House Republicans are moving to give hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to an organization the Trump administration has sought to defund for its long history of bias against conservatives, censorship of dissent and alleged interference in foreign affairs.
In May, the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) recommended eliminating federal funding for the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), citing the organization’s pattern of partisan advocacy and hostility towards Republicans. However, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on National Security, Department of State and Related Programs advanced a bill on July 23 that would allocate $315 million to the organization for the upcoming fiscal year.
“It might be a dealbreaker,” a senior White House official told the Daily Caller News Foundation regarding the NED funding included in the bill. The appropriations package still requires approval by both chambers of Congress and the president’s signature.
The NED was established by an act of Congress in 1983 as a private, nonprofit organization to promote democratic institutions and values around the world. Its website claims that it “does not engage in domestic political activity, nor does it promote ideological agendas,” but critics argue that the organization has become a vehicle for partisan influence, including efforts to censor conservative media.
In 2020, the NED funded a British anti-free speech organization called the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which labeled the American Spectator, Newsmax, the Federalist, the American Conservative, One America News, the Blaze, the Daily Wire, RealClearPolitics, Reason and the New York Post as the ten “riskiest” outlets for disinformation. GDI provided these lists to advertising agencies in an effort to cut off ad revenue to the targeted sites.
Critics have also accused the NED of straying from its congressional mandate and engaging in geopolitical meddling and nation-building through the millions of dollars in grants it administers abroad each year. The Center for Renewing America, a think tank launched by OMB Director Russell Vought, described the NED in February as “the tip of the proverbial spear” in U.S. efforts to engineer political change in Ukraine, for example, arguing it helped pave the way for the current conflict with Russia.
Some Republican lawmakers, including Reps. Eli Crane of Arizona and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, have also accused NED of being involved in foreign regime change efforts that undermine American interests. Crane introduced a bill in May that would prohibit taxpayer dollars from being allocated to the NED.
Republican Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, who chairs the House subcommittee behind the latest appropriations bill, did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
NED President Damon Wilson has publicly stated that Trump “has an uncanny ability to divide both Americans and the United States from its democratic allies,” and claimed the president “never understood” that “our democracy is the source of our strength and standing in the world.”
Among the NED board of directors is Victoria Nuland, who served as under secretary of state for political affairs during the Biden administration and led the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs during the Obama administration. Nuland played a key role in playing up the now-discredited Steele dossier, which erroneously alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.
NED is statutorily required to maintain a bipartisan board of directors “reflecting the diversity of American society,” but even its so-called Republican members have taken public stances against Trump.
“I am a Republican and I would rather the Republicans win, but more importantly, I would rather my country not go down the fascist route,” Jendayi Frazer, NED secretary, said during the 2016 election. Fellow board member Victor Cha co-signed a letter with other former Republican national security officials endorsing Joe Biden for president in 2020, stating it was “in the best interest of our nation.”
The NED’s Journal of Democracy has likewise drawn criticism for its editorial board’s hostility toward conservatives and Republican voters.
In 2022, the NED removed its publicly searchable grants database, which the Trump administration cited in its recommendation to cut funding. Meanwhile, the organization’s federal funding has soared from under $200 million in 2019 to more than $300 million in 2022.
In addition to federal funds, the NED says it “raises limited private contributions from foundations, corporations and individuals.” Since 2020, its subsidiaries — the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute— have received over $1.5 million from George Soros’s Open Society Foundation.
During Trump’s first term in 2019, the president proposed slashing NED’s budget by an estimated 60%, from $170 million to $67.2 million. Earlier this year, the NED sued the Trump administration for cutting off nearly $240 million in funding, though the funds were later restored.
The NED did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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