Trump Restores Funding To A Notorious CIA Cutout.

Trump Quietly Restored Funding To The National Endowment For Democracy After Cutting It's Funding.

In February of this year, I wrote about Trump's apparent gutting of the U.S. government-funded CIA cutout, The National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

At the time, the Free Press’s Eli Lake reported that “An order from DOGE to the U.S. Treasury that blocked disbursement of NED funds has crippled the organization—which received $315 million for fiscal year 2025—and its affiliates”.

Now, Trump has quietly undone this decision and is reauthorizing funds to the NED.

On March 10th of this year, the NED’s website put out a statement saying “NED welcomes the State Department’s action to lift restrictions and begin restoring NED’s congressionally appropriated funds and foreign assistance awards. This is a significant step toward ensuring NED can continue its mission of advancing freedom around the world.”

The NED board chairman, Peter Roskam, was quoted as saying, “We commend the State Department for this move under Secretary Rubio’s leadership. These are important steps toward fully restoring our ability to support frontline defenders of democracy in repressive regimes, including Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, China, Russia, and elsewhere.”

As is clearly apparent, it is not a coincidence that the countries NED needs to “bring democracy” to just so happen to be the United States’ empire and the CIA’s top geopolitical enemies.

Far from caring about Democracy, the NED is actually a cutout of the CIA with the real goal of destabilizing enemy countries like Russia, China, Cuba, and Venezuela in the hopes that it will eventually lead to regime change.

In this article, I will review the real purpose of the NED and its history of meddling in all of the CIA’s enemy countries.

The Invention of The NED As A CIA Spin-Off.

The National Endowment for Democracy was exposed as a cutout of the CIA by the CIA whistleblower Philip Agee in 1995.

In a 1995 interview, Agee referred to the group as a “sidekick” of the CIA and said the organization “dates from 1967” and was officially established in 1983.

Agee noted that in 1967 a scandal broke that the CIA was exerting “control and manipulation of the international program of the National Students Association in this country, which was the national organization of university students”.

He said that this “led to revelations of a lot of other CIA operations, because they were using the same bogus and real foundations to channel money into all these different overseas organizations,” noting that “they don't give away money without being sure that it's spent the way they want it spent”.

After this scandal broke, Agee revealed that Florida Congressman Dante Faschelle “was proposing the establishment of an open system to finance these overseas organizations,” including “government organizations abroad, some political parties, some media organizations, youth organizations and student organizations” which “weren't really free organizations” because “they take money and instructions from the CIA”.

This idea ended up becoming the National Endowment for Democracy, introduced by Ronald Reagan in 1983, which Agee described as “a mega conduit” for “the millions or the tens of millions that are set aside for the meddling in the internal affairs of other countries” to go to.

Agee explained that there were four main “private foundations” the NED money went to. The Democratic Party’s National Democratic Institute (NDI), the Republican Party’s International Republican Institute (IRI), the AFL-CIO, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Agee went on to note that “These groups then pass it out to recipients in foreign countries,” such as the “$12.5 million that went from the National Endowment for Democracy through these conduits to the UNO (Unión Nacional Opositora) political movement” in Nicaragua, the party opposing the CIA’s longtime enemy Daniel Ortega, the leader of the Sandinista movement that overthrew the U.S. backed Somoza regime and fought CIA backed contra death squads.

In a 1991 article in the Washington Post on the NED, journalist David Ignatius wrote that the NED allowed “the United States and its allies to do things that would have been unthinkably dangerous had they been done in the shadows.”

Ignatius went on to write, “The old concept of covert action, which has gotten the (Central Intelligence)agency into such trouble during the past 40 years, may be obsolete. Nowadays, sensible activities to support America's friends abroad (or undermine its enemies) are probably best done openly,” using the NED.

Allen Weinstein, an “overt operative” with the NED admitted to Ignatius that “A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA”.

In recent years, the NED has continued the bidding of the CIA, meddling in countries unfriendly to U.S. corporate dictates in South America and beyond.

Pictured Above: CIA Whistleblower Philip Agee.

NED’S Meddling In South America.

The National Endowment for Democracy, just as the CIA used to do, has spent much of its money attempting to overthrow governments in South and Central America that are not friendly to U.S. corporate interests.

The NED has consistently meddled in Venezuela to try to undermine and overthrow the Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro-led governments.

In 2002, the NED helped spur a coup against the Democratically elected president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez.

Mother Jones reported that the Republican wing of the NED, IRI, “increased funding for activities in Venezuela sixfold, from $50,000 to $300,000 — the largest grant any of NED’s democracy-promotion organizations received that year (2001).”

Mother Jones reported that “IRI tutored opposition figures, including Caracas mayor Alfredo Peña, an outspoken Chavez critic, on how to create a political party” and “used its own money to bring opposition figures to Washington, where they met with top U.S. officials”.

Along with this, Mother Jones reported that “In April 2002, a group of military officers launched a coup against Chavez, and leaders of several parties trained by IRI joined the junta.”

The NED backed coup plotters also committed a sniper massacre of protesters supportive of Chavez and then blamed it on Chavez to justify the coup. As Counterpunch reported.

On April 11th 2002, the Venezuelan opposition activated snipers who fired on a largely pro-Chávez crowd that had gathered near Miraflores Palace to defend the president from the threat of an approaching and aggressive opposition march. Film footage from the ensuing gun battle was inserted into a prefabricated media strategy which sought to convince the Venezuelan population that government supporters were responsible for the deaths, and that they had acted directly on the orders of Chávez himself.

Interestingly, a similar instance occurred during the NED backed coup in Ukraine in 2014 (more on that later).

The NED backed coup was quickly reversed when supporters of Chavez took to the streets and demanded he be reinstated as president.

The 2002 coup against Chavez was mostly a product of the IRI, the Republican wing of the NED, but the NDI, the Democratic wing, has meddled just as much in Venezuela in other instances.

Jacobin magazine reported, based on leaked documents, that “beginning in October 2013, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) — a government agency created by the Reagan administration — provided nearly $300,000 for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for a program titled ‘Venezuela: Improved Training and Communications Skills for Political Activists’.”

Jacobin reported that “Following municipal elections in December 2013, NDI staff hosted a ‘strategy review session’ with members of the (Venezuelan) opposition ‘to develop longer-term strategies to maintain contact with citizens and improve their ability to communicate and disseminate information’”.

The magazine reported that “In addition, the NDI hired a consultant to provide ongoing coaching for program participants.”

The NDI also bragged about “mobilizing a voter database that identified and targeted swing voters through social media”.

As Jacobin reported, this interference helped swing the Venezuelan congress to the opposition, writing “indeed, in December 2015, the opposition won a majority in the Venezuelan National Assembly for the first time since Chávez came to power in 1999.”

In 2018, the NED set its sights on the CIA’s longtime enemy, Daniel Ortega, the president of Nicaragua.

They funded opposition think-tanks that spurred protests against his government, which eventually turned into a violent coup attempt.

The outlet Global Americans reported that the NED funding “laid the groundwork for insurrection” in Nicaragua.

The outlet wrote that “Since 2014, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has spent $4.1 million on projects in Nicaragua,” noting that “the NED has funded 54 projects in Nicaragua between 2014 and 2017.”

The outlet went on to report that “it is now quite evident that the U.S. government actively helped build the political space and capacity in Nicaraguan society for the social uprising that is currently (in 2018) unfolding.”

The “social uprising” funded with millions by the NED was actually a violent coup attempt to remove Ortega from power.

The outlet FAIR media found that the NED funded protestors were implicated in 52 deaths that occurred during the coup attempt.

There is ample video evidence and testimony of citizens being severely beaten and tortured by the NED funded protests for opposing the coup.

John Perry, a reporter on the ground in Nicaragua, wrote that “Public buildings and the houses of government supporters were burnt down by (NED backed) protesters; shops were ransacked; most businesses and all banks and schools were closed”.

Perry went on to write:

The main secondary school for 3,700 pupils was burnt out twice. The police station was under siege for 45 days, so no police were on patrol. No cars or taxis could use the streets; passing the barricades on foot involved being checked by youths with weapons and on occasion threatened. Dissent was met with violence (before the barricades went up, I took part in a “peace” march which was pelted with stones). At first protesters had homemade mortars, but later many acquired more serious weapons such as AK-47s; paid troublemakers manned the barricades at night-time. A police official captured nearby was tortured and then killed, his body burnt at a barricade.

The NED also played a large part in the 2019 military coup against Bolivia’s democratically elected president, Evo Morales.

A now-deleted page on the NED’s website that was thankfully documented at the time by journalist Yanis Iqbal showed that “In 2019, NED ran programmes such as Countering Disinformation in the Political Process, Informing Citizens Via Digital Platforms, Monitoring the National Electoral Process, Promoting an Informed Electorate, Providing Independent Analysis and Information, Providing Independent Political News and Election Information and Stimulating an Informed National Debate” in Bolivia, all think tanks that pushed the lie that Evo Morales stole the 2019 election.

This lie paved the way for a military coup, which installed a far-right military dictatorship led by Jeanine Áñez, which massacred pro-Evo Morales protestors.

The NED pushed lie that Evo Morales stole the 2019 election, which was used to justify the coup was proven false, even the New York Times admitted “A close look at Bolivian election data suggests an initial analysis by the O.A.S. that raised questions of vote-rigging — and helped force out a president — was flawed” (ie made up).

The NED has also interfered in many aspects of Cuban society to try to force regime change. Journalist Alan Macleod reported that the NED has funded everything from “Cuban Hip-Hop Artists” to “gender and LGBTQ+ groups” in Cuba in an attempt to drum up opposition to the government.

Pictured Above: Daniel Ortega, Nicholas Maduro, Miguel Díaz-Canel, and Evo Morales.

NED’s Role In The New Cold War With Russia.

The NED has also played a major role in the new Cold War with Russia, backing coups against governments in Eastern Europe that get too close to Russia.

The most infamous example of this is the 2014 “Maidan coup” against Viktor Yanukovych in Ukraine.

This is something the former NED president, Carl Gershman, openly stated in a 2013 op-ed for the Washington Post.

In the op-ed, he wrote that “The United States needs to engage with the governments and with civil society in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova” in order to move them away from Russia and in a more pro-West direction.

Gershman bragged that this would lead to regime change in Russia, writing, “Russian democracy also can benefit from this process. Ukraine's choice to join Europe will accelerate the demise of the ideology of Russian imperialism that Putin represents. There are signs of the emergence of a new Russian nationalism: the strong performance by opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Moscow's recent mayoral election and polls that show greater opposition to Putin in the Russian provinces, his traditional support base.” (ironically, Alexei Navalny actually supported the Russian annexation of Crimea at the time).

Gershman wrote, “The process playing out in Europe has attracted little attention in the U.S. media or from the Obama administration,” and that “the opportunities are considerable, and there are important ways Washington could help”.

He also wrote that “Ukraine is the biggest prize”.

Following this, the NED funded think tanks in Ukraine that organized protests against Ukraine’s then democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, which eventually led to his being deposed in a violent far-right coup.

As the Ukrainian political scientist Konstantin Bondarenko wrote in his recent book, “The West, however, did not want a Ukrainian president who pursued a multi-vector foreign policy; the West needed Ukraine to be anti-Russia, with clear opposition between Kyiv and Moscow. Yanukovych was open to broad cooperation with the West, but he was not willing to confront Russia and China. The West could not accept this ambivalence. The West needed a Ukraine charged for confrontation and even war against Russia, a Ukraine it could use as a tool in the fight against Russia”.

The NED funded protests were eventually taken over by far-right groups, most notably the paramilitary group “right sector”.

Similar to what happened in the 2002 coup in Venezuela, the right sector committed a sniper massacre on protests in Ukraine’s Maidan square from a hotel building they occupied called “Hotel Ukrayina,” which they then blamed on Yanukovych’s forces to remove him in a violent coup.

The NED/US-backed coup had a devastating effect on Ukraine.

First, the U.S.-installed government implemented IMF reforms that devastated Ukraine’s economy.

The aforementioned Konstantin Bondarenko detailed the effects of the IMF reforms on Ukraine in his book, which included the country’s GDP shrinking, inflation rising, a decline in the country’s manufacturing sector, a massive increase in unemployment, and utility rates rising.

The coup also led to far-right groups to “take top posts in Ukraine’s power vacuum” afterwards.

Given the anti-Russian nature of the far-right Ukrainian nationalists, this caused clashes with Ukraine’s ethnic Russian community.

When clashes erupted between pro-Russia and nationalist Ukrainians after the coup at the Odessa trade union building, the nationalists trapped ethnic Russians inside the building after it caught fire, burning 42 people alive.

The new far-right government intentionally allowed this to happen, according to a recent ruling from an EU court. The court ruling stated that “The deployment of fire engines to the site of the fire had been deliberately delayed for 40 minutes, and the police had not stepped in to help evacuate people from the building promptly and safely. Therefore, the State had failed to ensure timely rescue measures.”

This eventually led to a full-scale civil war in Ukraine’s Eastern Donbas region, which helped trigger the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ensuing proxy war.

Pictured Above: Members of “Right Sector” in Ukraine, 2014.

The NED has also attempted to overthrow the Russian-aligned government of Belarus led by Alexander Lukashenko.

Journalist Alan Macleod reported in 2021 that “The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is spending millions of dollars yearly on Belarus and has 40 active projects inside the state, all with the same goal of overthrowing Alexander Lukashenko and replacing him with a more U.S.-friendly president”.

As Macleod reported, in an infiltrated Zoom meeting, the NED’s senior Europe Program officer, Nina Ognianova, admitted that “the groups leading the nationwide demonstrations against Lukashenko last year (in 2020) — actions that made worldwide headlines — were trained by her organization”.

She admitted that “We don’t think that this movement that is so impressive and so inspiring came out of nowhere — that it just happened overnight,” admitted that NED made a “modest but significant contribution” to supporting the protests.

Most recently, the NED helped get a candidate in Romania kicked off the ballot because he was too critical of NATO and the Ukraine proxy war.

The right-wing populist candidate Calin Georgescu won the first round of elections in Romania but was barred from running based on a fabricated intelligence report claiming he was being supported by Russia.

The Bogus intelligence report showed no evidence that Georgescu was backed by Russia, instead showing a TikTok campaign supporting him, which the report claimed was backed by Russia, with no evidence, instead saying the campaign was “similar to influence operations run by the Kremlin in Ukraine and Moldova”.

As the New York Times noted “The intelligence documents released publicly by Romania provided no evidence of a Russian role, only the observation that ‘Russia has a history of interfering in the electoral processes of other states’ and vague claims that what happened in Romania was ‘similar’ to well-documented Russian election interference in neighboring Moldova.”

Even opponents of Georgescu called out the move as undemocratic.

As Politico reported, “Elena Lasconi, a liberal former TV journalist who was set to stand against Georgescu in the second round, was mortified by what she saw as a hijacking of the electoral process.”

She was quoted saying, “Today is the moment when the Romanian state trampled over democracy. God, the Romanian people, the truth and the law will prevail and will punish those who are guilty of destroying our democracy,” referring to Georgescu being kicked off the ballot.

Later, the Romanian investigative outlet “Snoop” discovered that the TikTok campaign used to paint Georgescu as being promoted by the Russians “was paid for with the money of the National Liberal Party”, the party in opposition to Georgescu.

Journalist Lee Fang found that the National Endowment for Democracy funded “Think tanks and civil society NGOs,” which “served as the most vocal voices championing the judicial coup” (against Georgescu ).

NED Pushing The New Cold War With China.

For its part, the NED has done its best to ramp up tensions with China by cynically highlighting abuses from the Chinese government.

The organization's website brags that “To further human rights and human dignity for all people in China, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has awarded $8,758,300 to Uyghur groups since 2004, serving as the only institutional funder for Uyghur advocacy and human rights organizations”, the Uyghurs being a Muslim ethnic minority in China’s Xinjiang region which has faced harsh repression from the Chinese government including mass surveillance and mass detention.

The NED’s website brags that it funds the World Uyghur Congress, Uyghur Human Rights Project, Campaign for Uyghurs, and the Uyghur Transitional Justice Database Project.

The NED funded groups have been used to generate sensationalist claims to launch American hostilities with China.

The NED funded groups often accuse China of committing genocide in Xinjiang, an allegation even the state department’s own lawyers could not prove.

Foreign Policy Magazine reported that “The U.S. State Department’s Office of the Legal Advisor concluded earlier this year that China’s mass imprisonment and forced labor of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang amounts to crimes against humanity—but there was insufficient evidence to prove genocide, placing the United States’ top diplomatic lawyers at odds with both the Trump and Biden administrations”.

Furthermore, the harshest human rights abuses in Xinjiang have ramped down significantly in recent years.

A 2021 Associated Press report from Xinjiang wrote :

The razor wire that once ringed public buildings in China’s far northwestern Xinjiang region is nearly all gone.

Gone, too, are the middle school uniforms in military camouflage and the armored personnel carriers rumbling around the homeland of the Uyghurs. Gone are many of the surveillance cameras that once glared down like birds from overhead poles, and the eerie eternal wail of sirens in the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar.

The report went on to write:

The most heavily criticized aspect of Xinjiang’s crackdown has been its so-called “training centers”, which leaked documents show are actually extrajudicial indoctrination camps.

After global outcry, Chinese officials declared the camps shuttered in 2019. Many indeed appear to be closed.

Despite this, the NED- funded, sensationalist claims led then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to accuse China of genocide on his way out in 2021, an allegation that ramped up tensions between the U.S. and China.

The National Endowment for Democracy also funded groups supportive of the Hong Kong protests against the Chinese government in 2019. TIME magazine reported that “the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) spent about $643,000 on Hong Kong programs in 2019”.

More Of the Same

Despite Trump making big headlines for supposedly axing the NED, it seems its funding will continue and U.S. regime change and destabilization campaigns across the world will continue as they always did.

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