Mike Benz Empower Ovrsgt
instant mofo on usaid musk chipper
rogan BOOSTED TO MUSK
new college fla
GRASSLEY STAFF MAfia?
lew rockwell
natcon
MILLER AFL FFO DISINFO USAID FUCKERY
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YT CIA RUNS RAP ?! 9 26
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tenpenny bs brownstone inst
.... It’s a stretch to now, years later, accuse USAID of helping the Taliban. ENDIT
What emerges is not just a list of expenditures, but a blueprint for global reality architecture: From Kazakhstan to Ireland, from Serbia to Peru, from Vietnam to Egypt – there isn’t a corner of the world untouched by this system. This isn’t merely a distribution of resources, but a strategic infrastructure of global influence. Each allocation – whether to media outlets, health initiatives, or cultural programs – represents a carefully placed node in a network designed to shape perception across multiple domains. First, control the flow of information through media funding. Then, establish legitimacy through health and development programs. Finally, reshape social structures through cultural programming. The end goal isn’t just to influence what people think, but to determine the boundaries of what can be thought – and to do so on a planetary scale.
For those who’ve been studying the architecture of censorship, like Mike Benz has been documenting for years, none of this comes as a surprise. It’s perfect symmetry: we knew about the censorship. Now we’re seeing the receipts. One hand feeds them talking points, the other hand feeds them our taxpayer dollars. This isn’t speculation; it’s documented fact. Even Wikipedia’s own funding database contains over 45,000 reports tied to USAID – many detailing corruption, media influence, and financial manipulation. The evidence has always been there, but it was ignored, dismissed, or buried under the very fact-checking apparatus USAID funds. These weren’t crackpot theories; they were warnings. And now, we finally have the receipts.
And it doesn’t stop at controlling information. USAID isn’t just shaping media portrayals – it’s funding the systems that enforce them. Last week, Benz broke a bombshell: USAID gives twice as much money ($27 million) to the fiscal sponsor of the group controlling Soros-funded prosecutors than Soros himself gives ($14 million). This isn’t about one billionaire’s influence – it’s about state-backed enforcement of scripted accounts. The same network that dictates what you can think is dictating who prosecutes crime, what laws are enforced, and who faces consequences.
Source: Wikileaks
USAID’s influence isn’t just about funding media control—it extends to direct political interference. It didn’t just send aid to Brazil – it funded censorship, backed left-wing activists, and helped rig the 2022 election against Bolsonaro.
Former State Department official Benz revealed that the agency waged a “holy war on censorship,” systematically suppressing Bolsonaro supporters online while bolstering opposition voices. Millions flowed to NGOs pushing leftist framing, including the Felipe Neto Institute, which received US funding while Bolsonaro’s allies were deplatformed. USAID also bankrolled Amazon-based activist groups, financed media campaigns designed to manipulate public opinion, and funneled money into Brazilian organizations that pushed for stricter internet regulations.
This wasn’t aid – it was election interference disguised as democracy promotion. USAID used American tax dollars to decide Brazil’s future, and it likely deployed similar tactics in many other countries – all under the guise of humanitarian assistance.
And it’s not just abroad. While USAID’s defenders claim it’s a tool for charity and development in poor nations, the evidence suggests something much more insidious. It’s a $40 billion driver of regime change overseas – and now, evidence points to its involvement in regime change efforts at home. Alongside the CIA, USAID appears to have played a role in the 2019 impeachment of Trump – an illegal effort to overturn a US election using the same tools of perception sculpting and political engineering it deploys abroad.
Left vs right, vaxxed vs unvaxxed, Russia vs Ukraine, believer vs skeptic (on any topic) – these false dichotomiesserve to fragment our understanding while reality itself is far more nuanced and multidimensional. Each manufactured crisis spawns not just reactions, but reactions to those reactions, creating endless layers of derivative meaning built on artificial foundations.
The real power isn’t in manufacturing individual facts, but in creating systems where false facts become self-reinforcing. When a fact-checker cites another fact-checker who cites a “trusted source” that’s funded by the same entities funding the fact-checkers, the pattern becomes clear. The truth isn’t in any individual claim – it’s in recognizing how the claims work together to create a closed system of artificial reality....
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Aug. 25, 2026,
For 17 months, the State Department has promised to deliver proof of a long-promoted conspiracy theory about its own agency: that its officials routinely censored conservative Americans. This week, it failed that mission, as Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers released a trove of documents that proved nothing.
The conspiracy theory has grown during President Donald Trump’s second term, providing the State Department with a rationale for dismantling the offices that once studied and countered foreign disinformation campaigns, for firing officials with decades of experience and for shuttering entire departments.
The effort was first led by acting Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Darren Beattie, a former far-right academic who had been fired from the first Trump administration after he attended a white nationalist conference. Beattie claimed the DOGE-style decimation of the State Department was necessary to rid the agency of officials who were tied to a baseless conspiracy theory known as the “censorship-industrial complex.”
Promoters of the censorship-industrial complex — a secret but somehow sprawling partnership between the Biden government, journalists, academics and civil society groups, aimed at silencing conservative Americans — have repeatedly failed to prove their case, in congressional investigations and in the courts, including the Supreme Court. Still, the theory persists.
Beattie had no evidence for his unfounded claims that the State Department had participated in that conspiracy, but in March 2025, he launched an investigation inside the State Department that he said would reveal all. Beattie requested the files, emails and other communications of State Department officials, including any records with seemingly random keywords like “Black Lives Matter,” “great replacement theory” and “Pepe the Frog,” as well as any communications with figures Beattie believed to be part of the conspiracy. (These included The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum, Bill Gates, disinformation researcher Nina Jankowicz and some 60 others, including this reporter.)
In the official announcement for the closure of the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub, formerly known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC), Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Mike Benz, a former pseudonymous racist YouTuber and chief architect of the censorship-industrial complex theory, that a reckoning was coming. It would be driven by evidence, disclosed in the model of the “Twitter Files,” a 2022 dump of internal Twitter records that Elon Musk gave to selected writers to show the alleged censorship of conservatives. (It didn’t.)
Rubio said the job now was to “document what happened.”
“Because one thing is to say it in a broadcast like this, another thing is to actually put it on paper,” he said.
This week, Rogers, Beattie’s replacement, finally had something to share.
According to a series of posts on X, some since deleted, Rogers messaged Jennica Pounds, a self-described analyst who goes by the moniker Data Republican, known for creating massive, if amateur, data troves used to allege government waste, fraud and abuse, which made her a favorite of Musk’s.
Pounds said she thought Rogers was handing documents about Cuba, but got “shoved a bunch of hard copy documents to leak” about the GEC.
“I wanted to give you the option of ‘breaking’ the story as sort of a gift,” Rogers told her, according to a direct message that Pounds posted.
Then things got weird. Pounds has been a reliable vector for the Trump administration to push its narrative that a so-called deep state, or shadow government, was operating in secret and against the best interests of its citizens. But when she received the State Department’s “gift,” Pounds determined that it was a plot by Rogers to entrap her into committing a crime, asserting that releasing or reporting on the documents would be illegal.
Rogers responded “lol” and released the documents herself in a series of 35 posts that borrowed the breathless cadence of the Twitter Files, drawing ominous connections between GEC emails, international projects to combat foreign disinformation, and nongovernmental coalitions. It all implied the existence of a censorship-industrial-complex operation — without proving it. Rogers’ document dump got little attention from right-wing media.
More articles
Team Trump turns on contractor after it failed to bolster election conspiracy theory
Resigning labor secretary falsely claims there was a ‘deep state’ conspiracy against her
“There were State Department employees sharing news articles. Diplomats had communicated with foreign governments. And somewhere in the rubble was a project examining ‘gendered disinformation’ that had been — wait for it — announced at the Summit for Democracy and published on the State Department website,” former senior foreign service officer Orna Blum wrote sarcastically on Substack.
Pounds seemed to agree with the former State Department official.
“The actual documents were nothingburgers,” she posted.
Neither the State Department nor Pounds responded to requests for comment.
The debacle may show that the half-decade of unproven censorship claims has exhausted their audience.
“The under secretary is yet again twisting decontextualized snippets of emails and long-public documents to try to propagate a conspiracy theory,” said Renée DiResta, an associate research professor at Georgetown University. As the former research manager for the Stanford Internet Observatory, DiResta has long been a boogeyman of the censorship-industrial complex theory.
“The mass censorship claims were a hoax,” DiResta said.
Over the weekend, some of the State officials pushed out in last year’s purge lit up Signal chats, commenting on Rogers’ rollout of the long-promised proof of the conspiracy that had cost them their jobs and hollowed out the agency where they had spent their careers. One former senior official, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told MS NOW: “In the end, it’s not the greatest consolation on earth to find out that the people who wrecked 10 years of your work and your career are a bunch of galaxy-level dipshits.”
The release did reveal something, however: an unintentional revelation about an undisclosed relationship between a federal agency and Pounds, a professed independent researcher who has often criticized others, without evidence, of being “a fed.”
In her posts, Pounds alleged that Rogers was trying to threaten her employment, revealing along the way that since July she had been a special government employee of the Department of Defense. Before that, Pounds had been provided credentials as a member of the Pentagon’s hollowed-out press corps.
A Defense Department official confirmed her employment but declined to give further details.
Brandy Zadrozny is a senior enterprise reporter for MS NOW.
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cornholed by jo 3 26
953,672 views Mar 8, 2026 #lastweektonight
John Oliver discusses the United States Agency for International Development, why the Trump Administration has gutted it, who is being impacted, and how the Cha Cha Slide can help us get to the bottom of this.
...0:21
the United States Agency for International Development or USAD. It was once described as the world's single
0:26
largest humanitarian donor, providing aid in the form of disaster relief, global health, food assistance, climate
0:31
resilience, education, and much more. And when Trump returned to the White House last year, he made it clear that
0:38
the agency was in his sights. USID run by radical lunatics.
0:44
It sounds so nice. US aid. Isn't that beautiful? But it's a whole big scam.
0:50
When you look at USA ID, that's a uh that's a fraud. The whole thing is a
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fraud. Very little uh very little being put to good use. Okay, so set aside the irony of Donald
1:03
Trump of Trump University accusing anything of being a fraud. You can't
1:08
just call something a scam because you don't like it. I want to call low-rise jeans a scam. I feel like Peppa Pigs a
1:16
fraud. I believe radical lunatics run Jamba Juice. liquid fruit isn't a treat. It's cough syrup at best. But even I,
1:22
agonize, my feelings don't make any of those thoughts true. But Trump was fixated on USA ID and its spending,
1:29
which is a little surprising given it amounted to less than 1% of the federal budget. Yet Trump and Elon Musk quickly
1:36
dismantled the agency with Elon at one point proudly tweeting he'd spent the weekend feeding USA ID into the wood
1:43
chipper. And a lot of MAGA Republicans were ecstatic about that. Right-wing influencer Benny Johnson even made a
1:49
trip to DC to celebrate. I just got into Washington DC. I had to see it for myself to believe it. USID
2:01
is no more. Check it out. There we go. Got the duct
2:06
tape. Got the doors all closed off.
2:13
Got the Got everything all blacked out up there.
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had to see it to believe it. The uh the consequences of Doge....num 1 selfie spot
...
:47
have issues. And even then, half of that was reclaimed. But even without knowing that, it's tough to take waste
9:53
allegations from Elon seriously, given his Doge team seem to have no idea what the programs they were cutting even did.
10:00
ProPublica recently revealed that people at the agency watch as their brand new chief of staff scrolled down a
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spreadsheet of programs, turning rows red, yellow, or green every few seconds, never asking a single question. Then
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realizing that the bread programs were slated to be cut, they frantically started editing descriptions so he'd at
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least know what those programs did. And while the administration at one point insisted the programs would be spared if
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they were considered lifesaving, just listen to this former USAD employee tell a Senate roundt how those decisions got
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made. When we kept flagged a long list of awards that were needed for life- saving activities, we were told that the
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problem was the names of those awards didn't make clear that they were life-saving. Um, it didn't have the word
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life-saving in the name. And therefore, it was very hard for the secretary's team to to understand which awards
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should or should not be terminated. And so, the implication was that if we had been more clear in the names that these
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were life-saving awards, maybe then they would have been saved. Now, obviously that is stupid for a thousand reasons. first because
11:03
everybody knows that names aren't usually literal descriptions of what you are getting. It's the reason that
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ketchup isn't called salty tomato inspired glo. Conjunctivitis isn't called on your finger then touched
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your eye disease. And this show isn't called facts you read in a New Yorker 18 months ago with what seems to be a
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middle-aged man. It's called poetic license. And it is notable that for all
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the talk of fraud, even Jeremy Leuen, a Doge guy who eventually served as deputy administrator and COO of the agency and
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who often personally decided which program should be axed, later admitted
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his team didn't find much. You know, we talk about people talk
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about fraud, right? Doge didn't find that much fraud at USAD. It's sort of a definitional question. What is fraud? In...
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seemed like a whole lot of words for racist. And I don't think that's a definitional issue. Now, before Leuen
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got that job at USAD, his position was held by a different member of the Trump administration called Pete Morocco. He
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actually worked there during Trump's first term, too, and attempted to delay or halt dozens of programs, but
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ultimately wasn't successful. Which is why when he came back last year, one former official said, "What we're seeing
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right now is Pete's Revenge Tour." And for the record, Pete's Revenge Tour sounds like a band composed entirely of
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former middle school football coaches who got fired because kids kept getting heat stroke and all of whom were at the
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capital on January 6th. And I only say that because Morocco did apparently storm the capital on January 6th with
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with his wife, by the way. Couple goals. But the thing is, as eager as this
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administration has been to eradicate any funding it claimed was going to woke causes and singling out small individual
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expenditures for ridicule, it still doesn't explain wholly dismantling this
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agency. Because traditionally, administrations have been free to make sure foreign aid reflects their values,
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whatever those values are. Just listen to the man who ran USD under George W.
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Bush explain that to Congress. When the Democrats took over, they moved the
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agency to the left. I moved it to the right. The Obama people actually said I was very right-wing. I was the most
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right-wing administrator in the history of the agency. And yet, the career people followed what I wanted to do in
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the agency. We put heavy emphasis on economic growth. I believe in economic growth. I believe in the private sector.
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I believe in free markets. That's what aid does. The notion that aid is some kind of a Marxist
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institution is absolutely ridiculous. Okay. Exactly. Think of USID like the
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chaa slide. You can slide it to the left. You can slide it to the right and
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the next administration can then take it back. Now y
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even during Trump's first term, he didn't take USAID apart. He just shifted
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its focus by deprioritizing areas like maternal health and family planning. while increasing funding for emergency
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responses and digital infrastructure. All of which raises the question, what changed this time to make them want to
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put the agency through a wood chipper? Well, I'm afraid the answer to that is incredibly dumb. Because many observers
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think it has something to do with this guy, Mike Benz, a far-right conservative activist. Elon's fixation on USA ID
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appears to date to late 2024 when Benz appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast and all over the agency. Elon then
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retweeted, replied to, or mentioned Benz over 160 times in the next year, sharing
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things like, "USID was a viper nest of radical left Marxists who hate America and USAD is a criminal organization."
15:57
Even that wood chipper tweet was in reply to Mike Benz. And and it's worth
16:02
taking a minute to explain who Mike Benz is. He worked a few jobs during Trump's
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first term, including a brief stint at the State Department. and he is, to put it mildly, a chronically online lunatic.
16:14
Among the things he's posted are this portrait of Trump made out of shakuterie
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and this AI slot video where he farts in former FBI director Chris Ray's mouth.
16:24
He also once posted about the jeans he got for his birthday. And you're thinking, well, hold on, that doesn't seem so bad to me. I'll point out these
16:31
were the jeans. That's right. He got 911 jeans for his birthday. You can
16:38
apparently buy those jeans online for $180. And the reason I know that is, oh,
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you. How little do you think of me, but it gets worse because Ben apparently
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used to be a content creator who went by frame game and pushed a variety of far-right narratives, including the
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great replacement theory, and made montages urging white viewers to unite under the banner of race. and he is
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fixated on the notion that USID is basically a front. Here is how he put it
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to Rogan in that interview that got Elon's attention. There's no aid in in US A by the way. That's your brain is
17:15
being tricked when you see the phrase US A. It's not an aid organization. The aid in US A stands for agent US agency for
17:22
international development. Yeah, it's an acronym, Mike.
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It's it's an acronym. We all know how those work. You haven't exactly blown
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Roswell open there. But that's just the beginning. Ben has also said when it's too dirty for the CIA, you give it to
17:41
USAD, which for the record is obviously not the case. We all know when a job is too dirty for the CIA, you arm Afghan
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mojaheden and train them in cell warfare with a stated goal of beating back Soviet influence in the region. And then coincidentally, they team up with Osama
17:53
bin Laden, who will later carry out the very attack Mike Ben is so obsessed with, he got birthday denim merch. And
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look, that is not to say there aren't small grains of truth underneath all of Benz's Look, USAD was not
18:07
perfect. As one of its former heads of global health wrote, it sometimes fostered dependency. It could be
18:12
inefficient. Too much of its funding went to international institutions rather than local ones. And yes, its history does include episodes in which
18:18
aid was bent to American military and political aims, including an incident in 2010 when it created a social networking
18:24
service in Cuba designed to kindle opposition to the government. And I do not like the fact that the agency did
18:30
that. In general, I like my regime changes the way I like my produce locally sourced. But let's not pretend
18:38
instances like that were anything other than a tiny portion of what USID did. Also, as the people of Venezuela and
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Iran can attest, when the US wants regime change nowadays, it tends to do so pretty directly. So, it's not
18:52
like any of those criticisms justify getting rid of the agency entirely. But
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to hear Benz tell it, USAD is basically the root of all this world's problems.
19:02
USAD is one of the most disturbing organizations in the entire federal government. It it may rank number one.
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In fact, many people think they live in the world they think they live in, but in some respects, it's a carefully
constructed Truman show made up of movie characters around them produced by US A.
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And what I mean by that is US A has infected the institutional architecture of every aspect of American society and
19:30
and world society. Wow. The whole world has been Truman showed
19:35
by USA ID is not something you expect to hear someone say on TV. At best, it's
19:41
something you expect to hear them muttering on a city bus. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They've infected the institutional architecture. You know
19:46
what? I think I'm going to get off here. I I know we're halfway across a bridge, but I'm pretty sure that this is my stop. It's frankly no wonder Ben took a
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victory lap when USAD was gutted, posting this image of himself celebrating at its grave. And at this
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point, you should probably see some of the damage that's been done because it is vast. As one expert put it, I think
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the best evidence that USAiD works is how quickly people started dying when it went away. Now, it is hard to get exact
20:15
counts on deaths, partly because these cuts have, among other things, halted data monitoring. But researchers have
20:21
estimated over 262,000 adults and over half a million children
20:27
died last year as a result of these cuts. Though, I do have to tell you, Marco Rubio strongly denies claims like
20:34
those. Anybody who tells you that somehow it's the United States. If we cut a dollar, somehow we're responsible
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for some horrific thing that's going on in the world is is just not true. Are you standing by your contention that
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no one no one has died because the United States has cut aid? No. Okay. So, is he
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telling the truth there? Well, I would argue that the answer to that is the same as the answer to the question, are Marco Rubio's ears proportional to the
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size of his head? Which is to say, absolutely, demonstrabably not. And
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maybe the best way to rebut that is to show you some of the specific places and programs that have been impacted by
21:09
these cuts. And let's start with food and nutrition assistance which have been devastated. For instance, in Nigeria,
21:14
clinics which provided malnutrition treatment for more than 300,000 children below the age of two were shut down at
21:20
the end of July. And in Afghanistan, NGO warehouses were bare despite 900,000 children being in desperate need of
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treatment for severe acute malnutrition. And it is not just cuts to the food itself. The administration also
21:32
disrupted the global supply chain that moves food for desperate people all over the world. And that means even when the
21:39
food's actually there, the ability to get it to people who need it can be gone. For instance, last summer,
21:45
disruptions led to some food spoiling in a warehouse. The Trump administration is planning to
21:52
destroy a massive amount of emergency food. Some 500 metric tons or just over
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a million pounds of high energy biscuits meant to feed hungry kids in Afghanistan
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and Pakistan will now be incinerated. That first reported by the Atlantic.
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We have a kind of a standard procedure that if food uh is expired, we it will
22:14
be destroyed. Federal workers had requested approval from USID leadership
22:20
to move the emergency food before it spoiled, but their memos went unanswered. That is just maddening,
NEWSMAX! TAMMY BRUCE SPOX VS
22:28
especially not even answering the memos. Leaving someone on red is always unforgivable, but especially when the
22:35
text is, "Hey shorty, 1 million pounds of high energy biscuits about to expire you up." And scenes like that are
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playing out all over the world. At one refugee camp in Kenya that had relied on USA ID funding, reporters found mothers
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who'd had to choose which of their kids to feed and pregnant women who were so desperate for calories that they ate
22:54
mud. But it's not just food assistance that's been cut. It's estimated more than 2,000 health clinics have closed in
23:00
crisis zones around the world. Here is what happened at just one. Before the NGO Action Against Hunger ran this
23:07
center here, providing life-saving medical assistance, but it closed down in February along with seven others in
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the area when USAD stopped funding the organization. Within just over a month, 29 children in
23:20
the district died of malnutrition and illness. We've never had such a high death rate.
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It was catastrophic. These are deaths that we could have avoided if funding had been maintained and we continued our
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activities. Yeah, it's appalling. And it makes it even worse when you remember House
23:38
Republicans literally celebrated these cuts with this
23:47
Yeah, it's true. You are killing a lot of people in Africa. You jibjabbed The point is these cuts have cost..
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activities. Yeah, it's appalling. And it makes it even worse when you remember House
23:38
Republicans literally celebrated these cuts with this
23:47
Yeah, it's true. You are killing a lot of people in Africa. You jibjabbed The point is these cuts have cost
23:55
lives. And perhaps one of the clearest examples of this concerns PEPAR or the
24:00
president's emergency plan for AIDS relief. It was created during the George W. Bush administration and is often described as one of the most successful
24:07
global health programs in history. It's credited with saving 26 million lives
24:12
and enabling 7.8 million babies to be born without HIV since it was created. It is as close to a miracle as this
24:20
government has ever accomplished. If I had to say one nice thing about George W. Bush, this program would be it. And
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if I had to say two, I would go quiet. And while the administration will stress
24:32
that PEPAR still exists, its crucial aid delivery mechanism has been severely disrupted. As soon as the cut started
24:39
last January, critics were clinics were forced to shut their doors, essential frontline health workers were furoughed,
24:45
and community programs reaching the most vulnerable people stopped. And while PEPFAR was granted a limited waiver to
24:51
implement urgent life-saving HIV treatment services, a lot got left out
24:57
of that waiver because well, for instance, it it allowed uh the prevention medication prep for pregnant
25:02
and breastfeeding women, it didn't include it for anyone else, including those who were already on it. It also
25:08
left out funding for HIV prevention more generally and most programming for orphans and vulnerable children. And a
25:14
major casualty of cuts to PEPFAR were locally rooted programs tailored to the needs of specific groups of people like
25:21
specialized clinics for sex workers, men who have sex with men, and people who inject drugs. And infuriatingly to some
25:27
Republicans, that seemed to be sort of the point. This stuff about PEP 4, oh my
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god, you're going to destroy the world. Now, there's a part of PEP for that deals with money for life-saving care,
25:41
isn't it? Absolutely. And there's a part of PEP 4 that won't you look at it and you you
25:47
want to say pass me the sick bucket, isn't there? Yes, sir. And you're pass you're getting rid of
25:53
the sick bucket stuff. Yes, sir. You you're getting rid of $5.5 million
25:59
to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and interex advocacy in Uganda.
26:07
Aren't you? Yes, sir. I can't believe we're arguing about this.
26:12
I can't believe we're arguing about this. Wow, that is some pretty homophobic stuff coming from a man wearing the
26:19
single cuntiest pair of glasses I think I've ever seen. Also, for what it's
26:24
worth, if anything is going to make me say pass the sick bucket, it isn't the critical work of PEP 4. It is the memory
26:31
rattling eternally around my head of Senator John Kennedy saying this.
26:37
I can't wait to have your in my mouth. Well, that certainly makes one of us.
26:45
But despite what Kennedy said there, cuts to PEPFAR are absolutely affecting
26:51
life-saving care. And for a huge amount of people, and not just those whose lives seem to make him want to reach for
26:57
the sick bucket. Even short disruptions to HIV care can be deadly and have
27:02
already resulted in stories like this. The cut off of the medication of the HIV
27:08
ARVs has really, you know, affected us so much.
27:14
The eight HIV positive orphans he cared for used to get their medicine from the
27:19
local hospital for free. After the cuts, he was told he'd have to pay. And because he couldn't afford to do so, the
27:26
orphanage ran out. Without this medication, 14-year-old
...
2
the Trump administration has announced a new approach called the America First Global Health Strategy. It's supposed to
30:58
restart some forms of health rellated foreign aid, though no other kinds and only in some countries. with the central
31:04
idea being that they want local governments to take more agency over foreign aid. And honestly, I genuinely
31:10
hope it works. But we have very little in the way of specifics and it's going to be difficult to implement given this
---
GGL 7 26
Allum Bokhari and Mike Benz are conservative researchers and tech commentators associated with the Foundation for Freedom Online who have highlighted internal USAID documents to argue that the agency acted as a financial channel for online censorship initiatives. Their findings align with Republican and Trump administration efforts to slash foreign aid and dismantle USAID. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
Key Details and Findings
- The Disinformation Primer: Bokhari and Benz analyzed a 97-page internal USAID document from its Center on Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance. They contend the document outlines strategies for shaping narratives, working with advertisers, and promoting third-party fact-checkers. [1, 2]
- The GOP and Trump Approach: House Republicans and the Trump administration used these types of reports to target foreign aid. They frame USAID programs and NGO funding as wasteful or politically biased, supporting deep cuts and freezes to the agency's operations. [1, 2]
- The Critics' View: Media analysts and defenders of foreign aid argue that right-wing researchers misrepresent humanitarian and democratic development programs, warning that defunding the agency causes severe global harm. [1, 2, 3]
GGL 7 26
Mike Benz leads the Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO), a non-profit watchdog organization dedicated to protecting digital liberties, promoting free speech, and countering online censorship. Benz serves as the executive director and is a former U.S. State Department official. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Organization Focus
- Free Speech Advocacy: Restoring a free and open internet as a fundamental human right.
- Censorship Tracking: Monitoring government and institutional overreach regarding online speech control on social media.
- Policy Research: Analyzing the intersection of national security, foreign policy, and digital governance. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
6 sites
- In the Supreme Court of the United States
- Sep 20, 2023 — Mr. Benz, through his journalism, policy analyses, research, and other activities with the FFO, as well as his experience in gover...
- Supreme Court of the United States (.gov)
- 132 Mike Benz - Inside the Censorship Industrial Complex
- Mike Benz is the founder of the Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO). The FFO is an organization that promotes free speech and digi...
- Apple Podcasts
Web results
Mike Benz
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Mike_Benz
Benz became the executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO), which describes itself as a watchdog organization combatting internet censorship
7 26 NO REAL TALK
Mike Benz is an American political commentator, who worked as a speechwriter for Ben Carson and Stephen Miller.[1] He is perhaps best known for his work at the United States Agency for International Development, where he led efforts to dismantle the agency during the second presidency of Donald Trump.[2]
Career
Benz began his career as a corporate lawyer in New York City.[3] In 2018, he was employed at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and he also worked for two months at the State Department.[1] He later joined Stephen Miller's speechwriting team and was involved in efforts to deny the results of the 2020 presidential election.[1]
Benz alleged that USAID acted as a front for US military and intelligence operations around the world,[2] and he has been credited with Elon Musk's critical focus on the agency.[4][5][6][7] Benz later accepted a position at USAID as a special government employee in order to scrutinize the agency's records.[2]
Media[8][9][10] and scholars attributed the decline and demise of USAID to Musk's engagement with claims like Benz's.[7] Other scholars estimated that the agency's closure could lead to more than fourteen million preventable deaths by 2030, more than four million of them among children under five years old.[11]
Foundation for Freedom Online
In 2022, Benz became the executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO), which describes itself as a watchdog organization combatting internet censorship in the United States.[12] According to an early version of FFO's website, it was a project of Empower Oversight, a Republican-linked whistleblower advocacy organization.[13]
Benz released a report on August 27, 2022 alleging that the Department of Homeland Security colluded with technology companies to censor American users.[14] The report was covered by Just the News editor-in-chief John Solomon, who shared the story with Charlie Kirk,[15][16] and cited by Twitter Files writer Michael Shellenberger.[17]
Benz filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case Murthy v. Missouri, repeating allegations that the government created a "complex online censorship regime" to police the speech of American citizens.[18] An initial injunction in that case repeated Benz's allegation that the Election Integrity Partnership flagged 22 million messages to Twitter for removal, although the actual number of messages was less than 3,000.[19][1] The Supreme Court ultimately ruled 6-3 that the states lacked standing to sue,[20] overturning lower court rulings which Justice Amy Coney Barrett said relied on a "clearly erroneous" reading of the evidentiary record.[21]
Controversy
In 2023, The New York Times and NBC News reported that Benz had published racist content online, under the pseudonym Frame Game. A frequent guest on far-right podcasts, he has described himself as a former member of the Proud Boys and espoused support for the Great Replacement conspiracy theory.[3] Benz has also been accused of antisemitism, stating that he believed "Hitler actually had some decent points" in Mein Kampf and that Jews are responsible for global white genocide.[1][3][22]
References...
GROK 7 26
Mike Benz
Mike Benz is an American policy analyst and the executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing free speech and digital liberties online. Benz has publicly identified as a "proud Jew," a descendant of Holocaust survivors from Poland, and noted that he was Bar Mitzvahed.[1]
Previously, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Communications and Information Policy in the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, where he contributed to cyber policy formulation and international negotiations.[2][3] Benz has drawn public attention for his critiques of government-involved censorship mechanisms, notably through a 2024 presentation at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, DC, where he analyzed the "whole-of-society" censorship framework used against perceived misinformation.[4]
His work emphasizes the interplay between state actors, NGOs, and technology platforms in shaping online discourse.[5] Benz maintains an active presence on X (formerly Twitter) under the handle @MikeBenzCyber, where he frequently posts commentary, conducts livestreams, and shares videos of his own piano playing.[6][7][8]
Government Service
Prior to his State Department role, Benz served as a speechwriter in the White House for President Trump and advised on technology policy.[9][3]
State Department Tenure
Mike Benz served in the U.S. State Department during the Trump administration, entering government service in a role focused on international technology policy.[2][10]He held the position of Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Communications and Information Policy within the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, appointed on November 24, 2020, and serving until approximately January 2021 at the end of the Trump administration.[2]In this capacity, Benz's broad responsibilities encompassed advancing U.S. interests in global communications frameworks and information policy through diplomatic engagements.[2][11]Following his government service, Benz transitioned to leading nonprofit efforts on digital freedoms.[10]
Cyber Policy Responsibilities
As Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Communications and Information Policy at the U.S. State Department, Mike Benz managed the cyber portfolio, focusing on the formulation of U.S. foreign policy related to international communications and information technology.[2][9][4] His responsibilities included developing strategies to advance U.S. interests in cyberspace, emphasizing secure and open digital infrastructure amid global technological competition.[12]Benz was involved in negotiating aspects of international cyber policy, contributing to diplomatic efforts that shaped U.S. positions on cross-border data flows, cybersecurity norms, and technology governance.[4][12] This work addressed challenges such as countering adversarial cyber threats and promoting international agreements that aligned with U.S. priorities for a free and secure internet.[13]
Nonprofit Leadership
Foundation for Freedom Online Role
Mike Benz serves as the founder and Executive Director of the Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO), a nonprofit watchdog organization focused on combating online censorship and promoting free speech and digital liberties.[5][11] His background as a former U.S. State Department official who worked on international communications and information technology policy positioned him to lead the organization.[11]In this role, Benz directs FFO's operations, overseeing efforts to safeguard online expression.[11]FFO's stated goals center on functioning as a free speech watchdog to restore the promise of a free and open Internet, including combating censorship threats in digital spaces. The organization's mission is nonpartisan and centered on internet freedom, with no specific Jewish affiliation or focus.[11]
Advocacy Initiatives
The Foundation for Freedom Online has published investigative reports highlighting perceived government overreach in online content moderation, including the August 2022 report titled "Department of Homeland Censorship," which scrutinizes the Department of Homeland Security's involvement in flagging and suppressing certain narratives on social media platforms.[14] Another key report under its auspices examines the initial missions of DHS censorship entities, focusing on efforts to curb speech questioning official narratives, such as those related to election integrity.[15]
FFO's campaigns emphasize monitoring and critiquing non-governmental organizations and public-private partnerships that advocate for expanded content restrictions under the guise of combating disinformation and promoting media literacy, positioning these as threats to open internet access.[16] These efforts include analyses of digital literacy programs in educational settings that allegedly embed ideological biases, aiming to advocate for policies preserving unrestricted online discourse.[**16]In collaborative advocacy, FFO has contributed to legal challenges against censorship mechanisms, such as authoring or supporting amicus briefs in U.S. Supreme Court cases addressing government coordination with tech companies on content suppression.[15] The organization aligns with broader coalitions pushing for legislative reforms to dismantle what it describes as a censorship industrial complex involving federal agencies and NGOs.[14]
Public Commentary
NatCon 4 Address
Mike Benz delivered his address titled "The Whole-of-Society Censorship Framework" at the National Conservatism Conference (NatCon 4), held from July 8 to 10, 2024, in Washington, DC, with the presentation occurring on July 9.[17][18]The conference featured Benz as a confirmed speaker, highlighting his expertise in online freedoms and censorship dynamics.[19]As listed on the event's official presenter page, Benz was introduced as the Executive Director of the Foundation for Freedom Online and a former U.S. State Department official responsible for formulating and negotiating cyber policy.[4]
CPAC 2026 Panel
Mike Benz participated as a speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC USA 2026), held March 25–28, 2026, at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, Texas. He appeared on a panel discussion titled "The Censorship Industrial Complex" alongside Amber Duke, Senior Editor at the Daily Caller. The session took place from 3:25–3:45 PM CT on Friday of the conference.[20][21]Video coverage of the panel is available through Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN) on YouTube and C-SPAN archives.
Censorship Framework Analysis
Benz describes the "whole-of-society" censorship framework as a comprehensive approach where government entities orchestrate efforts to combat perceived misinformation by integrating public, private, and nonprofit sectors into a unified mechanism for content moderation and narrative control.[22] This model, he argues, evolved from foreign policy tools repurposed domestically, emphasizing collaborative suppression over unilateral action to maintain plausible deniability.[23]
Central to Benz's analysis is the coordination between government agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and technology platforms, where officials provide directives on flagged content, NGOs generate research and advocacy to justify interventions, and tech firms implement algorithmic and human moderation accordingly.[22] He contends this triad enables scalable censorship by leveraging NGOs as intermediaries to launder government priorities into private sector policies, such as demonetization, deboosting, and account suspensions, often targeting election-related discourse or public health narratives.[23]
The implications Benz outlines include an erosion of open discourse and policy pluralism, as this framework prioritizes consensus-building around official viewpoints, potentially stifling dissent and innovation in democratic processes.[22] He warns that such coordination risks entrenching a managerial state apparatus, where freedoms of expression and association are subordinated to security rationales, ultimately reshaping public policy toward preemptive narrative alignment rather than evidence-based debate.[23]
References
- Ex-Trump Official Accused of Spreading Racist Theories Under a Pseudonym
- Michael A. Benz - United States Department of State
- Socratic Stage: The Government's Role in the Censorship Industry
- Mike Benz - National Conservatism Conference, Washington 2024
- Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO) - InfluenceWatch
- X
- @MikeBenzCyber
- https://x.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/1972812832182882420
- https://x.com/MikeBenzCyber/status/2027441567804625200
- Mike Benz Profile
- Michael Benz, a conservative crusader against online censorship ...
- About - Foundation for Freedom Online
- Mike Benz to Join CPAC Circle Retreat and Gala at Mar-a-Lago
- Who is Mike Benz? The man fueling Musk's war on USAID
- How Trump's Allies Are Winning the War Over Disinformation
- [PDF] In the Supreme Court of the United States
- Reports Archives - Foundation for Freedom Online
- Mike Benz | The Whole-of-Society Censorship Framework | NatCon 4
- National Conservatism Conference, Washington 2024
- Confirmed Speakers - National Conservatism Conference ...
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brHnsAUQfWo
- https://www.cpac.org/post/friday-main-stage-at-cpac-usa-2026
- Mike Benz: Internet Censorship, U.S. Foreign Policy, Elon Musk's X ...
- Transcript of #132 Mike Benz - Inside the Censorship Industrial ...
About
https://foundationforfreedomonline.com › about
Mike Benz. Executive Director. Our Executive Director, Mike Benz, is a former State Department official with responsibilities in formulating and negotiating ...Read more
SCOTUS AMICUS
VIVEK H. MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL, ET AL., Applicants, v. MISSOURI, ET AL., Respondent
O THE HONORABLE SAMUEL ALITO, ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT AND CIRCUIT JUSTICE FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT Opposing Application for a Stay of the Injunction Issued by the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE MICHAEL BENZ, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FOUNDATION FOR FREEDOM ONLINE, IN SUPPORT OF RESPONDENTS AND IN OPPOSITION TO STAY APPLICATION
D. Adam Candeub Counsel of Record Michigan State University 648 N. Shaw Road East Lansing, MI 48864 Tel: (517) 918-7147 candeub@msu.edu
...
INTERESTS OF AMICUS AND RULE 37.6 DISCLOSURE Amicus curiae Michael Benz is the Executive Director of Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO), a non-profit watchdog dedicated to protecting digital liberties and restoring the free and open Internet.1
Previously, Mr. Benz served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Communications and Information Technology in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs for the U.S. Department of State. That role included formulating and negotiating U.S. policy on cyber issues and interfacing with private industry and civil society institutions in the technology space.
Mr. Benz, through his journalism, policy analyses, research, and other activities with the FFO, as well as his experience in government, is a national expert on how the government, agencies, non-profits, and large internet platforms work together to censor the speech of Americans. He has an interest in ensuring Americans are free to speak without the government working with the private sector to silence them.
....
The injunction eliminates the power of a censorship structure that has grown among the platforms, government agencies, and private and education organizations. It is that nexus that threatens First Amendment rights and democratic self-governance—and which the Fifth Circuit’s injunction appropriately remedies. Indeed, as the extent of this government censorship continues to be revealed, as with so-called Facebook files Congress released just last summer, Philip Hamburger & Jenin Younes, The Biden Administration’s Assault on Free Speech: Emails paint a picture of a White House running 20 roughshod over First Amendment protections, Wall Street Journal (July 28, 2023), https://tinyurl.com/5n87p2m2, the injunction is essential.
....
EVIL BUT
Critics of Benz and FFO claim he previously was an “alt-right content creator.” ^3 Benz has claimed that his previous involvement in controversial forums was part of “a project by Jews to get people who hated Jews to stop hating Jews” that “made contact with groups in the early primordial soup of the MAGA movement in 2016 and sought to move people from a place of hate and division closer to a place of love and unity” and “was successful.” ^4
Background
The Foundation for Freedom Online is a right-of-center online watchdog group that claims to promote “an open Internet.” ^1 The group further claims it advocates in favor of freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and the free exchange of ideas online. ^2
The organization writes and publishes reports, provides legal assistance, and analyzes public policy concerning what it claims are threats to digital safety and online rights. ^2
The group reporting also focuses on the impact of politics on freedom of speech speech on social media. The group further claims it advocates for holding public officials accountable to ensure they protect Americans’ First Amendment rights online. ^1
Founder
Mike Benz is the founder and executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO). ^2 Benz previously served as a deputy assistant to the U.S. secretary of state during the Trump administration ^5 where focused on negotiating U.S. foreign policy on international communications and information technology matters. ^2 Benz has previously claimed that the “two most censored events in human history” were the 2020 election and the COVID-19 pandemic. ^6
During an interview with Federal Newswire in 2023, Benz claimed that the FFO’s goal is to, “to restore the golden age of the internet. The free and open internet that existed from the time it was privatized in 1991, up until the geopolitical earthquakes of 2016.” He further claimed that after 2016 there was, “a sort of whole-society effort to implement domestic censorship.” ^7
NBC News reported in October 2023 that Benz “appears to have been a pseudonymous alt-right content creator” under the name “Frame Game,” who warned about a “white genocide” before he worked in government. Though professing to be Jewish, “Frame Game” also denounced “Jewish influence” in society and the media. “Frame Game” also allegedly posted about “Great Replacement Theory,” a conspiracy theory of systematically replacing white Americans with non-white immigrants. NBC News cited an anonymous “acquaintance of Benz” as its source on the story. ^3
Benz has claimed that his previous involvement in controversial forums was part of “a project by Jews to get people who hated Jews to stop hating Jews” that “made contact with groups in the early primordial soup of the MAGA movement in 2016 and sought to move people from a place of hate and division closer to a place of love and unity” and “was successful.” He further argued that he was “extremely proud of this [project].”
He also wrote, “I would not participate today and do not endorse participating in something like this in a general sense. It was a creature of a very bizarre and volatile time in early 2016 in which fellow conservative Jews were facing rising sentiments of anti-Semitism on our right – from people voting the same way for President – and political persecution and censorship from the ADL on our left. Having to move extreme elements from a fixation on identity to a focus on reforming institutions was a Bizarro World situation that called for a kind of Bizarro World logic of which I am proud, but would not repeat today.”4
The New York Times reported that Benz responded to the allegations by claiming his involvement in such controversial forums was part of “‘a deradicalization project’ to which he contributed in a ‘limited manner.’”8
Research and Claims
Reports by the Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO) have previously been cited by the U.S. House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. ^3 ^9
The FFO investigated the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, or GARM, which shut down in 2024 amid congressional and legal scrutiny. The FFO analysis found that four of GARM’s members were among the “big six” global advertising agency holding companies that received billions from federal departments including the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S Department of Health and Human Services. ^10
The organization also alleged that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has censored conservatives while claiming to be engaged in “cybersecurity operations.” He said the agency was “shipping out the dirty work to firms in London,” by working with the Global Engagement Center of the U.S. State Department and sending information to a British psychology lab called the Social Decision-Making Lab at the University of Cambridge. ^11
The FFO has argued that certain nonprofits are part of a larger “censorship industry” that collaborates with government agencies to control and moderate online content, using the excuse of fighting misinformation and disinformation. Benz claims there is a revolving door between government roles in misinformation control and positions at non-profits. He further claimed that an example was with the Atlantic Council, which ran an opinion piece by Carole House, formerly Director for Cybersecurity and Secure Digital Innovation for the White House National Security Council. ^12
FFO executive director Mike Benz accused NewsGuard of creating a blacklist of 650 news sites that it used to pressure advertisers to boycott. He compared this to “Operation Mockingbird,” a CIA operation from the 1950s to the 1970s aimed at influencing media content. ^13
Renee DiResta, a former research director of the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO), criticized the FFO in a New York Times op-ed claiming that an FFO’s report, in which it claimed the SIO’s Election Integrity Partnership (EIP) had pushed social media networks to censor 22 million Twitter posts was false. DiResta’s op-ed further argued that the number FFO came to was a tally of viral election rumors her organization counted and put in a report after the 2020 election was over, and insisted nothing was censored. ^14
Foreign Policy Assertions
Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO) executive director Mike Benz has previously claimed that the biggest driver of Internet censorship the “foreign policy establishment” which he asserts includes, “our State Department, our Pentagon, our intelligence services.” ^15
Benz further alleged that the U.S. government had funded the Brazilian NGOs and Brazilian think tanks that were part of the Brazilian government’s move to ban X (formerly Twitter) in the country. ^16
just the news solomon bs
USAID 'Disinformation Primer' targets gamers, advertisers, memes, 'right not to be disinformed'
...ng further than the Treasury Department's tacit support for debanking alleged "hate groups" after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, a State Department component that "strengthen[s] resilient democratic societies" developed a more sweeping plan for financially choking off disfavored narratives a month later.
The U.S. Agency for International Development wrote a "Disinformation Primer" that appears to have been started in "late 2020," judging by a reference to the most up-to-date "social media initiatives" by Facebook and Twitter "to address disinformation and misinformation."
It was still being written at least 10 days into the Biden administration, referring twice to the Jan. 31, 2021 Myanmar military coup, which the primer says "underlined issues of internet freedom and disinformation."
State turned over the 88-page document, dated February 2021 and marked "internal use only," as part of a 102-page production in response to Freedom of Information Act litigation by America First Legal.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=true&id=1768332436914548973&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fjustthenews.com%2Fgovernment%2Ffederal-agencies%2Fusaid-disinformation-primer-targets-gamers-advertisers-memes-right-not&sessionId=88677cc03e93834b230fc5bd06d03bd6bce23e9c&siteScreenName=justthenews&siteUserId=1216793092134723586&theme=light&widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&width=550px
The primer was "conceived and developed by Joshua Machleder and Shannon Maguire at USAID, together with" the University of Chicago organization formerly known as the National Opinion Research Center, the introduction says.
It thanks dozens of individuals at universities and government institutions including the National Endowment for Democracy and U.S. Institute for Peace "for sharing their time, opinions, and expertise," and current and former USAID staff for "opinions and feedback."
USAID didn't respond to requests for comment on its view of the primer now.
"Just as human rights advocates have argued that internet access is a human right and that there is a fundamental right to access of information, there is also a right not to be disinformed," the primer says in a section laying out 10 steps for USAID and partners to take in "countering and preventing disinformation."
These include partnering with other governments, supporting "media monitoring and fact-checking initiatives," and "form[ing] synergies" with "civil society, media, social media platforms, internet governance forums, and other donors" to prevent disinformation, especially working with "data scientists, social scientists, and journalists."
miller?
AFL gave the FOIA production to the Foundation for Freedom Online, which published an analysis Thursday by executive director and former State communications official Mike Benz, managing director Allum Bokhari and graduate student Oscar Buynevich.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-1&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=true&id=1768330292832415883&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fjustthenews.com%2Fgovernment%2Ffederal-agencies%2Fusaid-disinformation-primer-targets-gamers-advertisers-memes-right-not&sessionId=88677cc03e93834b230fc5bd06d03bd6bce23e9c&siteScreenName=justthenews&siteUserId=1216793092134723586&theme=light&widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&width=550px
The primer mentions "advertising" 19 times and advertisers or advertisements a dozen times, showing USAID support for the "well-established tactic of the censorship industry – financial blacklisting," FFO's analysis says.
While much of the report promotes the more-speech-is-better approach, such as funding local journalism, a section on "supply-side responses" – written in the passive tense – implies both governments and activists should pressure advertisers to flee alleged sources of disinformation.
Most advertisers are "unaware of the disinformation risk of the domains featuring their ads due to the automated process of ad placement," the "Advertiser Outreach" subsection says.
"Thus, cutting this financial support found in the ad-tech space would obstruct disinformation actors from spreading messaging online," it says. "Efforts have been made to inform advertisers of their risks, such as the threat to brand safety by being placed next to objectionable content, through conducting research and assessments of online media content."
While the primer says it provides examples of advertiser outreach in an annex on "emerging solutions," none of the examples explicitly mentions advertising. The annex does include the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's public awareness campaign about pineapple on pizza.
FFO highlighted the primer's support for the supply-side "Redirect Method," piloted by Moonshot and Google's Jigsaw in 2016, "an open-source methodology that uses targeted advertising" on platforms such as Google Adwords "to connect people searching online for harmful content with constructive alternative messages."
It was used to "target individuals susceptible to ISIS radicalization via recruiting measures" and "is being adapted in several countries to combat vaccine hesitancy and hate speech," the primer says.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-2&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=true&id=1768340519715848611&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fjustthenews.com%2Fgovernment%2Ffederal-agencies%2Fusaid-disinformation-primer-targets-gamers-advertisers-memes-right-not&sessionId=88677cc03e93834b230fc5bd06d03bd6bce23e9c&siteScreenName=justthenews&siteUserId=1216793092134723586&theme=light&widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&width=550px
The Redirect Method is a "precursor" to Google's "prebunking" initiative, which the Alphabet-owned company said last year it was expanding into Germany and India, FFO said. Prebunking is based on inoculation theory, which treats disfavored narratives as a virus.
FFO notes the primer touts the work of former Harvard misinformation researcher and Hunter Biden laptop truther Joan Donovan, who advocates prebunking.
Comedian Jon Stewart publicly challenged Donovan's work and former Facebook policy chief Eliot Schrage reportedly did so privately as a Harvard Kennedy School adviser, both questioning who gets to decide what counts as "disinformation."
USAID separately thanked State's Global Engagement Center staff for "their review and feedback."
GEC has funded and promoted internet games that teach children to view populism as disinformation – a form of prebunking – and promote "social justice."
It also funded the Global Disinformation Index, which pressures advertisers to cut off alleged sources of disinformation, predominantly conservative publishers – drawing the ire of congressional Republicans and a lawsuit by two publishers.
The primer calls for targeting "gaming sites," including Amazon-owned Twitch, because "problematic information more regularly originates from networks of alternative sites and anonymous individuals" than from state actors.
USAID put scare quotes around "mainstream" twice to describe sources outside of gaming communities. While these "conspiracy theories may seem farcical or preposterous to an outsider," the primer warns, mainstream sources covering gaming communities "may unknowingly provide wide coverage of misleading information."
The primer also puts scare quotes around "research" to describe gamers taking the initiative to educate themselves, "collectively reviewing and validating each other to create a populist expertise that justifies, shapes and supports their alternative beliefs."
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-4&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=true&id=1768691288549855509&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fjustthenews.com%2Fgovernment%2Ffederal-agencies%2Fusaid-disinformation-primer-targets-gamers-advertisers-memes-right-not&sessionId=88677cc03e93834b230fc5bd06d03bd6bce23e9c&siteScreenName=justthenews&siteUserId=1216793092134723586&theme=light&widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&width=550px
Malinformation, sometimes described as true but inconvenient, also makes an appearance in the primer. It's defined as "deliberate publication of private information for personal or private interest" that is "taken out of context," as well as the "deliberate manipulation of genuine content" and "hate speech."
Memes are "a common means" for malinformation to spread, the primer warns. "[T]he most effective are humorous or critical of society ... but researchers note they also can be dangerous."
The supply-side section acknowledges the "inherent contradiction between the democratic ideal of free speech and the regulation of online content" and warns that democracies that pass anti-disinformation laws can embolden "authoritarians" to do the same.
One way to have their cake and eat it too is for democracies to adopt "co-regulatory models" such as the "industry-led Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) and the government-led Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs)," the primer says.
RWW
12/10/2025
by
- Brianna Sacks @ The Washington Post: Election denier tapped for FEMA leadership role
Gregg Phillips, who claimed that millions of “noncitizens” voted illegally in the 2016 election, will head FEMA’s Office of Response and Recovery.
- Isaac Stanley-Becker @ :{The Atlantic: USAID Hired the Right-Wing Influencer Responsible for Its Decimation}:
Mike Benz was brought aboard to find evidence for his claims that the agency is secretly a spy operation.
- Steve Benen @ The Maddow Blog: Democrats score big wins in Florida and Georgia, as the GOP’s election woes continue
The more Donald Trump and his party pretend they don’t have an electoral problem, the more Republicans lose winnable elections.
- Megan Twohey and Isabella Kwai @ The New York Times: How a Manosphere Star Accused of Rape and Trafficking Was Freed
Barred from leaving Romania, Andrew Tate courted powerful figures on the American right, from Tucker Carlson to Barron Trump. Then an extraordinary order let him go.
- Michael Luciano @ Mediaite: Trump Suggests It’s ‘Treasonous’ To Report He’s in Bad Physical Shape
President Donald Trump slammed The New York Times and unnamed “some others” for reporting unfavorably about the 79-year-old’s health.
- Steven Monacelli @ The Barbed Wire: He’s an Unapologetic Fascist Who ‘Despises’ Democracy. He Still Wants You to Vote for Him.
The court-appointed public defender in North Texas was once leader of the Proud Boys, has posted racist threats online, and sports a white nationalist tattoo. Now he wants to represent you.
---
an 12 9 25
===
REF
MOJO
inside the Hidden Conservative Network Bankrolling an “Ecosystem” of Right-Wing News
John Solomon’s Informing America set out to create an echo chamber to shape public opinion. It’s working.
William Bredderman and Aneela MirchandaniSeptember+October 2025 Issue
Inside the Hidden Conservative Network Bankrolling an “Ecosystem” of Right-Wing News – Mother Jones
GFX
“Now more than ever, the world needs an honest newsroom.” With these words, the little-known Informing America Foundation was awarded the $250,000 Gregor G. Peterson Prize in “venture philanthropy” last December for its “high-quality journalism.”
If few had heard of IAF, hinted the nonprofit’s CEO, Debbie Myers, it was by design. “We stay very much under the radar,” she said, accepting the prize at the 2024 annual summit of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the corporate-funded group that works to advance conservative policies at the state level. IAF’s goal, Myers explained, was to create an “ecosystem” of news. The group boasts of funding a network of thousands of platforms that have quietly shaped public opinion by stoking an array of right-wing conspiracy theories, from the alleged corruption of Joe Biden to the supposedly nefarious mission of the US Agency for International Development, along with more recent attacks on critics of President Donald Trump.
Myers, who once led Gingrich 360, Newt Gingrich’s multimedia production firm, is a longtime TV executive who helped produce shows such as Little People, Big World; Talk Soup; and Punkin Chunkin. Her “partner in crime” in launching IAF in 2021, as she described him as he joined her onstage, is John Solomon, a former investigative reporter for the Associated Press and Washington Post and a DC fixture who has drawn criticism for pushing right-wing stories and smearing Democrats with the kind of allegations that a Post ombudsman once described as “‘gotcha’ without a gotcha.”
In 2019, Solomon was at the forefront of efforts to tie Biden to shady dealings in Ukraine on his son Hunter’s behalf, penning a series of columns for The Hill that reported dubious information from Ukrainian prosecutors with an axe to grind. A 2020 review of his work by the paper called its reliability into question, concluding Solomon had “failed to identify important details about key Ukrainian sources, including the fact that they had been indicted or were under investigation.”
In the wake of the controversy, he set up the independent outlet Just the News and launched a podcast, John Solomon Reports. In an email, Solomon defended his Hill reporting’s accuracy and claimed he has no formal role at IAF, while confirming he provides it an office at the same K Street address as Just the News and another Solomon enterprise, Bentley Media Group. In 2021, Myers and Solomon also formed the Affinity Media Exchange, an advertising business that soon inked a deal with Trump’s Truth Social to be one of the platform’s ad representatives.
IAF’s tax filings, which say its mission is funding “investigative, explanatory, data-driven and multimedia journalism,” show it brought in close to $8 million in contributions during its first year, with the largest nonprofit donation coming from the family foundation of Diana Davis Spencer, whose late father, an investment banker, once chaired the Heritage Foundation. In subsequent years, millions have flowed to IAF through donor-advised charities that do not disclose the source of their initial contributions.
IAF, in turn, has doled out funds to an array of right-leaning outlets, including Just the News and Off the Press, run by Joseph Curl, a veteran of Drudge Report and the Washington Times. ADN América, aimed at Spanish speakers, received more than $1 million from IAF in the site’s first three years of operation. The foundation sent another million-plus to Performance One Media, which owns Real America’s Voice, the right-wing network best known for carrying Steve Bannon’s War Room. Real America’s Voice gave Solomon his own nightly show in 2022, which he has used to promote IAF allies.
IAF has also directed more than $1.7 million to Star News Digital Media, a conglomerate of 12 mostly battleground state sites whose names suggest a local focus but that actually push pro-GOP partisan news. Star News’ Tennessee Star, for instance, featured a section called “KamaLawfare” prior to the 2024 presidential election that highlighted incidents from Kamala Harris’ prosecutorial tenure in California, but seemed to ignore top news events in the state. One day this past June, the homepages of Star News outlets in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, and Virginia looked almost identical, all covering transgender youth health care in California, New York City’s mayoral race, and a Florida sheriff’s threats against anti-Trump protesters.
Media observers have dubbed such agenda-driven news sites “pink slime”—so named for by-products added as filler to ground beef. Pink slime news is a growing phenomenon, according to University of Cincinnati journalism professor Jeffrey Blevins, rising as partisan interests take advantage of the devastated newspaper market. “We saw these news deserts popping up,” he says. “It was very cheap to put in a website and say, ‘Okay, we’re doing local news.’ Local news is always seen as being more credible.” Sites like the Tennessee Star, he explains, use that perception to push “poor-quality” coverage “funded by some outside political interest.”
In 2023, the most recent year tax records are available, filings show IAF’s largest contribution—more than $1 million—went to the Institute for Citizen Focused Service, a secretive nonprofit set up by Interior Department officials from Trump’s first term. In turn, ICFS has funneled money to Pipeline Advisors, which holds a portfolio of local outlets—including the Midland Times, Austin Journal, Federal Newswire, and others—that have also been described as pink slime. All told, IAF says its news “ecosystem” includes “more than 2,000 hyperlocal platforms and 10 national platforms” reaching an audience of more than 50 million people.
One hallmark of IAF-connected organizations is that they often promote the same allegations and storylines. This is no accident: At the award ceremony last December, Myers provided a glimpse into how IAF works, explaining that each morning, the team gathers on a call to choose the stories they believe the mainstream media is ignoring. After hanging up, “we amplify each other,” she said, “and get it to the hands of the American people.”
Star News outlets regularly repackage Just theNews articles. Just the News writes stories based on Off the Press coverage and vice versa. They do not disclose their financial links. For example, Just the News covered the 2021 launch of Off the Press without noting that either organization was funded by IAF.
The network’s thousands of platforms have quietly shaped public opinion by stoking an array of right-wing conspiracy theories.
Solomon’s podcast often features guests from the broader IAF universe, including Mike Benz, a right-wing influencer and former Trump State Department official whose attacks targeting USAID as a “censorship octopus” helped fuel Elon Musk’s crusade to feed the agency to the “wood chipper.” Benz, a onetime alt-right Twitter troll, has appeared on Solomon’s show to rail against social media censorship and US foreign aid. In such appearances, he’s been identified as the executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online—which is not a foundation, but which launched as a project of an organization called Empower Oversight that has also been heavily funded by IAF. An Empower Oversight spokesperson said the group served as FFO’s fiscal sponsor through February 2023. That year, Benz was paid $253,889 by ICFS.
In 2022, Benz began issuing reports from his one-man think tank positing a conspiracy to silence conservatives online. IAF-funded outlets have presented a drumbeat of interviews with him, in which he argued that outfits battling online disinformation—from media watchdogs like NewsGuard to the US military and Big Tech—were actually undertaking a project to suppress conservative voices. The interviews presented Benz as an independent expert—“Mike Benz exposes State Department’s use of USAID as an ‘intelligence cloak,’” said one Just the News headline—without revealing that his think tank was little more than a website whose existence seems to have been made possible by IAF. The interviews got repackaged as news by other outlets in the IAF stable, expanding their reach.
Empower Oversight, the organization that originally backed Benz, was formed in Virginia in 2021, just one day before IAF was registered in Washington, DC. IAF supplied Empower Oversight with the sole grant it received that year, a $400,000 allocation whose purpose, according to tax filings, was to “develop an infrastructure to cultivate, protect and work with whistleblowers.” Since its founding, Empower Oversight has focused heavily on typical MAGA obsessions, including the Russian collusion probe, purported FBI involvement in January 6, and Hunter Biden.
Empower Oversight is headed by Jason Foster—a longtime aide to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley—whom ProPublica exposed in 2018 as an inflammatory blogger who wrote under the handle “Extremist.” According to ProPublica, Foster, a “partisan combatant” known for his “conspiratorial thinking,” was the main force behind the Senate Judiciary Committee’s scrutiny of research firm Fusion GPS and ex–British spy Christopher Steele, author of the 2016 memos alleging collusion between Trump and Russia.
Empower Oversight, which continues to receive most of its funding from IAF, represented Gary Shapley, an IRS criminal investigator who alleged that the Biden administration sandbagged a tax fraud investigation into Hunter Biden. (Earlier this year, Shapley briefly served as Trump’s IRS director.) Shapley’s allegations were heavily promoted by members of the IAF network, including Just the News, the Tennessee Star, and other Star News outlets such as the Pennsylvania Daily Star and the Arizona Sun Times.
During the Biden years, Empower Oversight’s work followed a familiar formula: First, it would file a battery of Freedom of Information Act requests to a federal agency, usually related to some right-wing intrigue or a query Grassley’s Senate office had submitted to that department. Empower Oversight then would frequently follow up with a lawsuit alleging deficiencies in the agency’s response. With the help of Solomon’s Just the News, it turned routine records requests and civil complaints into a PR bonanza, while fueling a narrative that the Biden administration and its supposed deep state allies were suppressing information.
While Benz did not respond to our requests for comment—and hung up when we called—he’s arguably delivered the most impact for IAF’s supporters. In April, the State Department shuttered its Global Engagement Center, which focused on combating foreign disinformation but which Benz had alleged was a government tool of anti-conservative censorship.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio rewarded Benz with an exclusive interview announcing the move. The next day, Just the News announced that the “censorship nerve center” had been shut down, and multiple Star News platforms dutifully signal-boosted the news. All cited Benz as merely a “former State official.”
---
---
Andrew LapinApril 18, 2025
Sign up for Forwarding the News, our essential morning briefing with trusted, nonpartisan news and analysis, curated by Senior Writer Benyamin Cohen.
(JTA) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio promoted an interview this week with a conservative influencer who has praised Hitler online, in the latest example of a Trump official conversing with a white nationalist figure.
Michael Benz, who served in the State Department in Trump’s first term, revealed in 2023 he was the author of “Frame Game,” an alt-right account that has for years posted rants about “the Jewish influence in the West” and promoted the idea that Jews have orchestrated a mass ethnic replacement.
“Let me be clear: I am extremely proud of this,” Benz, who is Jewish, told NBC News after being questioned about the links between himself and the account. He described Frame Game as “a project by Jews to get people who hated Jews to stop hating Jews.”
Speaking to Rubio on Wednesday in a talk released by the State Department, Benz quizzed him on how the department would be changing its approach to free-speech issues under Trump. Benz praised the secretary for what he called “restoring free speech and America’s role as the beacon of free speech,” while Rubio criticized what he described as “disinformation” produced by the news media.
Under Rubio the State Department has engaged in sweeping revocations of international student visas, in an initiative the secretary has described as part of the administration’s fight against antisemitism. He revoked one student’s visa for writing a student newspaper op-ed critical of Israel, and in another case he has argued that “otherwise lawful” speech could still be prosecuted if it enabled antisemitism.
But Benz and Rubio did not discuss Jews or antisemitism in their talk about free-speech issues.
Instead, the two men praised Darren Beattie, a Rubio staffer who, like Benz, was a Jewish first-term Trump official with extremist links. Benz alleged that Beattie, who had been fired from the first Trump administration after the Anti-Defamation League criticized his appearance at a white nationalist-adjacent conference, had been “targeted” by a “network” being “paid through the State Department through grants and contracts.”
Rubio agreed with this assessment, adding that “Darren will be big involved” in future State Department efforts to “document what happened” during the Biden administration.
In August 2017, around the time of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one counter-protester was killed, Benz, as Frame Game, wrote a long blog post in which he promoted Holocaust skepticism and anti-Israel sentiment. He also stated, “If I, a Jew, a member of the Tribe, Hebrew Schooled, can read Mein Kampf & think ‘holy s**t, Hitler actually had some decent points.’ Then NO ONE is safe from hating you once they find out who is behind the White genocide happening all over the world.”
The following year, Benz joined the Trump administration first as a speechwriter for Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson. He moved to the State Department in 2020, and during the Biden administration launched a conservative free-speech organization.
Benz has also held several interviews with avowed white nationalists, and has been promoted by Richard Spencer, while YouTube issued several extremism warnings on his content. He has also garnered the ear of President Donald Trump’s top advisor: Elon Musk has promoted and replied to Benz’s posts on Twitter in the past, on a range of subjects including Ukraine and elections.
---
LI 9 25
Capital Markets Policy @ United States Treasury | ex-Pine River, Goldman Sachs, SLK
U.S. Department of the Treasury
Northwestern University
Washington DC-Baltimore Area Contact info
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:{:{Experience}:
EducationEducation
Northwestern UniversityNorthwestern University BA, Economics & CommunicationsBA, Economics & Communications1994 - 19981994 - 1998
Columbia | SIPAColumbia | SIPA MPA, International Economic PolicyMPA, International Economic Policy2005 - 20072005 - 2007
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Policy Advisor at U.S. Department of the TreasuryPolicy Advisor at U.S. Department of the Treasury](https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-p-a6794a89?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAABLTyW8BvzYe_xaREdMZt3v77vYDkTiWEZU)
[Troy CauseyTroy Causey · 3rdThird degree connection
Senior Policy Advisor at U.S. TreasurySenior Policy Advisor at U.S. Treasury](https://www.linkedin.com/in/troy-causey-169338a6?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAABZ5beEB42qyapIx0BQ4Uuxxurr4ipBCeTU)
- Message
[Marian WeberMarian Weber · 3rdThird degree connection
Clean Energy Finance and Clean Tech | Currently at NYCEEC, former Bionic, Opower, Goldman SachsClean Energy Finance and Clean Tech | Currently at NYCEEC, former Bionic, Opower, Goldman Sachs](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianweber?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAACxL3EBu97B1Y4-mRvzUdx87-pddgBs6jg)
[Eli MartinEli Martin · 3rdThird degree connection
Senior Policy AdvisorSenior Policy Advisor](https://www.linkedin.com/in/eli-martin-ba7b5516?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAANfoW8B_Yet-0w6K8IyBAnoHappHYI7Spo)
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[Thomas LeTrentThomas LeTrent · 3rdThird degree connection
Senior Advisor at the US Department of the TreasurySenior Advisor at the US Department of the Treasury](https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasletrent?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAAZNaCcBHLF6lc0w8YZ2dfgdV77gZUMqi4Y)
- Message
- Ben Hobbs
[Ben HobbsBen Hobbs · 3rdThird degree connection
Senior Policy Advisor at U.S. Department of the TreasurySenior Policy Advisor at U.S. Department of the Treasury](https://www.linkedin.com/in/hobbsben?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAANReL4BLK495JAsVwP0KpJY0tG7nHfQnhs)
- Message
- Chandni S.
[Chandni S.Chandni S. · 3rdThird degree connection
Civil ServantCivil Servant](https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandnisaxena?miniProfileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afs_miniProfile%3AACoAAAFbvTkBE7sW0ZpPCWCqPj_kZUtXwfkJhM8)
Mike Benz is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, a non-profit watchdog group dedicated to protecting digital liberties and restoring the free and open Internet. He previously served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Communications and Information Technology at the US State Department during the Trump administration, where he formulated US policy on Internet diplomacy issues and interfaced with private industry. Benz has been a vocal critic of technological government overreach, most recently in his critiques of USAID and his advocacy against online censorship. He actively brings attention to people and organizations involved in controlling speech on social media.
Prior to his role at the State Department, Benz was a White House speechwriter for President Trump and advised on technology policy. Prior to his public sector work, he practiced business law as an attorney in New York, representing technology companies and financial firms.
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---
x
mike Benz educates Joe Rogan on USAID: “There is no aid in USAID. It's not an aid organization. USAID stands for US Agency for International Development. What it's developing is all the activist organizations in foreign countries that the state department is building to gain influence. USAID was created to be a central hub that organized all the different foreign clandestine operations. It has a $50B budget. The entire intelligence community is only $72B. It's more than the CIA and the State Department. It’s a switch player to assist the pentagon, the state department, and the intelligence community.”
---
toi
according to Mike Benz, a former State Department official an ..
Read more at:
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ggl 9 25
Mike Benz
Business executive
Latest posts from Mike Benz
I have the audience I have because I don’t have the attitude you have.
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MikeBenzCyber
X
New wide-ranging deep dive I recorded with @TomBilyeu, covering The Blob's connections to hedge funds, teachers unions, media outlets, NGOs, and astroturfed "protest" movements. Check it out here: www.youtube.com/watch?v…
720+ likes ·
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MikeBenzCyber
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I hope Charlie’s murderer gets reincarnated as a beagle in a Tony Fauci science experiment.
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Charlie, in every sense, The Man In The Arena.
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just letting my fingers wander
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MikeBenzCyber
X
Secretary of State Marco Rubio with Mike Benz
U.S. Department of State (.gov)
https://www.state.gov › secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-...
Apr 16, 2025 — We ended government-sponsored censorship in the United States through the State Department. And let me explain how we get there.
Secretary Rubio's live conversation with Mike Benz on ...
YouTube · U.S. Department of State
101.1K+ views · 5 months ago
Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio's live conversation with @MikeBenzCyber on dismantling the censorship bureaucracy at the State Department, ...
In an interview with Mike Benz, Secretary of State Rubio ...
Facebook · U.S. Department of State
9.6K+ reactions · 5 months ago
In an interview with Mike Benz, Secretary of State Rubio outlines how we're protecting and championing free speech at the State Department..
2272 - Mike Benz - The Joe Rogan Experience
Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com › podcast › 2272-mike-benz
Feb 12, 2025 — Mike Benz is a former official with the U.S. Department of State and current Executive Director of the Foundation For Freedom Online, ...
Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) (TV Series 2022
IMDb
https://www.imdb.com › title
Mike Benz, the executive director for the Foundation for Freedom Online, creates videos for X (formerly Twitter).
Joe Rogan Experience #2272 - Mike Benz
YouTube · PowerfulJRE
2.7M+ views · 7 months ago
Mike Benz is a former official with the U.S. Department of State and current Executive Director of the Foundation For Freedom Online, ...
2237 - Mike Benz - The Joe Rogan Experience
Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com › podcast › 2237-mike-benz
Dec 3, 2024 — Mike Benz is a former official with the U.S. Department of State and current Executive Director of the Foundation For Freedom Online, ...
Mike Benz - National Conservatism Conference, Washington ...
nationalconservatism.org
https://nationalconservatism.org › Home › Presenters
Mike Benz is the Director of the Foundation for Freedom Online. He is a former State Department official with responsibilities in formulating and negotiating ...
132 Mike Benz - Inside the Censorship Industrial Complex
Spotify - Web Player: Music for everyone
https://open.spotify.com › episode
Sep 19, 2024 — Listen to this episode from Shawn Ryan Show on Spotify. Mike Benz is a former official with the U.S. Department of State, known for his work ...
Mike Benz
IMDb
https://www.imdb.com › name
Mike Benz. Writer: Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber). Mike Benz is known for Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) (2022), Carl Higbie Frontline (2023) and Fine Point with ...
[### 2237 - Mike Benz - The Joe Rogan Experience
Spotify - Web Player: Music for everyone
https://open.spotify.com › episode](https://open.spotify.com/episode/7uBY7Ti0g2nNroNJOS7zo9)
Dec 3, 2024 — Listen to this episode from The Joe Rogan Experience on Spotify. Mike Benz is a former official with the U.S. Department of State and ...
[### Mike Benz - National Conservatism Conference, Washington ...
nationalconservatism.org
https://nationalconservatism.org › Home › Presenters](https://nationalconservatism.org/natcon-4-2024/presenters/mike-benz/)
Mike Benz is the Director of the Foundation for Freedom Online. He is a former State Department official with responsibilities in formulating and negotiating ...
[### 170 Mike Benz - USAID Funding… - Shawn Ryan Show
Apple Podcasts
https://podcasts.apple.com › podcast › 170-mike-benz-...](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/170-mike-benz-usaid-funding-cia-backed-mercenaries/id1492492083?i=1000691383106)
Feb 12, 2025 — Mike Benz is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, a non-profit watchdog group dedicated to protecting digital liberties.
[### "The Joe Rogan Experience" Mike Benz (Podcast Episode ...
IMDb
https://www.imdb.com › title](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35715954/)
Mike Benz discusses the hidden mechanics of US foreign policy, intelligence operations, and the influence of government agencies in media censorship.
[### TreppTalk | Mike Benz
Trepp
https://www.trepp.com › trepptalk › author › mike-benz](https://www.trepp.com/trepptalk/author/mike-benz)
Many financial institutions will soon find themselves in a regulatory landscape stuck in the middle of a perfect storm. Just as many banks, credit unions, ...
[### Mike Benz: How NGOs and the CIA Hijacked Ukraine
YouTube · Glenn Diesen
101K+ views · 2 weeks ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33vwRTrSmv8)
Mike Benz is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. State Department and the current Executive Director of the Foundation for ...
[### Michael Benz - U.S. Department of the Treasury
LinkedIn · Michael Benz
2.2K+ followers](https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-benz)
Washington DC-Baltimore Area · U.S. Department of the Treasury
Experience: U.S. Department of the Treasury · Location: Washington DC-Baltimore Area · 500+ connections on LinkedIn. View Michael Benz's profile on LinkedIn ...
[### Socratic Stage: The Government's Role in the Censorship ...
New College of Florida
https://www.ncf.edu › news › socratic-stage-the-govern...](https://www.ncf.edu/news/socratic-stage-the-governments-role-in-the-censorship-industry/)
Dec 4, 2024 — In this eye-opening conversation, Mike Benz breaks down how governments justify and fund censorship, spying, and surveillance under the banners of fear and ...
[### Mike Benz and White House Press Secretary Speak at CPAC
C-SPAN
https://www.c-span.org › program › public-affairs-event](https://www.c-span.org/program/public-affairs-event/mike-benz-and-white-house-press-secretary-speak-at-cpac/656180)
Feb 21, 2025 — White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. Mike ...
[### FINANCIAL ADVISOR Mike Benz
Edward Jones
https://www.edwardjones.com › ... › Mike Benz](https://www.edwardjones.com/us-en/financial-advisor/mike-benz)
Our business is built on helping people with all aspects of their lives, including personal and financial goals.
p3
ntbcw
[### ichael Benz
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Michael_Benz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Benz)
Michael Benz (born 1981 or 1982) is an English-American actor. Michael Benz. Born, 1981 or 1982 (age 42–43). England. Education, Georgetown University
[### Mike Benz reitera denúncia de interferência dos EUA nas ...
Portal da Câmara dos Deputados
https://www2.camara.leg.br › credn](https://www2.camara.leg.br/atividade-legislativa/comissoes/comissoes-permanentes/credn/noticias/mike-benz-reitera-denuncia-de-interferencia-dos-eua-nas-eleicoes-do-brasil)
Aug 6, 2025 — Ex-funcionário do Departamento de Estado dos EUA, Mike Benz reafirma, em audiência pública, denúncias de que o governo norte-americano ...
[### Brandy Zadrozny on X: "Mike Benz is a grifter. He's not an ...
X · BrandyZadrozny
610+ likes · 7 months ago](https://x.com/BrandyZadrozny/status/1890392287277900046?lang=en)
Mike Benz is a grifter. He's not an expert in anything. He spent two months at the state department and that's his “expertise.
[### Mike Benz (@mikebenzcyber)
Instagram · mikebenzcyber
75.3K+ followers](https://www.instagram.com/mikebenzcyber/?hl=en)
75K followers · 285 following · 874 posts · @mikebenzcyber: “1.1 million on X follow me there for all the best stuff”
[### Secretary Rubio's live conversation with Mike Benz on ...
DVIDS
https://www.dvidshub.net · Apr 16, 2025](https://www.dvidshub.net/video/959082/secretary-rubios-live-conversation-with-mike-benz-dismantling-censorship-bureaucracy)
Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio's live conversation with @MikeBenzCyber on dismantling the censorship bureaucracy at the State Department.
[### Mike benz
SoundCloud · Mike benz
10+ followers](https://soundcloud.com/mike-benz-16339235)
Play Mike benz on SoundCloud and discover followers on SoundCloud | Stream tracks, albums, playlists on desktop and mobile.
[### Michael A. Benz - United States Department of State U.S. Department of State (.gov)
https://2017-2021.state.gov › biographies › michael-a-be...](https://2017-2021.state.gov/biographies/michael-a-benz/)
Nov 24, 2020 — Michael A. Benz, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Communications and Information Policy, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.
[### Ep 2272 • @mikebenzcyber • Mike Benz is a former official ...
Instagram · joeroganexperience
24K+ likes · 7 months ago](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DF_LTNgzUf8/)
[
1:34](https://www.instagram.com/reel/DF_LTNgzUf8/)
Mike Benz is a former official with the US Department of State and current Executive Director of the Foundation For Freedom Online.
[### Mike Benz on Bitcoin, Stablecoins and Exposing Financial ...
YouTube · Natalie Brunell
16.3K+ views · 2 months ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YeuI5fD0ww)
In this episode of Coin Stories, Natalie Brunell sits down with Mike Benz, Executive Director of FFO: the Foundation For Freedom Online, ...
[### Mike Benz, a frustrating interview : r/JoeRogan
Reddit · r/JoeRogan
40+ comments · 7 months ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/JoeRogan/comments/1io78te/mike_benz_a_frustrating_interview/)
13 votes, 44 comments. I am a fan of JRE but Joe missed a lot of moments with Benz to question the claims he was making.
---
[### Secretary of State Marco Rubio with Mike Benz
U.S. Department of State (.gov)
https://www.state.gov › secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-...](https://www.state.gov/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-with-mike-benz)
Apr 16, 2025 — We ended government-sponsored censorship in the United States through the State Department. And let me explain how we get there.
Missing: rufo | Show results with: rufo
[### Secretary Rubio's live conversation with Mike Benz on ...
YouTube · U.S. Department of State
101.1K+ views · 5 months ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGOPaIkezF8)
14:57
Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio's live conversation with @MikeBenzCyber on dismantling the censorship bureaucracy at the State Department, ...
Missing: rufo | Show results with: rufo
[### In an interview with Mike Benz, Secretary of State Rubio ...
Facebook · U.S. Department of State
9.6K+ reactions · 5 months ago](https://www.facebook.com/statedept/videos/s_benzinterview_championingfreespeechmp4/523928910581908/)
[
0:55](https://www.facebook.com/statedept/videos/s_benzinterview_championingfreespeechmp4/523928910581908/)
In an interview with Mike Benz, Secretary of State Rubio outlines how we're protecting and championing free speech at the State Department.
Missing: rufo | Show results with: rufo
[### Secretary Rubio's live conversation with Mike Benz on ...
DVIDS
https://www.dvidshub.net · Apr 16, 2025](https://www.dvidshub.net/video/959082/secretary-rubios-live-conversation-with-mike-benz-dismantling-censorship-bureaucracy)
Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio's live conversation with @MikeBenzCyber on dismantling the censorship bureaucracy at the State Department.
Missing: rufo | Show results with: rufo
[### Marco Rubio sits down with Michael Benz, Jewish former ...
The Forward
https://forward.com › Fast Forward](https://forward.com/fast-forward/713383/marco-rubio-sits-down-with-michael-benz-jewish-former-trump-official-with-an-antisemitic-online-persona/)
Apr 18, 2025 — Secretary of State Marco Rubio talks to Michael Benz, a Jewish former Trump official with a Hitler-praising online alter ego.
Missing: rufo | Show results with: rufo
[### Marco Rubio sits down with Michael Benz, Jewish former ...
Cleveland Jewish News
https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com › JTA](https://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/jta/marco-rubio-sits-down-with-michael-benz-jewish-former-trump-official-with-an-antisemitic-online/article_a76ca8d9-90f6-55b3-9568-7e961d1fa9c8.html)
Apr 18, 2025 — Secretary of State Marco Rubio promoted an interview this week with a conservative influencer who has praised Hitler online.
[### Rubio's Conversation With Mike Benz on Dismantling the ...
YouTube · NTD
1.5K+ views · 5 months ago](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyRnfQcNw30)
17:54
Secretary of State Marco Rubio talks with Mike Benz on dismantling the censorship bureaucracy at the State Department at 12 p.m. on April 16 ...
Missing: rufo | Show results with: rufo
[### Rubio shuts State Dept. foreign disinformation office, citing ...
The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com › 2025/04/16 › rubio-...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/04/16/rubio-foreign-disinformation-office-censorship/)
Apr 16, 2025 — “We had government-sponsored censorship in the United States through the State Department,” Rubio told conservative activist Mike Benz in the ...
[### Former US offical Mike Benz says he has proof of USAID ' ...
Times of India
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com › ... › US News](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/mike-benz-narendra-modi-donald-trump-usaid-sheikh-hasina/articleshow/118148299.cms)
Mar 2, 2025 — After leaving the government, Benz founded the Foundation for Freedom Online (FFO), a non-profit dedicated to exposing digital censorship ...
Missing: rufo | Show results with: rufo
[### Michael A. Benz - United States Department of State U.S. Department of State (.gov)
https://2017-2021.state.gov › biographies › michael-a-be...](https://2017-2021.state.gov/biographies/michael-a-benz/)
Nov 24, 2020 — Michael A. Benz, Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Communications and Information Policy, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs.
Missing: rufo | Show results with: rufo
---
[### nside the Hidden Conservative Network Bankrolling an “ ...
Mother Jones
https://www.motherjones.com › politics › 2025/09 › ins...](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/inside-the-hidden-conservative-network-bankrolling-an-ecosystem-of-right-wing-news-informing-america-john-solomon-war-room/)
Empower Oversight is headed by Jason Foster—a longtime aide to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley—whom ProPublica exposed in 2018 as an inflammatory blogger who ...Read more
[### THE USAID BETRAYAL
Congress.gov
https://www.congress.gov › event › house-event › text](https://www.congress.gov/event/119th-congress/house-event/LC74289/text)
The purpose of today's hearing is to discuss the misuse of public trust through USAID's woke programming and explore ideas for reorganization.Read more
...
The chair now recognizes Representative Luna.
Mrs. Luna. Chairman, for the record, I would like to submit
this letter saying that PEPFAR funding was actually resumed. I
know there has been a lot of push saying that the Trump admin
had actually cut it, but----
Chairman Mast. So ordered.
Mrs. Luna. Thank you.
You know, I want to start off by saying initially I think
the idea behind USAID was done with a good intention. However,
we have come to find out that the Agency has indeed, to a
certain extent, operated in a rogue capacity. And USAID has
absolutely broken the trust with the American people and not
been transparent about where our taxpayer dollars are going.
There is an individual by the name of Mike Benz. He
actually served over at the State Department for a while, and
he has been going on to expose a lot of what USAID has been
doing, which being a member of Oversight and being on this
committee I wanted to verify and see if he was telling the
truth, which much to my disappointment he was.
And I say that because I am disappointed that our taxpayer
dollars are funding some of these items. I mean, to just put
this in perspective, in 2021, the Special Operations Command
under Mark Milley as chairman of the Joint Chiefs put out an
instruction manual, ``A Vision for 2021 and Beyond,'' that
contained instructions and examples on how the military could
work with the State Department, intel services, and USAID using
race riots--here are examples of some of the instruction
manuals here, one and two--in order to destabilize nations.
In addition to that, they advocated for setting up job
fairs near some of these riots so that disaffected workers
could gain employment.
Now, as a Member of Congress, I ask myself, did anyone in
USAID get elected? To Congress? How about to a Presidency? When
you are acting in the shadows and you are destabilizing nations
using race wars to do it and then advocating that the military
does it, in my opinion, not only do you put the future
generations that would have to fight in those wars in jeopardy,
but at the end of the day, you are operating without any
oversight.
So I guess the question for you guys is, Mr. Natsios, is
that something that you were aware of? Are you aware that that
instruction manual is being promoted not just with the military
under Milley but that USAID may be operating in this capacity?
Because, in my opinion--and I am sure I speak on behalf of many
of my constituents--I don't think that is where our taxpayer
dollars need to be going.
Mr. Natsios. Well, I completely agree with you. Personally,
I doubt very much that what you have been told is accurate, but
let me just say----
Mrs. Luna. Well, look, I am telling you right now I brought
the receipts. Okay. And the reason--I am not trying to argue
with you, but I find this disturbing----
Mr. Natsios. Very disturbing.
Mrs. Luna [continuing]. On so many capacities. And I would
like to also just, if I can, sir, Mike Benz, what he is
exposing and bringing receipts, I have confirmed it, thank you
for doing that on behalf of the American people because I
understand that when you take on the intelligence agencies, we
are also now finding that apparently in this manual that they
are also advocating for social media campaigns illuminating
controversy to a global audience. I mean, using disinformation
campaigns. Is this happening here in our own country? Where is
the oversight?
Mr. Natsios. Just to ask you, who in the Agency, what
bureau----
Mrs. Luna. I just sent you--you can actually find that
instruction in this manual that Milley approved.
Mr. Natsios. Military manual, is it?
Mrs. Luna. Yes, but Milley approved it. You have it right
here. USAID working with government agencies. I mean, this is
not----
Mr. Natsios. Wait a second. Did AID say that or did the
military say AID should----
Mrs. Luna. Well, that would be the question for you, sir.
Mr. Natsios. Well, I don't think AID wrote that.
Mrs. Luna. I mean, these operations--sorry to interrupt
you. These operations that are taking place without government
oversight, without the authority of the President, without the
authority of Congress, real men and women serve and they die
because of stuff like this. When you destabilize nations
without any oversight, we have to fight those wars. You have
our chairman right here that literally risked his life----
Mr. Natsios. I----
Mrs. Luna. No. I am sorry to interrupt you. I am
frustrated. I know it is not necessarily your fault.
Mr. Natsios. But I am telling you it is nonsense.
Mrs. Luna. But as the head of the Agency----
Mr. Natsios. I am telling you what Benz told you is
nonsense.
Mrs. Luna. That is not nonsense. These are the information
and forms----
Mr. Natsios. AID didn't write that.
Mrs. Luna [continuing]. And Benz put this out to the
American people.
Mr. Natsios. AID did not write that.
Mrs. Luna. Sir, I disagree with you on so many levels, and
I appreciate you being----
Mr. Natsios. How do you know they wrote it?
Mrs. Luna. How do I know what?
Mr. Natsios. Any person can write AID's name into a manual.
It goes on all the time.
Mrs. Luna. Sir, they are advocating that the U.S. military
work with taxpayer-funded State Department USAID funds to
destabilize nations. That is unacceptable. I don't care who
wrote it. USAID needs to come down and condemn it. They need to
provide oversight to Congress on exactly where our tax dollars
are going.
And I know I might be at 17 seconds with our time, but,
sir, I hope that you agree--yes or no. Do you agree that this
is wrong, period? Should this be happening?
Mr. Natsios. I think the military should be held
accountable. I think it is nonsense that----
Mrs. Luna. And should USAID condemn it?
Mr. Natsios. It is nonsense to suggest that AID wrote that.
Mrs. Luna. Should USAID condemn it? Should they condemn it?
Mr. Natsios. The military should.
Mrs. Luna. Should USAID also condemn this?
Mr. Natsios. Of course. We don't comment----
Mrs. Luna. Thank you.
Mr. Natsios. AID does not comment on military manuals.
Mrs. Luna. Chairman, I yield my time back.
Thank you.
Chairman Mast. The gentlewoman's time has expired.
Mr. Natsios. It is none of our business
[### Federal Funding Crackdown Imperils Global Newsrooms
The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com › usaid-funding-cuts-journalism](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/business/media/usaid-funding-cuts-journalism.html)
Feb 27, 2025 — Benz's posts on X, stating that “U.S.A.I.D. has been paying media organizations to publish their propaganda.” The defunding of global ...Read more
[### This administration's dismantling of USAID is immoral. The ...
Facebook · Rep. Madeleine Dean
570+ reactions · 1 month ago](https://www.facebook.com/RepMadeleineDean/posts/this-administrations-dismantling-of-usaid-is-immoral-the-foreign-affairs-committ/1243483054271102/)
This administration's dismantling of USAID is immoral. The Foreign Affairs Committee must be at the forefront of restoring that lifesaving ...
[### Mike Benz: Internet Censorship, U.S. Foreign Policy, Elon ...
Podcast Notes
https://podcastnotes.org › joe-rogan-experience › mike-b...](https://podcastnotes.org/joe-rogan-experience/mike-benz-internet-censorship-u-s-foreign-policy-elon-musks-x-takeover-and-the-fight-for-free-speech-joe-rogan-experience-2237/)
Dec 6, 2024 — Mike Benz joins Joe Rogan to discuss internet censorship, its ties to U.S. foreign policy, and Elon Musk's role in challenging the ...
[### Mike Benz on the creation of USAID, history of Operation ...
Facebook · Shawn Ryan Show
1.1K+ reactions · 11 months ago](https://www.facebook.com/shawnryanshow/posts/mike-benz-on-the-creation-of-usaid-history-of-operation-pincushion-and-cia-backe/1288639059377085/)
Mike Benz on the creation of USAID, history of Operation Pincushion and CIA-backed mercenaries. #war #history #politics #podcast #shawnryanshowRead more
[### The USAID closure leaves a vacuum. What will fill it? | WORLD
wng.org
https://wng.org › Roundups](https://wng.org/roundups/the-usaid-closure-leaves-a-vacuum-what-will-fill-it-1740694625)
Feb 27, 2025 — The Trump administration says the cuts to USAID not only will save $60 billion in taxpayer money but also eliminate waste and corruption in US foreign aid ...Read more
[### DOGE vs USAID: Why Musk and Trump want to destroy this ...
Times of India
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com › ... › US News](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/doge-vs-usaid-why-musk-and-trump-want-to-destroy-this-deep-state-asset/articleshow/117889432.cms)
Feb 3, 2025 — Benz claims that USAID was created to streamline the chaos, acting as the "central hub" coordinating US foreign influence. "When people hear the ...Read more
[### Jason Foster
The Federalist Society
https://fedsoc.org › bio › jason-foster-1](https://fedsoc.org/bio/jason-foster-1)
Mar 11, 2020 — As Chief Investigative Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Foster led its Oversight and Investigations team in reviewing allegations of ...Read more
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[### The claim made by Mike Benz revolves around ...
Facebook · MEAWW
30+ reactions · 1 year ago](https://www.facebook.com/meawwcom/posts/the-claim-made-by-mike-benz-revolves-around-the-assertion-that-biden-administrat/920128283581383/)
The claim made by Mike Benz revolves around the assertion that Biden administration paid agencies millions of dollars to target Elon Musk's businesses.Read more
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