State Department human rights grants are being steered by Trump administration appointees toward a set of organizations tied to conservative causes in Europe and advocacy for white South Africans, according to documents and interviews reported by ProPublica.
The proposals would shift money from a bureau that has historically funded work on torture, political repression, sexual violence and persecuted minorities in poor or authoritarian countries. ProPublica reported that officials presented State Department workers with at least a dozen proposed grants that could skip the usual open competition used to select recipients.
The State Department told ProPublica that the programs remain under review and that no organization is guaranteed federal money unless it meets grant requirements. An unnamed department official said several offices are involved and that the administration has serious concerns about human rights in South Africa.
Why are State Department human rights grants controversial?
The dispute is about both the recipients and the process. State Department rules generally call for open bidding, with direct or limited awards reserved for unusual cases such as emergencies, sensitive work or situations where only one organization can do the job.
Contracting experts and former staffers told ProPublica those justifications do not appear to fit several of the proposed awards. They also said grants to organizations in high-income countries are unusual enough that they typically require an internal waiver.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told ProPublica that Congress expects the department to fund human rights, democratic institutions, civil society, free expression and worker rights. She called the proposals an “appalling departure” and said they suggest awards could be based on ideology rather than taxpayers’ interests or national security.
One official involved in the effort is Samuel Samson, a 27-year-old deputy assistant secretary of state who joined the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor after previously working for an organization focused on bringing “America first” personnel into government, ProPublica reported. Samson has argued publicly that the U.S. and Europe share a “common civilizational struggle.”
Among the organizations under consideration is the Free Speech Union, a British group founded by Toby Young. ProPublica reported that a document described a possible $5 million award to fight “digital overregulation,” support people facing “deplatforming” and oppose restrictive online safety and hate speech laws. The group’s website says it is nonpartisan and does not take government funds. Young told ProPublica it had neither applied for nor received a U.S. government grant.
The bureau has also put forward a proposed $40 million award for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, created by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. ProPublica reported that the amount would far exceed the group’s recent scale: its 2024 public tax forms listed about $12 million in total assets. The foundation said it was unaware of the proposed funding.
Another proposal involved South Africa. DRL staff were initially told to start awarding money to Lex Libertas, a South African organization founded by a figure in the white Afrikaner movement, ProPublica reported. The award was later broadened so invited groups could compete for $1 million to research crime and atrocities against minority populations. Lex Libertas did not respond to ProPublica’s questions.
Research cited by ProPublica has found that white South African farmers are not victimized by crime at higher rates than other groups. President Donald Trump has claimed there is a genocide of white South Africans and has used those claims to justify cutting South Africa funding for HIV treatment and research.
A separate $7 million sole-source grant to 878, a new British American think tank focused on Judeo-Christian civilization, was dropped after Democratic lawmakers objected in briefings, according to ProPublica. The department’s human rights bureau is now working with about $190 million, down from more than $500 million in 2024, after Trump froze foreign aid and Secretary of State Marco Rubio closed most of its offices.
This story draws on original reporting from Techdirt.
