Kit Klarenberg, who is part of The Grayzone with Max Blumenthal, published a review on Jan. 31 of the impact of Donald Trump’s cuts to foreign aid in the name of “democracy,” through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in several countries around the world. Headlined, “Did a Trump Executive Order Just Cripple the Global U.S. Regime Change Network?” the article reviews how the agency has been central to the subversion of governments through dirty operations known as “color revolutions.”
The most immediate case is Ukraine, where EIR.News has already reported the impact on several news outlets which are part of the fake news propaganda operation backed by the State Department. Klarenberg writes on Ukraine that, “The Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications and the Service of the Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, both created to propagandize for war against Russia, are also among USAID funding recipients now starving for cash.” Zelenskyy is complaining. In an X entry Zelenskyy whined that, “critically important programs” wholly dependent on “U.S. support” are now “suspended” as a result of Trump’s executive order. He called on “European partners” to make up the loss.
In Nicaragua, Klarenberg notes that “since the re-election of popular leftist Sandinista Front in 2006, Washington has pumped tens of millions of dollars into right-wing media outlets and opposition groups ... inciting violence against the government and its supporters, and influencing Western media reporting on the country.”
In the Balkans, Klarenberg writes that, “USAID, self-avowed CIA front the National Endowment for Democracy, George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and the panoply of NGOs and media outlets have infiltrated every conceivable sphere of public life. Following the 1992-1995 civil war, Bosnia and Herzegovina was methodically transformed into a de facto EU and U.S. colony, with all basic functions of the state hijacked by foreign interests.” He then quotes from the website Balkan Insight, which he describes as “an outlet exposed by The Grayzone as a tentacle of British intelligence,” which reported that the aid pause “has immediately affected a range of organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia,” adding that between 2020 and 2024, “Washington has funnelled a staggering $1.7 billion into the West Balkans, ‘supporting civil society organizations and state institutions and projects ranging from human rights and media to energy efficiency,’ with next to no demonstrable social benefit.”
