"Can't stop the signal," the phrase popularized in the 2005 sci-fi flick "Serenity" has today been supplanted by "Can't hide the data," courtesy of Data Republican (small-r)'s ever-improving Federal government grant award search. For example, how does a private figure like William Kristol get taxpayer money to fund his political activities?
Answer: it's complicated. But I can show you the way.
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors received nearly $38 million in grants last year, nearly evenly divided between USAID and the State Department. Because the Rockefellers don't have enough of their own money, I suppose.
RPA gave significant sums (the Data Republican chart did not make clear how much, but I'm still digging and will update this column if I can find the number) to The Hopewell Fund. What does it do? According to its site, Hopewell has been around only since 2015 and "is a 501(c)(3) public charity that specializes in helping donors, social entrepreneurs, and other changemakers quickly launch new, innovative social change projects."
That's a whole lot of words saying not much. However, I did see that the organization's Economic Security Project provides "management for nearly a dozen contracts and grants management for community-based organizations, think tanks, advocacy organizations, and NGOs in the United States."
Slush, meet funds. Your taxpayer dollars became "private" funds via Rockefeller that then went into a whole host of progressive causes via groups like Hopewell. I'm using Hopewell as an example because one of its beneficiaries — to the tune of $2 million last year — is another organization called Defending Democracy Together.
That's one of the great mic-drop moments in social media history.
Defending Democracy's president is Bill Kristol and its directors are Mona Charen, Linda Chavez, and Sarah Longwell. Judging by Kristol's presence and its directors, Defending Democracy is essentially the nonprofit arm of Kristol's post-Weekly Standard/anti-Trump project, The Bulwark.
Whatever it is that Defending Democracy Together does, it doesn't seem to do much of it in public. The group's website doesn't appear to have been updated since 2021. Although the Donate button seems to work.
Honestly, Kristol is probably among the least of our problems. What, if any, influence he still has is bolstered by an amount of money that's piddling by USAID/State/NGO standards. I use him as an example only because as someone who's been around Washington and power his entire life, he's a public figure I was sure you'd be familiar with.
Following the spaghetti-like trail of money from your taxes to USAID to private groups like Kristol's was nearly impossible before Data Republican built her database. But we also have a man now on the inside, Elon Musk.
Trump agrees. "I actually checked with him a few times. Said 'Are you sure?' Yes, so we're shutting it down," Musk said.
This is vitally important.
USAID had a budget of about $50 billion in 2023, the last year for which full figures are available. While $50 billion is a drop in the bucket — it's less than 1% of federal spending — it has an outsized effect. That's billions of dollars going every year to left-wing causes (some of them dressed up as RINOs) that are too unpopular to gain private support.
It's largely NGOs, armed with your tax dollars, funding the migrant invasion, pushing gender confusion on a global scale, etc.
If Bill Kristol or whoever is behind organizations like Hopewell can raise funds privately, that's their business. But the parade of public tax dollars to private causes has to stop.
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