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VIDEO: FDD's online harassment against critics of Trump’s State Department

The role Foundation for the Defense of Democracies served as a messaging hub for a controversial taxpayer-funded project, has never been revealed until now.

Analysis | Reporting | Middle East
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Earlier this month, Responsible Statecraft reported — based on recently obtained documents via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit — that the hawkish DC think tank Foundation for the Defense of Democracies was at the center of an online harassment campaign funded by the State Department that targeted Americans, including journalists, and human rights advocates, because of their opposition to Donald Trump's Middle East policy. Quincy Institute Multimedia Producer Khody Akhavi breaks the story down:


(Image via shutterstock.com)
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Analysis | Reporting | Middle East
Marco Rubio Munich Security Conference
Top photo credit: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio waves, next to Chairman of the Munich Security Conference Wolfgang Ischinger, as he gets a standing ovation after his speech at the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2026. Alex Brandon/Pool via REUTERS

Rubio's spoonful of sugar helps hard medicine go down in Munich

Europe


U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in the Munich Security Conference this weekend to sooth transatlantic anxieties. After Vice President J.D. Vance's criticisms of the old continent in 2025, the European dignitaries were looking for a more conventional American performance.

What they got was a peculiar mix of primacist nostalgia and civilizational foreboding, with an explicit desire to forge a path of restoration together.

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Viktor Orban Peter Magyar
Top photo credit: Viktor Orbán (shutterstock/photoibo) and Peter Magyar (Shutterstock/Istvan Csak)

Could this be the election that brings Hungary's Orban down?

Europe

With two months remaining before the April 12 parliamentary elections, Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban and his Fidesz party face by far their toughest challenge since winning power in 2010.

Many polls show challenger Peter Magyar’s Tisza (Respect and Freedom) party with a substantial lead. Orban’s campaign has responded by stressing his international clout, including close relations with U.S. President Donald Trump, and the prominent role he plays among right-populist Eurosceptics in Europe.

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Trump hasn't bombed Iran yet. He must be reading these polls.
Top photo credit: Members of the media raise their hands to ask questions as U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (not pictured) hold a joint press conference in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 29, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Trump hasn't bombed Iran yet. He must be reading these polls.

Middle East

When the George W. Bush administration invaded Iraq in March 2003, that war had 72% support among Americans, according to Gallup.

If Donald Trump now wants to start a U.S. war with Iran, the president would not remotely enjoy that level of support. He doesn’t even have half of it. Scratch that, not even a quarter of Americans want him to bomb Iran today.

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