In the midst of the attack on federal institutions orchestrated by tycoon Ilon Musk and his followers in Doge (Department of Government Effectiveness), the NED Foundation (National Aid for Democracy – National Endowment for Democracy) stood unable to access its capital. Congress at the US Department of Finance. As a result, sources on the WP said, Ned’s functions are ceased.

The whole budget of the Agency ($ 315 million per year) is a rounding error within a US budget 6.9 trillion dollars And its elimination will have almost no impact on the $ 1.8 trillion budget deficit. But the practical and symbolic significance of the NED far exceeds its not -not -great financial resources.

Since its founding in 1983, at the initiative of President Ronald Reagan, the NED supports dissidents and activists around the world promoting American ideals and working to combat corruption and dominance of authoritarian regimes. The NED helped the solidarity movement of Lech Valesa in the 1980s in Poland, and the recent movement of Woman, Life, Freedom (Woman, Life, Freedom) in Iran. The fact that Ned no longer has access to funds allocated by Congress, in obvious breach of law, is A worrying indicator of how the Trump government undermines democracy inside while aligning with authoritarian regimes and free movements abroad.

The impact of NED’s non -funding is already felt. The NED and its main partners – the International Republican Institute, the National Democratic Institute, the (Labor Market) Center for Solidarity and the International Private Enterprises Center – must dismiss employees and close their offices in the US.

The NED was also forced to suspend funding for approximately 2,000 subsidy beneficiaries in 100 countries. These are organizations such as the Cuban Democratic Directorate, whose short wave broadcasts provide independent information to the people of Cuba, the World Congress of the Uigurians, which records human rights violations by the Chinese Communist Party against the China Communist Party. Digital Times, revealing his misinformation campaigns Beijing and others.

It is not strange that America’s enemies They are over for closing NED as part of the overall output of US external aid. A Chinese website celebrated the fall of this “infamous group”, arguing that “NED has long supported anti -national organizations”. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez urged an investigation into how the Ned is supposed to organize “destabilization and terrorism against Cuba”. And Dmitry Medvedev, Vice President of the Russian Security Council, wrote that “NED activities have been recognized as unwanted in Russia” and that “it has long been involved in subversive businesses around the world”.

Such attacks by enemy, anti -American regimes should to serve as the strongest ads of Ned – And they help to explain why Republicans who prioritize national security have long support this organization. The chairman of the Ned Board of Directors is Peter Roska, who served as a member of Congress with the Republicans, and one of his vice presidents is Stephen Bigan, who was Deputy Foreign Minister in the first Trump government. Eliz Stefanik, Trump’s choice for US Ambassador to the United Nations, was a member of the NED Board of Directors, while Marco Rubio was a member of the Board of Directors of the International Republican Institute (IRI) associated with NED until selected as Minister External. Indeed, Rubio supported IRI’s work last year to promote “freedom and democracy”.

However, despite the long history of Republican support in Ned, Maga and some Maga extremists are determined to destroy it. In this context they have used rhetoric of anti -democratic regimes around the world. (It is worth noting that Tesla has her largest car factory and a huge new battery factory in Shanghai, and Musk has described himself as “about China”.)

“Ned is a scam,” Musk wrote on X on February 2, adding that he is guilty of indefinable “crimes” and is supposed to be “full of corruption !!” Centre for Renewing America, the Thought Tank founded by Russell Vot before becoming Trump’s budget manager, published a topic that made a lot of noise, accusing the NED of, among other things, subordinate the Arab Spring of 2011 and the revolution of his dignity 2014 in Ukraine, making it guilty of ‘intervention in the Middle East’ and “Warl in Ukraine”.

This is the kind of arguments used by authoritarian regimes to manipulate their own people, arguing that protests are a work of foreign turmoil. People rise up against oppressive regimes because they want freedom, Not because they are American puppets.

Also false is the category of the Center for America’s renewal that Ned has been involved in “in an overt attempt to stop and then prevent President Trump”. This category is mainly based on statements against Trump some now and former members of the NED bipartisan council, whose classes include naturally democratic and independent as well as Republicans. But Ned stays away from US internal policy. In 2020, it provided a subsidy to a British non -governmental organization to monitor Chinese misinformation in various countries, but not in the United States. This group later issued a report that found that some US media organizations were prone to misinformation. NED did not finance the US report, and cut off any support for the team within the week.

If NED should be closed permanently, its collapse would not help the Maga movement to the slightest – But it would be a benefit to America’s enemies, including China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.

Unfortunately, this lifeline is now in danger of being cut. Along the way, mild US power -the ability to promote nation’s interests without resorting to military violence or economic coercion- will suffer another serious blow.