US funding: MAGA offensive in Europe - who is reaching for Trump's millions

The US government wants to financially support European organizations this fall that advocate for national sovereignty and oppose "migration and censorship." According to information from Handelsblatt, at least one German application for funding is pending. Overall, the US State Department is allocating $4.9 million to finance "research, conferences, and cultural activities." Think tanks, foundations, media platforms, and other groups with headquarters in the US and abroad can apply - as long as they are active in Europe.

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As Handelsblatt learned, the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin is dealing with the design and motivation of the fund. Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) had criticized in July that financial interventions from abroad represented an inadmissible interference in the democratic process. The funds come from legally approved federal funds of the USA and are provided by the Department for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) in the State Department by Marco Rubio.

Applications are still possible until August 12, and the project start is planned for late September.

The call for proposals takes up ideological goals of "America first" and "Make America great again" (MAGA), the foundations of the Trump administration. Projects on freedom of expression and the press, national sovereignty, and Western identity are explicitly promoted, as well as "research on the consequences of mass migration for democracy and fundamental freedoms." These are intended to serve the "strengthening of civilizational bonds, democratic resilience, and the rule of law in Europe."

Among the applicants, the German influencer Naomi Seibt, who is close to the Alternative for Germany (AfD), is preparing to found a network called "Freedom Alliance of the West" (FAW). She plans to secure financing through the US State Department fund, which she claims to be applying for. According to Seibt, the plans include a media component called "Freedom TV," cooperation "with European lawyers who represent freedom of expression cases," and "with alternative media and survey institutes that are based in Europe."

The 25-year-old became known as "Musk's whisperer" after tech billionaire Elon Musk supported her social media posts against mass immigration and had himself connected at an AfD election campaign event. Meanwhile, Seibt has almost half a million followers on Musk's platform X. In December 2025, she met with the foreign policy spokesman of the AfD parliamentary group, Markus Frohnmaier, in Washington.

Seibt had applied for asylum in the US last year and is still staying there. This was preceded by investigations by the Münster police on suspicion of incitement to hatred. She justified her asylum application, among other things, with threats from the left-wing extremist Antifa. On X, she describes herself as "the first German asylum seeker under President Trump."

If the US government were to grant Seibt's asylum application or provide her with funding, this would be a highly unusual and politically sensitive process.

Other European groups are also vying for the funding. However, some organizations explicitly reject the allocation and accuse them of influencing. According to a report by the Hungarian investigative portal "Atlatszo," the Hungarian Danube Institute, which is close to former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, plans to apply.

In Italy, an Instagram account is applying for the MAGA funding: "Welcome to Favelas" has documented urban decay in Italy since 2011, from wild boar herds rummaging through Rome's trash cans to videos about pickpocket gangs in Milan's metro. Since Trump's re-election, the page has increasingly published MAGA-related content.

The Italian newspaper "La Repubblica" writes that the change in direction occurred after a meeting with a contact person from Elon Musk. Operator Massimiliano Zossolo claims to reach around two million people with his main and various sub-accounts as well as Telegram channels.

After the migration crisis in the Spanish exclave Ceuta, he boasted of having "the courage" to report the truth about it to his followers. MCC Brussels, the Brussels branch of the right-conservative Hungarian Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), is examining the funding possibilities, according to its own statements.

A clear no comes from the Polish right-wing think tank Ordo Iuris Institute, with the reference to independence: the US funds would contradict the goal of remaining a "completely independent organization." The Christian-conservative lobby organization ADF International with several branches in Europe argues similarly: it emphasizes that it must "pursue its work free from state interference."

In Germany, the economically liberal Friedrich August von Hayek Society based in Berlin has expressed interest in Handelsblatt. "We will gladly examine the funding requirements and consider submitting an application," it said upon request. The prerequisite is that "the funding does not come from tax funds and the support is permitted under German law." In practice, however, the allocation of tax funds is likely to be difficult to see through: the US federal budget is fed from various revenues and financing sources.