DOGE freezes all funding to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)

02/19/2025 / By Laura Harris

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has frozen funding to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), accusing it of covertly influencing political outcomes and funding activities related to the Ukraine-Russia war.
A report from the Center for Renewing America, founded by a former Trump administration official, claims NED has funded political entities in Ukraine and supported “color revolutions” in several countries, including Georgia and Kyrgyzstan.
Elon Musk, DOGE leader, has referred to NED as a “scam” and “evil organization,” and instructed the Treasury Department to block the disbursement of $315 million in funds to the organization.
Critics argue that NED’s activities are similar to those previously conducted by the CIA and are not always aligned with democratic principles, as highlighted in opinion articles exposing the organization’s alleged covert operations.
The controversy surrounding NED includes allegations of its involvement in regime change efforts, such as in Venezuela and Haiti, and its potential role in the 2002 coup attempt against then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has frozen all funding to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a U.S.-funded organization known for its extensive global activities in promoting democratic principles and regime change.

A recent report from the think tank Center for Renewing America accused the NED of using tens of millions of dollars to fund political entities in Ukraine and advance revolutions that have led to the current Ukraine-Russia war. (Related: Trump freezes foreign aid frauds.)

The think tank also highlighted the alleged involvement of NED in supporting “color revolutions” in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, as well as funding opposition groups in Belarus, Serbia and Egypt.

Critics, including DOGE leader Elon Musk, have accused the organization of covertly influencing political outcomes and acting as a proxy for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in overthrowing foreign governments.

Musk, who has been tasked with finding ways to cut federal spending, referred to the NED as a “scam” and an “evil organization” that needs to be dissolved. Earlier in February, Musk posted on X that those who knew should list “all the evil things that NED has done.”

In line with this, the DOGE released a memo instructing the Treasury Department to block the disbursement of $315 million in funds to the NED.

Several opinion articles expose the decade-long “covert” operations of the NED

This suspension for the NED, which was established during the Cold War in 1983, has brought back opinion articles in the past, exposing its alleged “covert” operations.

For instance, Antiwar mentioned in its article the 1991 interview with the Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. In the interview, Allen Weinstein, a co-founder of the NED, admitted that many of the activities of the organization were “done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”

Ignatius then highlighted in the article some of the NED’s activities that were previously conducted by the CIA, including “providing money and moral support for pro-democracy groups, training resistance fighters and working to subvert communist rule.” He then added that “these overt operatives have been immensely successful.”

Antiwar also mentioned a 2009 article for the Future Freedom Foundation, wherein Jim Bovard, a senior fellow at the Libertarian Institute, argued that the NED’s “meddling in foreign elections is automatically pro-democracy because the US government is the incarnation of democracy.”

Bovard, who has long been critical of the NED’s methods and motivations, also wrote in a 2006 article for the American Conservative that the NED’s involvement in regime change efforts in Latin America.

“In 2001, NED quadrupled its aid to Venezuelan opponents of elected president Hugo Chavez and NED heavily funded some organizations involved in a bloody military coup that temporarily removed Chavez from power in April 2002. After Chavez retook control, NED and the State Department responded by pouring even more money into groups seeking his ouster.

“The International Republican Institute, one of the largest NED grant recipients, played a key role both in the Chavez coup and also in the overthrow of Haiti’s elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In February 2004, an array of NED-aided groups and individuals helped spur an uprising that left 100 people dead and toppled Aristide,” he wrote.

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