The National Interest According to Trumpland

Nora Gámez Torres of the Miami Herald reports that:

The U.S. State Department abruptly canceled foreign aid programs supporting opposition activists, political prisoners and religious groups in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, raising concerns about a shift in U.S. foreign policy.

Projects supporting political prisoners in Cuba, church groups opposing strongman Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and activists fighting a power grab by Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela were canceled after a State Department review concluded they are not in the “national interest” of the United States.

It didn’t appear to matter that the programs were handled by the International Republican Institute, a non-profit organization linked to the party in power, or that they were focused on promoting democracy in authoritarian countries.

All but three of the Institute’s 95 programs funded with grants from the State Department and the U.S. International Agency for Development have been canceled, according to several sources familiar with the cuts who asked not to be named to discuss the sensitive issue.

The remaining three programs, related to groups in Venezuela, are on pause following an earlier State Department directive to implement President Donald Trump’s broader executive order to freeze all foreign aid funds for 90 days. The rest of the Institute’s 175 programs worldwide are also in limbo because they depend on funding directly appropriated from Congress for the National Endowment for Democracy, which has said it has not been able to access the money.

So why weren’t these programs in the “national interest”?

Many of the terminated contracts focused on “woke issues,” promoting anti-corruption, supporting independent media, or helping groups in democratic countries, all goals some administration officials “didn’t like,” one source said.

I think his speaks for itself.