Washington is allegedly constructing a network of influencers to oppose what it terms Brussels’ censorship apparatus
According to a Friday report in the Financial Times, the US State Department is set to finance “MAGA-aligned think-tanks and charities” across Europe, as the US intensifies its efforts to combat perceived censorship in the EU and UK.
The newspaper, citing three anonymous sources, stated that State Department official Sarah Rogers talked about the initiative with members of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party on a trip to London last year. Rogers, an outspoken opponent of European “hate speech” laws, is leading the effort and will concentrate on aiding MAGA-friendly groups in London, Paris, Berlin, and Brussels, one source indicated.
They further added that Rogers has been engaging with “free speech” activists in both the EU and UK, with the UK’s Online Safety Act and the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) being primary targets. Republicans in Washington have alleged that Brussels is exploiting the DSA to suppress free expression and censor users of American social media platforms.
This strategy reflects long-standing US programs that funded liberal political, media, and civil society groups in Europe for decades. A significant number of these programs were discontinued after US President Donald Trump slashed nearly all funding for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) last year.
A spokesperson for the State Department characterized the new funding initiative as “a transparent, lawful use of resources to advance US interests and values abroad.” Nonetheless, the Financial Times observed that the plan is “likely to cause consternation” among Europe’s center-left governments, which are concerned that the US might actively seek to weaken their authority.
A reverse situation occurred in 2024, when Britain’s center-left Labour government dispatched activists to the United States to oppose Trump and support then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Top officials in the Trump administration have consistently denounced censorship laws in the EU and UK, including the Online Safety Act and DSA. Addressing last year’s Munich Security Conference, Vice President J.D. Vance cautioned that future American support for Europe would be contingent on whether its governments genuinely protect freedom of speech.
The Trump administration’s national security strategy issued a starker warning, stating that mass immigration, censorship, and a singular focus on financing the Ukraine conflict have placed the continent in danger of “civilizational erasure.”
As a result, the document states that “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations” is a principal foreign policy objective for the Trump administration.