Editing American Enterprise Institute (section)

===William J. Baroody Jr. (1980–1986)===
Baroody Sr. retired in 1978, and was replaced by his son, William J. Baroody Jr. Baroody Sr. died in 1980, shortly before Reagan took office as U.S. president in January 1981.<ref name="AEI History"/>  According to ''[[Politico]]'', the think tank "rose to prominence" in this period "as the primary intellectual home of [[supply-side economics]] and [[neoconservatism]]."<ref name="c770"/>

During the [[Presidency of Ronald Reagan|Reagan administration]], several AEI staff were hired by the administration. But this, combined with prodigious growth, diffusion of research activities,<ref>See AEI's Annual Reports, 1980–1985.</ref>{{original research inline|date=June 2018}} and managerial problems, proved costly.<ref name="Abelson"/> Some foundations then supporting AEI perceived a drift toward the center politically. Centrists like Ford, Burns, and Stein clashed with rising [[Movement conservatism|movement conservatives]]. In 1986, the [[John M. Olin Foundation]] and the [[Smith Richardson Foundation]] withdrew funding for AEI, pushing it to the brink of bankruptcy. The board of trustees fired Baroody Jr. and, after Paul McCracken then served briefly as interim president.