usaid, revealed;

As the Trump administration began reorganizing and cutting major funding to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), revelations emerged that the organization financed groups, including some media outlets, engaged in smear campaigns and censorship against dissident voices.

The agency, known as a front for U.S. intelligence operations, has financed regime change and other American interests worldwide. It also funds news organizations that are aligned with U.S. foreign policy objectives.

This includes large international organizations that, in turn, fund smaller media organizations like BBC Media Action and the International Fund for Public Interest Media, chaired by the former head of The New York Times.

USAID also directly funds smaller media organizations and even runs its own media initiatives to undermine regimes the U.S. deems problematic.

Reporters Without Borders, which lamented the Trump cuts to USAID, reported that in 2023 the agency funded 6,200 journalists, 707 non-state news outlets and “supported 279 media-sector civil society organizations dedicated to strengthening independent media.”