Since almost day one, the second Trump administration has singled out Europe as a major target of its ire. From U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance accusing European leaders in Munich last year of suppressing free speech for annulling an election in Romania, to the White House National Security Strategy warning that the continent faces “civilizational erasure” due to the influence of the European Union and immigration, the Trump administration has plenty of notes for how it thinks Europe needs to change.
Now, the administration is putting its money where its mouth is: The State Department will soon announce a wave of grants aimed in part at reshaping European domestic politics.
The effort is being overseen by a little-known office within the department known as the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) that was historically involved in promoting democracy in places such as Cuba, Iran, and Russia. Leading the charge is the bureau’s no. 2 official, a 27-year-old who previously worked at a conservative group with ties to Vance, and who first came to prominence for writing a State Department essay criticizing Europe.
The project faces steep odds thanks to bureaucratic hurdles and a European domestic audience that may simply care less about the issues championed by the White House. Yet critics fear that the campaign could further strain already tense relations between some European politicians and the United States—and could help legitimize views once considered fringe in Europe.
