U.S. President Donald Trump's interventionist foreign policy has sparked sharp criticism from prominent figures within the MAGA movement, including former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who argue the president is abandoning the "America First" platform he championed. However, Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi highlights an issue she says many MAGA voters are ignoring: the use of American tax dollars to support conservative think tanks overseas.

According to Mahdawi's column, the Guardian reported that the U.S. State Department plans to grant $12 million to conservative organizations in the United Kingdom — a move widely criticized as an effort to sway foreign politics. The State Department has a long history of funding cultural exchange and educational programs abroad, though such grants typically support established civil society organizations rather than newly formed partisan groups. Of that amount, $7 million is earmarked for a group called 878, co-founded by former Conservative minister, prominent Brexiteer, and current television host Jacob Rees-Mogg, whose personal net worth is estimated to exceed £100 million. The organization appears to have been incorporated in the UK in March.

The group's website describes itself as a "leading British and American think tank, dedicated to strengthening the civilizational partnership between the United Kingdom and the United States." Mahdawi questioned the rationale: "If millions in funding going to a new organization with vague goals sounds a bit weird, it's because it is. A former U.S. official told the Guardian that normal funding processes are being subverted so that money can go to Trump-aligned causes."

Mahdawi characterized these efforts as part of a broader pattern. "These are not isolated initiatives," she wrote. "They point to the growing transnationalization of the hard right and a coordinated effort to make the MAGA movement global under the guise of saving western civilization."

Trump's backing of far-right figures such as former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been well documented. Orbán has actively cultivated ties with U.S. conservatives, hosting annual CPAC conferences in Budapest that draw American activists and lawmakers, positioning Hungary as an ideological model for the nationalist right. Mahdawi argued, however, that the president is moving beyond rhetorical endorsement to actively directing U.S. taxpayer funds toward non-American organizations.

The U.S. Embassy in London is also offering grants of up to $500,000 for "public education" programs designed to foster a "national conversation" about "shared civilizational values" between the UK and the U.S., Mahdawi noted. A recently departed State Department official told the Guardian the effort appears aimed at creating "UK-originated narratives to support MAGA propaganda." Liberal Democrat MP Lisa Smart accused the MAGA funding of "meddling in our democracy."

Mahdawi posed a final question: "What does the average Trump voter, who was promised an America-First agenda, think about all this money going to 'public education' programs in the UK instead of all the underfunded public schools at home? The short answer is: they're not thinking about it at all."