Trump Suspends Funding to the National Endowment for Democracy, Leaving Organization in Crisis

The Trump administration has halted funding to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a U.S.-funded organization long accused of interfering in foreign elections and promoting regime change under the guise of “democracy promotion.”

The decision, reportedly driven by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led to an order from the U.S. Treasury Department blocking the disbursement of funds, effectively crippling the organization’s operations.

“It’s been a bloodbath,” a distressed NED staffer told The Free Press. “We have not been able to meet payroll and pay basic overhead expenses.”

The NED, which was established in 1983 at the height of the Cold War, was slated to receive $315 million in U.S. government funding for the 2025 fiscal year. The organization has long faced criticism for functioning as a modern extension of the CIA, with one of its co-founders, Allen Weinstein, admitting in a 1991 interview with The Washington Post that “a lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”

For decades, the NED has been accused of using U.S. taxpayer money to support pro-American opposition movements in foreign countries. Columnist David Ignatius once detailed how the organization provided financial and logistical backing for opposition groups, trained resistance fighters, and worked to undermine governments deemed unfriendly to U.S. interests.

The suspension of funding comes amid a growing backlash against the NED, with Elon Musk himself recently taking to his platform, X, to encourage users to list “all the evil things that NED has done.” Libertarian commentator Jim Bovard, who has criticized the organization for decades, responded with a detailed account of NED’s history of meddling in Latin America.

“In 2001, NED quadrupled its aid to Venezuelan opponents of Hugo Chávez and heavily funded groups involved in the failed military coup against him in 2002,” Bovard wrote in The American Conservative. “After Chávez regained power, NED and the State Department funneled even more money into efforts to remove him.”

Bovard also accused NED-funded organizations of playing a key role in the 2004 overthrow of Haiti’s elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, which resulted in violent uprisings that left over 100 people dead.

With its funding frozen, the NED now faces an uncertain future. Whether the decision is a long-overdue accountability measure or a politically motivated move, one thing is clear—this marks a significant shift in U.S. foreign policy under Trump’s leadership.