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This week on Media Finance Monitor
US government money is back. Europe will not like what it funds.
The EU will admit creators, but they are not allowed to ask questions
We have a website!
How a UK local news network learned what scales and what doesn’t
33 active calls (6 new)
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US government money is back. Europe will not like what it funds.
(by Peter)
Let’s start with “I told you so” because that’s such a universally graceful look.
In February 2025, as USAID implementing partners began receiving termination notices, I made a prediction: the Trump administration would not simply abandon foreign assistance, including support for the information ecosystem in Europe but rather replace the programmes and people it disliked with ones more inclined to agree with it. This was based on the assumption that Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, JD Vance and the upper ranks of MAGA were not actually in the business of reducing their own power. Now here we are, almost exactly 1.5 years later and I’m happy to report that I was right. (If you must know, it’s not a humbling experience at all, if anything, it’s the opposite.)
A few weeks ago the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL) published two calls for Europe, for a little less than $3 million combined, and it will fund projects that I can guarantee most of the EU institutions and European media will dislike.
Today we’ll get into what the Trump administration is trying to fund, why I think there is not going to be a lot of competition despite the formally open calls and I will even tell you who I think will be the most likely recipient of this money.