U.S. State Department advised to slash $1.3 billion in global pro-democracy grants
By lauraharris // 2025-07-02
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  • The U.S. State Department has been advised to cut nearly $1.3 billion in global pro-democracy grants, affecting 391 programs, with only China and Yemen initiatives spared.
  • A white paper authored by junior adviser Samuel Samson proposes redirecting funds to unorthodox causes, including resettling white South African refugees and supporting far-right French politician Marine Le Pen.
  • The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), historically central to promoting human rights, is set to be disbanded under Secretary of State Marco Rubio's overhaul, eliminating labor rights advocacy.
  • A new Office of Coordination for Foreign Assistance will absorb the hollowed-out USAID, which lost over 80 percent of its programming early in Trump's second term.
  • Rubio's reorganization, framed as a response to "bureaucratic bloat" and ideological bias, will result in roughly 3,400 layoffs and the closure or consolidation of around 300 State Department offices.
The U.S. State Department has been advised to cut nearly $1.3 billion in funding for global pro-democracy programs. The proposed cuts, outlined in a foreign assistance review conducted by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), would affect 391 active grants that support pro-democracy activists and communities around the world, including in countries like Cuba and Venezuela. Only two programs, those operating in China and Yemen, are expected to remain untouched. A controversial white paper attached to the review recommends redirecting congressional funding to projects with little precedent in U.S. foreign aid, including the resettlement of white South African refugees to the U.S. and financial support for the legal defense of far-right French politician Marine Le Pen. (Related: DOGE freezes all funding to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).) The recommendations were reportedly authored by Samuel Samson, a recent college graduate and newly appointed senior adviser to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL). Samson is part of a new wave of young political appointees who have risen through the ranks under the second term of President Donald Trump. If enacted, the move would eliminate roughly 80 percent of grants managed by the DRL. Created in 1977, the DRL has long been tasked with advancing human rights and democracy abroad. According to its official mission statement, the bureau supports "people who wish to live in freedom and under democratic governments as a means of combating terrorism and the spread of authoritarianism."

Rubio's State Department overhaul guts human rights division

It remains unclear whether the DRL will implement the recommendations of Samson. But in an April statement, Rubio said the overhaul is necessary to streamline a "bloated, bureaucratic" department that he argues has lost sight of U.S. strategic priorities amid a rising era of "great-power competition," specifically with China. "The Department is bloated, bureaucratic and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great-power competition," Rubio said, referring to the U.S. rivalry with China. "The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America's core national interests." Among the most consequential changes is the elimination of the State Department’s division responsible for "civilian security, democracy and human rights," a long-standing arm of American soft power. The division will be replaced by a new Office of Coordination for Foreign Assistance and Humanitarian Affairs, which will absorb the gutted remains of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID was dramatically downsized at the outset of Trump's second term under the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. The cuts wiped out more than 80 percent of its programming, devastating support for development, humanitarian aid and civil society efforts across the globe. The new office will still include a bureau for "democracy, human rights and religious freedom," but it excludes the labor rights advocacy functions that were previously housed in DRL. That bureau, which for decades championed workers’ rights in hostile environments, is now set to be disbanded. In a Substack opinion piece published shortly after announcing the reorganization, Rubio lashed out at the "left-wing activism" embedded within the DRL, accusing the bureau of pursuing ideological agendas rather than national interests. "The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor became a platform for left-wing activists to wage vendettas against 'anti-woke' leaders in nations such as Poland, Hungary and Brazil, and to transform their hatred of Israel into concrete policies such as arms embargoes," he wrote in the piece on Substack. The reorganization, Rubio contends, will bring the State Department "into alignment" with Trump's "America First" foreign policy vision by focusing on practical strategic goals rather than idealistic global advocacy. Nearly 3,400 State Department employees are now expected to be laid off as part of the reorganization, with about 300 offices eliminated or consolidated, including many within DRL. BigGovernment.news has more stories like this. Watch this video explaining the difference between representative democracy and direct democracy.
This video is from the Dandin channel on Brighteon.com.

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Sources include: TheMiddleEastEye.net TheGuardian.com Brighteon.com
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