Donald Trump's administration is reaching into Europe's elections and putting money on the table. Four million dollars are supposed to fatten up right-wing media in Europe, embedded in a package of at least 25 million for groups fueling the continent's shift to the right. The world power that once pretended to sell democracy is now financing its gravediggers and calling the payment free speech. Paying for the arsonists' gasoline means wanting the fire, not peace. What comes dressed up as help for friends is aimed at the elected governments of those very friends, and Washington knows it perfectly well.
Enrique Tarrio, former leader of the Proud Boys - Yo-ho, all you people, raise the flags high, pull together, you thieves and beggars - we will never go under!
On August 21, the U.S. State Department let Congress know that it intends to deliver. Three million dollars are designated to document "democratic backsliding" in Europe, meant as ammunition against migration and against independent media. The laws of supranational institutions are also supposed to be targeted. Another million is building a network of so-called independent journalists who write about national sovereignty and natural rights. Religious freedom is also part of their mission. Translated, that means: paid pens for the cause of the right, disguised as a free press. "Independent" here means staying in line, "backsliding" means anything that stands in the way of the right. An application that laments the destruction of democracy while helping carry it out already carries its lie in the title.
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The official justification is hard to top for sheer brazenness. The State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, or DRL, claims the funding strengthens transatlantic ties and protects free speech. A spokesperson insists that no political parties are being funded and that the administration remains committed to democracy around the world. The same administration has abandoned any serious human rights policy and openly nurtures right-wing populist and far-right parties while half of Europe heads into election campaigns. Principles have been traded for influence, and the exchange rate is set at cynicism. The former advocate of human rights has become a sponsor of the far right who simply has not bothered to take down the old sign.
Where the money is aimed is clear from the embraces. Trump openly campaigned for Viktor Orbán, whose 16-year rule ended in May 2026 when Fidesz lost to the opposition led by Péter Magyar. His endorsement came just as the man had been voted out, a wink to right-wing forces everywhere that Washington does not abandon its people. Vice President J.D. Vance sat down in February 2025 with Alice Weidel, the leader of the Alternative for Germany, which nationwide is classified as a suspected right-wing extremist organization, and crossed a line every previous American administration had respected. Against those images, the promise not to fund political parties is pure mockery. You do not need a party treasury to benefit parties, an ecosystem growing on foreign money is enough.
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The racism is neatly entered into the budget. The Europe money is part of a proposal worth nearly 180 million dollars that includes specific programs about alleged abuses against minorities in South Africa, meaning white farmers, whose persecution Trump has been inventing for months and no one has been able to prove. Added to that are programs against "judicial overreach and censorship" in Brazil and the usual initiatives targeting China and North Korea. The same budget that lectures Beijing bankrolls Europe's right and carries the fairy tale of the white victim out into the world. At home, this administration shuts reporters out, abroad it builds "independent" journalists, and freedom always means only its own. Inventing persecution where it helps the right and denying it where it gets in the way is not human rights policy, it is propaganda with a grant number.
Images from 2025 show scenes that seem ripped out of another era: people in white robes and hoods gathered around a burning cross. These are not archival images. They are from 2025 - taken in the old South, a so-called Border State of the United States, not far from the places where the civil rights movement once began.
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Part of the money is already on its way, while the recipients remain in the dark. Around 10 million dollars were announced through three grant notices in July and August, and the August 21 notification adds at least another 15 million, bringing the total to at least 25 million for Europe. Everything is supposed to be finalized by the end of September. Which organizations and which writers will collect the money could not be determined. They like to announce the amounts, they keep the names secret, and that combination becomes the perfect pipeline for covert influence.
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European capitals are reacting with open anger. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said France and the Europeans would tolerate no attempt at foreign interference in their elections, no matter where it came from. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, asked what the money could mean for the AfD, warned Washington openly: He does not interfere in American elections and will not tolerate the American government or structures close to it doing so in Germany. The European Commission remained silent, and in this case its silence carries weight. Even governments that otherwise agree on little are united by the suspicion that American money will count in the next election campaigns.
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This is how the self-appointed protector shows its true face. It buys itself a wing inside foreign democracies and hands it over as a gift of freedom. Free speech is the word under which those who would silence others are paid, and sovereignty is the flag under which it is sold off. The cargo hidden behind the pretty word is xenophobia and the old doctrine of the people against the others. Freedom was the promise, influence is the business, and the bill is paid by European self-determination, the very thing they still praise on Sundays. Flooding elections with dollars does not mean defending democracy, it means buying it while it is still available.
Our investigations will continue, and so will the fight against it. We will follow every dollar and name every recipient, no matter how deep the camouflage runs. This bought interference will get its receipt from us, payment by payment.
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