism,” May 21, 2023. Archived August 6, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/56HOT

September 11–13, 2022

The speakers list for NatCon 3 in Miami, Florida, listed DeMuth as a speaker;31A Conference in Miami, Flordia: September 11 – 13, 2022,” National Conservatism, May 21, 2023. Archived August 6, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/rtT5X however, his talk did not appear on NatCon’s YouTube playlist for the conference.322022 NatCon 3 in Miami,” YouTube playlist uploaded by user “National Conservatism,” 2022. Archived August 6, 2024.

March 23–24, 2022

DeMuth gave the opening address at the NatCon conference in Brussels, Belgium, on the topic: “The Nation is the Heart of the Matter.”33The National Conservatism Conference: The Future of the Nation-State in Europe,” YouTube video uploaded by user “National Conservatism,” November 30, 2022. Archived July 9, 2024.

Christopher DeMuth | The Nation is the Heart of the Matter | NatCon Brussels. Source: YouTube.34Christopher DeMuth | The Nation is the Heart of the Matter | NatCon Brussels,” YouTube video uploaded by user “National Conservatism,” March 25, 2022. Archived August 12, 2024.

October 31–November 2, 2021

DeMuth gave a plenary address at the NatCon conference in Orlando, Florida (NatCon 2):35A Conference in Orlando, Florida,” National Conservatism. Archived July 9, 2024.

Christopher DeMuth | Why I am a National Conservative | NatCon2. Source: YouTube.36Christopher DeMuth | Why I am a National Conservative | NatCon2,” YouTube video uploaded by user “National Conservatism,” November 10, 2021. Archived August 12, 2024.

The Wall Street Journal published an edited version of DeMuth’s talk on November 12, 2021.37Christopher DeMuth. “Why America Needs National Conservatism,” Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2021. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

February 3–4, 2020

DeMuth gave opening remarks, “Adios Davos,” at the NatCon conference in Rome, Italy.

Christopher DeMuth: Adios Davos | NatCon Rome 2020. Source: YouTube.38Christopher DeMuth: Adios Davos | NatCon Rome 2020,” YouTube video uploaded by user “National Conservatism,” February 13, 2020. Archived August 12, 2024.

July 14 – July 16, 2019

DeMuth gave a plenary address titled “The Nationalist Awakening” at the first NatCon conference in Washington, DC.39A Conference in Washington, DC: July 14-16, 2019,” National Conservatism. Archived July 26, 2024. The Wall Street Journal also published an edited version of his titled “America’s Nationalist Awakening.”40Christopher Demuth. “America’s Nationalist Awakening,” Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2019. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

Christopher DeMuth: The Nationalist Awakening – National Conservatism Conference. Source: YouTube.41Christopher DeMuth: The Nationalist Awakening – National Conservatism Conference,” YouTube video uploaded by user “National Conservatism,” July 19, 2019. Archived May 16, 2023.

February 15, 2011

DeMuth testified before the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on environmental regulation.42“Statement of Christopher DeMuth D.C. Searle Senior Fellow American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research before the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce at a hearing on Environmental Regulations, the Economy, and Jobs” (PDF), February 15, 2011. Retrieved from American Enterprise Institute website. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

In his testimony, DeMuth suggested the REINS Act (Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) as well as a “regulatory pay-go” proposal which would “require regulatory agencies to eliminate regulations already on their books before issuing new ones of equivalent cost” are “both are worthy of earnest consideration.”43“Statement of Christopher DeMuth D.C. Searle Senior Fellow American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research before the Subcommittee on Environment and the Economy of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce at a hearing on Environmental Regulations, the Economy, and Jobs” (PDF), February 15, 2011. Retrieved from American Enterprise Institute website. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.

DeSmog has previously reported how the REINS Act has been a legislative priority for Koch Industries and Koch-funded advocacy groups such as Americans for Prosperity, and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).44Steve Horn. “GOP Congress, Trump Already Pushing Koch Industries’ Bill to Hobble Regulatory Agencies,” DeSmog, January 5, 2017.

February 9, 2007

DeMuth responded to an article in The Guardian titled “Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study” that discussed letters sent by AEI offering what The Guardian described as “payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).”45Climate Controversy and AEI: Facts and Fictions,AEI, February 9, 2007. Archived March 4, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/377bS 46Ian Sample, “Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study,” The Guardian, February 2, 2007. Archived August 2, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/9D9jH

DeMuth described the article as “shoddy” and claimed it “uses several garden-variety journalistic tricks to create the impression of a story where none exists.”47Climate Controversy and AEI: Facts and Fictions,AEI, February 9, 2007. Archived March 4, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/377bS

He added, “a $10,000 fee for a research project involving the review of a large amount of dense scientific material, and the synthesis of that material into an original, footnoted and rigorous article is hardly exorbitant or unusual; many academics would call it modest,” suggesting that it is “the conventional practice of AEI–and Brookings, Harvard, and the University of Manchester–to pay individuals at other research institutions for commissioned work, and to cover their travel expenses when they come to the sponsoring institution to present their papers.”48Climate Controversy and AEI: Facts and Fictions,AEI, February 9, 2007. Archived March 4, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/377bS

According to DeMuth, “The successive IPCC climate change reports contain a wealth of valuable information, but there has been a longstanding effort to characterize them as representing more of a ‘scientific consensus’ than they probably are, and to gloss over uncertainties and disagreements within the IPCC documents themselves. Consensus plays an important role in science and scientific progress, but so does disputation–reasoned argument is essential to good science, and competition of ideas is essential to scientific progress.”49Climate Controversy and AEI: Facts and Fictions,AEI, February 9, 2007. Archived March 4, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/377bS

Affiliations

Social Media

Publications

Example publications and appearances are below:

Articles

Other Articles

Books

Events

Podcast

Press

Report

Speech

Testimony

Other Resources

Resources

Related Profiles

Christopher Monckton Credentials According to George Monbiot at The Guardian, Monckton “has a degree in classics and a diploma in journalism and, as far as I can tell, no further qualificat...
Photo credit: screenshot from YouTube. Christopher Booker (Deceased) Credentials Studied History at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.“Christopher Booker,” The Carbon Brief. Archived Jan...
Alex Jones Credentials Alex Jones briefly attended Austin Community College, taking part-time classes after he graduated from high school in 1993.“Meet Alex Jones,” Rolling Stone, March 2, ...
Christopher Essex Credentials Ph.D. York (1982).“Christopher Essex: Professor and Associate Chair,” Department of Applied Mathematics at the University of Western Ontario. Archived April 30...