In Italy and across Europe, debate is intensifying over possible funding by the Trump administration of movements and think tanks aligned with the MAGA movement—what left-wing media often describe as a “black international” aimed at strengthening European nationalist forces and weakening the European Union.
The issue resurfaced after a Financial Times article last week reported on a trip by US Under Secretary of State Sarah Rogers to Italy and other European countries. The visit was framed as part of a US effort to support and finance MAGA-aligned think tanks and charities, sparking political backlash and accusations of American interference in domestic affairs.
However, the US has historically provided funding in Europe, largely through USAID. According to Daniele Scalea, director of the conservative Machiavelli Foundation in Italy, “What is changing today are the strategic criteria guiding where those funds go. The left cries ‘foreign interference,’ but what is really being contested is not the method, but the political orientation.”
USAID was founded in 1961 to fight against Communism and to provide disaster relief. However, under President Clinton USAID began to move Left, with President Obama adding LGBT initiatives and climate policy.
According to Max Primorac, who worked for USAID for three years and is now with the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, under President Biden USAID introduced transgenderism into every programme.
During this period, USAID had an annual budget of approximately €23 billion.
President Trump shut down most of this immediately after taking office.
While it remains unclear whether and to what extent funding from Washington may reach Europe, analysts have identified three key American actors fostering closer ties with conservative and right-wing movements on the continent: The Heritage Foundation, networks linked to Steve Bannon, and Italian associates connected to Elon Musk, all broadly aligned with the current administration’s political orientation.
Attention has focused in recent days on the visit to Rome by Paul McCarthy, Senior Research Fellow for European Affairs at the Heritage Foundation, a US conservative think tank influential in shaping right-wing policymaking. The organisation plays a central role in promoting traditional values, national sovereignty, defence policy, and a more assertive foreign policy.
“We receive no money from the US government or any foreign government,” McCarthy told Brussels Signal, emphasizing the Heritage Foundation’s independence and reliance on private donations. “However, we are aligned with the Trump administration for one basic reason: We wrote a detailed plan, Project 2025,” he said, referring to an initiative outlining policies, personnel, and strategies to implement a conservative agenda for the current administration. “Some parts are already being implemented—about 75 per cent of our proposals have been adopted or are in progress,” he added, noting that many Heritage staff who helped draft the plan are now working within the administration.
Heritage’s activity, he explained, predates the Trump administration and remains institutionally independent from it, but has found a strong overlap of interests, values, and strategic priorities with the current government.
McCarthy spoke on the side-lines of a transatlantic relations conference at the Italian parliament, attended by MPs from Brothers of Italy, the League, and Forza Italia, and organized by the Machiavelli Foundation, a conservative Italian think tank partnered with the Heritage Foundation.
“We are building bridges with conservative think tanks across Europe,” McCarthy said, naming the European Conservatives and Reformists group, the Patriots, and their affiliated think tanks as main partners, while noting continued contacts with the European People’s Party, despite what he described as its shift leftward in recent years.
“We do not want to destroy Europe, but rather to build a strong partnership with a strong America. Greater national sovereignty for Europeans would strengthen transatlantic relations,” he added, arguing that the strength of nationalist parties and movements in Europe reinforces transatlantic ties because it is grounded in shared civilisational values.
He said the goal is to align with these movements and, on a geopolitical level, encourage Europeans to strengthen their defence capabilities against external threats, particularly from Russia. “It’s going to be important to bring these two sides together,” he explained. The Heritage Foundation, he concluded, does not fund its European partners but instead develops strategic dialogue and provides policy advice.
According to McCarthy, the activities of the Heritage Foundation in Italy and Europe are not coordinated in any way with those of Steve Bannon or Elon Musk.
Analysts see Bannon as mainly active through efforts to establish a training school for global MAGA cadres in Italy. Recent information emerging from the Epstein files has also pointed to Bannon’s past interest, dating back to 2018 and 2019, in supporting Italy’s League party at a time when it was polling strongly but facing financial constraints. There is, however, no indication that such initiatives remain active today.
Musk’s influence, by contrast, operates primarily through Andrea Stroppa, a young Italian cybersecurity expert and external adviser widely considered “Musk’s man in Italy.” Stroppa acts as a local intermediary with institutions and publicly supports Musk’s positions, although so far this does not appear to amount to a structured political organization.
Scalea, whose Machiavelli Foundation collaborates with the Heritage Foundation, echoed McCarthy’s assessment.
“This heterogeneity shows that there is no single, coherent strategy by the US administration to influence Europe, but rather multiple power centres pursuing their own parallel initiatives,” he said.
Scalea does not see a centralised American plan, but rather what he described as “a clear awareness within the American conservative world of the importance of Europe as a peripheral area of influence”.
Addressing the Financial Times report about potential US funding for aligned European entities—while stressing that the Machiavelli Foundation has never received such funding—Scalea argued that this reflects a broader shift in US geopolitical thinking.
“The modus operandi has not changed,” he said. According to Scalea, potential funding from across the Atlantic would therefore not represent a novelty in itself. What would be new, he suggested, would be the recipients—no longer aligned primarily with progressive causes, but rather with conservative or nationalist political forces.
