Top Trump figures push to direct human rights funding to rightwing causes

The Trump administration is trying to commit more than $175 million from the State Department's human rights and democracy fund to a set of 43 awards favoring conservative causes abroad, and the deadline is imminent. The Guardian has viewed a sample of the grants, which account for most of the $205 million Congress appropriated for the fund. The biggest, at $40 million, would go to a consortium headed by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a group that has previously received far smaller sums. Others would back a group promoting white Afrikaner rights in South Africa, a campaign aimed at Brazil's supreme court, and efforts to reward European allies who uphold western civilizational norms.

According to sources who spoke with the Guardian, administration figures lobbied for the awards themselves. Those sources tie the slate to JD Vance's concern about traditional western values eroding in Europe and to Stephen Miller's opposition to immigration and support for white minorities in places like South Africa. One source said the awards had White House buy-in. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said the plan would spend taxpayer money on far-right organizations in established democracies and strain ties with European allies. She has placed a partial hold on some awards. The State Department said the programs remain under active deliberation and will be vetted, and an official described the European work as helping allies defend their sovereignty.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Guardian’s reporting. Read the full story at The Guardian →