The Parallel Government: How the NGO Complex Will Outlast Trump's Reforms If It Isn't Dismantled Now

"If the Trump administration seeks to return the power usurped by this NGO complex to the American people, drastic action will need to be taken. Now."

The NGO complex has become a “parallel government” that is designed to manufacture consent to unelected elites draining trillions of dollars from our treasury in order to meddle in foreign affairs and rule over our lives.

This parallel government’s survival depends on maintaining its grip on power, and so those within its ranks will label any challenge as a “threat to democracy” itself.

But make no mistake — the parallel government is the real threat to democracy.

Data Republican has done some fascinating research on this topic. You can read it all in a thread posted here.

Here is the gist of her research: NGOS originally created to combat communism during the Cold Wars repurposed themselves as the ultimate guardians of “democracy,” embedding themselves deeply within both American and global political systems.

Among these organizations are:

• National Endowment for Democracy (NED) – The umbrella organization that distributes government grants to “democracy-promoting” NGOs worldwide.

• International Republican Institute (IRI) – Trains political parties and leaders abroad, aligning with U.S. foreign policy.

• National Democratic Institute (NDI) – Similar in mission to IRI but aligned with Democratic Party priorities.

• Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS) – A funding mechanism that funnels resources to IRI, NDI, and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).

• International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) – Focuses on election security and integrity globally.

• Internews – A media-focused NGO that receives millions in taxpayer dollars to shape news and combat so-called disinformation.

• Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) – Advocates free-market policies as a means of democracy promotion.

• Solidarity Center – Works closely with labor unions to mobilize political engagement.

These taxpayer-funded groups’ “mission drift” is a reflection of the ideological subversion of America’s institutions, as well as the nature of bureaucracies to redefine themselves in order to survive.

The common thread? These organizations all claim to defend “democracy,” but in reality, they act as a self-sustaining bureaucracy that dictates political narratives and policy directions, often at odds with the will of the people.

These groups’ pernicious influence extends beyond America’s borders. NGOs like Internews, with nearly $94.5 million in U.S. government funding, have shaped the global media landscape with taxpayer-funded propaganda.

Internews has funded “independent” news agencies that were dependent on government support. It has sponsored “non-governmental organizations” that were entirely sponsored by and propped up by the U.S. government.

In totalitarian regimes, honest language is often the first casualty. The human casualties come later.

NED, which oversees the Uniparty’s election meddling efforts, is effectively a pass-through for hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars funneled into NDI, IRI, and IFES—institutions that influence political outcomes worldwide.

Here is how the NED defines its activities: “The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is an independent, nonprofit foundation dedicated to the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world. Each year, NED makes more than 2,000 grants to support the projects of nongovernmental groups abroad who are working for democratic goals in more than 100 countries.”

“From its beginning, NED has remained steadfastly bipartisan,” the group adds. “Created jointly by Republicans and Democrats, NED is governed by a board balanced between both parties and enjoys Congressional support across the political spectrum.”

NED is the Uniparty; virtually, by definition.

While the NED website gives lip service to promoting “freedom” and “democracy,” it operates more like a CIA arm destabilizing target regimes around the world.

Here is some relevant background on the National Endowment for Democracy from America Renewing:

The NGO that has arguably received the most public scrutiny—both historically and recently—is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Created in 1983 at the height of the Cold War, NED was conceived by former CIA Director William Casey and former CIA operative Walter Raymond Jr.² The entity is a “quasi-independent” non-governmental organization designed to take what were once covert CIA practices and put an overt sheen on them beneath the stated aim to grow and strengthen democratic institutions around the world.³ NED accomplishes this through the dispersal of grant monies to favored and well-connected interests abroad. This dynamic purportedly allows activities to maintain an air of independence from official U.S. government actions.

Some of NED’s early activities in the 1980s included bankrolling dissident groups in Soviet bloc states as well as funding anti-communist organizations in strategic geopolitical locations throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa. These efforts saw some success at foiling communist Soviet influences abroad while simultaneously reinforcing anti-communist narratives out of Washington, D.C. For example, grant resources from NED were used to grow the Solidarity movement in Poland and help that nation transition toward a free-market democracy after the collapse of the Soviet Union.⁴

President Ronald Reagan once described the concept of NED in a speech to the British Parliament as an operation designed to “foster the infrastructure of democracy—the system of free press, unions, political parties, universities.”⁵ As a tool to combat communism, one can argue that NED achieved its designated objectives in 1991 following the Soviet Union’s collapse. However, as is the case with most government-affiliated entities, NED metastasized into something else entirely in order to justify its continued existence. The fall of the Berlin Wall began the organization’s steady evolution into an actively harmful and increasingly opaque entity hostile to the interests of the American people.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a memo in 1991 that suggested NED provide specific rationales for its ongoing operations following the Soviet collapse. This turned into a strategic plan released by NED’s board the following year, which reoriented the organization toward more deliberate efforts to “expand its programs in those countries and regions where democratic breakthroughs have yet to occur.”⁶ Among the locations listed for future intervention were China, Vietnam, Cuba, Africa, and the Middle East.⁷

It is little surprise then that in the following decades, NED became a leading tool for neoconservative nation-building exercises both before and after the 9/11 attacks. This includes training and financing key political movements in Egypt, Yemen, Libya, and other nations that sparked the so-called “Arab Spring” in 2011, directly contributing to the geopolitical turmoil that has engulfed the Middle East over the last 13 years.⁸ Among the groups unintentionally empowered by NED’s “pro-democracy” meddling in the Middle East are radical jihadists like the Houthis in Yemen, the Al-Nusra Front in Syria, and the Islamic State (otherwise known as ISIS) in Syria and Iraq.

Further, NED served as the tip of the proverbial spear for heightened CIA and State Department efforts to foster political revolution in Ukraine. A steady stream of NED grants to myriad Ukrainian political entities and movements advanced both the ‘Orange Revolution’ and ‘Maidan Revolution’ that paved the way for the current Ukraine-Russia war. Among the hundreds of grants to Ukrainian political entities going back to 2014 are payments to judicial organizations and judges, grants to NATO-adjacent political entities like the European Institute for Democracy, and funding for the Media Development Foundation to train Ukrainians to develop effective anti-Russian propaganda…

In 2022, one of NED’s special projects, called the “Center for International Media Assistance,” outlined the role that international NGOs played in helping facilitate both the 2004-05 Orange Revolution and the 2014 Maidan Revolution in Ukraine.¹³ It is imperative to note that among the results of NED’s activity in Ukraine was the ouster of pro-Russia president, Viktor Yanukovych, followed by the outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine that resulted in the Russian annexation of Crimea. At the time of the Maidan Revolution in 2014, foreign policy scholar John Mearsheimer laid the blame for the outbreak of war in Crimea at the feet of the West, with particular emphasis on NED’s meddling in the country. Mearsheimer quoted then-president, Carl Gershman, characterizing Ukraine as “the biggest prize.”¹⁴ Yet, it was populist political movements in the United States and other Western nations that pushed NED from being merely harmful to America’s national interests to engaging in outright hostility.

What began as an NGO designed to deter communist aggression transformed into a fully partisan political weapon aimed at delegitimizing popular democratic movements at odds with modern progressive orthodoxy.

You can take the NED out of the CIA, but you can’t take the CIA out of the NED.

This reminds me of how the KGB “reorganized” during glanost and perestroika during the last years of the former Soviet Union. The similarity between the NED that sprung out of CIA “reforms” and Directorate Z that came out of KGB “reforms” is downright spooky.

This is from GlobalSecurity.org:

The Fifth Chief Directorate was created in 1969 to counter political dissidents and other manifestations of political unreliability. The Fifth Chief Directorate was formed from elements of the Second Chief Directorate, including the 9th Department responsible for Soviet students; the 10th Department responsible for the Soviet intelligentsia; and the Jewish Department.

The Fifth Chief Directorate was also responsible for internal security. It originally combated political dissent, and later assumed tasks of the Second Chief Directorate, such as controlling religious dissent, monitoring artists, and the censorship of media; it was renamed Directorate Z (to Protect the Constitutional Order) in 1989. The Fifth Chief Directorate also incorporated the 5th 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Directions of the Political Security Service.

If President Donald Trump wants to accomplish his mission of reforming the U.S. government, he should pay close attention to what authoritarian regimes with 'parallel governments,' or what author Yevgenia Arbats dubbed 'The State Within a State,' do: They burrow down, regroup, and survive attempts to reform the 'deep state.'

Attempts to rein in this unelected “parallel government” have been framed as an existential threats to “democracy.” To these NGOs, a challenge to their authority is a challenge to democracy itself. The media’s obsession with phrases like “democracy in danger” coincided with the growing influence of these groups, creating an environment where any opposition to their agenda was dishonestly labeled as “authoritarianism.”

Despite their grip on power, some lawmakers have recognized the danger these organizations pose.

Senator Rand Paul recently attempted to codify foreign aid cuts into law, only to see 26 Republicans join Democrats in opposing the measure. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene tried to defund USAID seven months ago but failed due to a bipartisan coalition of 127 Republicans and 204 Democrats voting against her amendment.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has repeatedly called for USAID to be defunded, citing its involvement in global political manipulation. She introduced an amendment to prohibit funding for USAID, but only 81 Republicans supported it, while 127 Republicans and 204 Democrats voted against the measure. Greene has also argued that USAID’s activities in countries like Ukraine, Syria, Brazil, Poland, and Hungary amount to meddling in foreign elections and political processes, effectively undermining sovereign governments.

Representative Thomas Massie has now co-sponsored a bill to abolish USAID, highlighting its role in funding left-leaning media and political manipulation. The Republicans and Democrats who vote against such initiatives, even at a time of elevated public scrutiny, will be highly revealing.

The power of these NGOs extends beyond bureaucratic influence—they actively shape the political landscape of nations worldwide. If they are ever to be shut down, it’s time to strike while the iron is hot.

James Pierson, writing at The New Criterion, has a better solution than mere superficial reforms of these election-meddling organizations:

The NED is a private operation that can be effectively closed down by zeroing out its congressional appropriation. If the appropriation is eliminated, then the NED will either have to close down or find private donors to fund its operations. According to a recent tax return, the NED maintains a reserve fund of $126 million that could be used in the short term to keep it afloat while officials search elsewhere for donations.

President Trump proposed to reduce the appropriation for the NED in 2018 because he viewed it as a renegade operation conducting its own foreign policy. He did not succeed, owing to a furious pushback from NED officials and their friends in the media, who claimed that Trump’s proposal demonstrated his hostility to efforts to promote democracy abroad and his sympathy for authoritarian leaders. The NED’s leaders probably assumed that they were finished with Trump after the 2020 election and subsequent efforts by the Biden administration to put him in jail. They, like many others, were wrong: Trump is back and more determined than ever to even the score with adversaries, and NED officials rank high on that list.

If the Trump administration seeks to return the power usurped by this NGO complex to the American people, drastic action will need to be taken. Now.

There is no better time to take action. Time is already running out.