Trump Dismantles Government Fight Against Foreign Influence Operations

Source: New York Times

Trump Dismantles Government Fight Against Foreign Influence Operations

The Trump administration has reassigned or forced out several dozen government employees who had been working to fight foreign interference in U.S. elections at multiple agencies, according to current and former officials.


The Trump administration has reassigned several dozen government employees who had been working on foreign election interference issues at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Pete Kiehart for The New York Times

By Steven Lee Myers,m Julian E. Barnes and Sheera Frenkel
Feb. 20, 2025
Updated 2:16 p.m. ET

The Trump administration is targeting government officials who had been flagging foreign interference in U.S. elections, despite continuing concerns that adversaries are stoking political and social divisions by spreading propaganda and disinformation online, current and former government officials said.

The administration has already reassigned several dozen officials working on the issue at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and forced out others at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security, they said.

The cuts have focused on people who were not only combating false content online but also working on broader safeguards to protect elections from cyberattacks or other attempts to disrupt voting systems. In last year’s election, the teams tracked and publicized numerous influence operations from Russia, China and Iran to blunt their impact on unsuspecting voters.

Experts are alarmed that the cuts could leave the United States defenseless against covert foreign influence operations and embolden foreign adversaries seeking to disrupt democratic governments.

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Adam Goldman and Robert Draper contributed reporting.

Steven Lee Myers covers misinformation and disinformation from San Francisco. Since joining The Times in 1989, he has reported from around the world, including Moscow, Baghdad, Beijing and Seoul. More about Steven Lee Myers
https://www.nytimes.com/by/steven-lee-myers

Julian E. Barnes covers the U.S. intelligence agencies and international security matters for The Times. He has written about security issues for more than two decades. More about Julian E. Barnes
https://www.nytimes.com/by/julian-e-barnes

Sheera Frenkel is a reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area, covering the ways technology impacts everyday lives with a focus on social media companies, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Telegram and WhatsApp. More about Sheera Frenkel
https://www.nytimes.com/by/sheera-frenkel

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/business/trump-foreign-influence-election-interference.html