While Claiming To Fight Antisemitism Trump Is Ditching Programs Meant To Fight Antisemitism
By Asawin Suebsaeng|Zeteo Photos: Wikimedia Commons Ever since he returned to power, Donald Trump and his top officials have claimed they are “combating antisemitism” – and have used this as a pretext for launching crackdown after crackdown on free speech, immigration, students, civil liberties, and Trump’s enemies. It may have been slightly easier for Team Trump to claim that it is fighting antisemitism if the administration weren’t also simultaneously pulling the plug on programs designed to fight antisemitism. Zeteo spoke at length with the director of one such program, which lost its longtime State Department funding shortly after Trump regained the keys to the Oval Office. In mid-April 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Elon Musk’s Twitter that “under my direction,” the State Department has “canceled another 139 grants worth $214 million.” He added: “American taxpayers should not be funding misguided programs like ‘Building the Migrant Domestic Worker-Led Movement’ in Lebanon or ‘Get the Trolls Out!’ in the United Kingdom.” According to its website, Get the Trolls Out is “led by the Media Diversity Institute (MDI) with the support of six partners spread throughout Europe.” The project has operated in multiple countries, and its programs are aimed at fighting antisemitism in media, social media, and politics. The project and MDI have long sought to push back against various forms of bigotry and hate, including anti-Muslim hatred. MDI was also a signatory to a 2024 letter urging the Israeli government to allow reporters open access to Gaza. And in September 2025, the organization joined a protest in Brussels opposing Israel’s slaughter of journalists in Gaza. “We stand by our colleagues in Gaza who bravely risk their lives to document conflict,” Luc Steinberg, the head of operations at MDI Global, said in a statement. “We demand those responsible for their deaths be held accountable.” But the group’s focus on combating antisemitism was so prominent that – according to documents that were read to Zeteo– when the State Department inked its contracts with MDI to help fund its “Trolls”-related work, the titles or lead paragraphs of multiple grant applications were specifically about fighting anti-Jewish hatred. The organization had partnered with the US State Department over the course of Republican and Democratic presidencies, and the first Trump administration saw the work worthwhile enough to keep funding the project during his initial four years in office. That all changed last year. … Zeteo
Black News 
By Asawin Suebsaeng|Zeteo
Photos: Wikimedia Commons
Ever since he returned to power, Donald Trump and his top officials have claimed they are “combating antisemitism” – and have used this as a pretext for launching crackdown after crackdown on free speech, immigration, students, civil liberties, and Trump’s enemies.
It may have been slightly easier for Team Trump to claim that it is fighting antisemitism if the administration weren’t also simultaneously pulling the plug on programs designed to fight antisemitism. Zeteo spoke at length with the director of one such program, which lost its longtime State Department funding shortly after Trump regained the keys to the Oval Office.
In mid-April 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Elon Musk’s Twitter that “under my direction,” the State Department has “canceled another 139 grants worth $214 million.” He added: “American taxpayers should not be funding misguided programs like ‘Building the Migrant Domestic Worker-Led Movement’ in Lebanon or ‘Get the Trolls Out!’ in the United Kingdom.”
According to its website, Get the Trolls Out is “led by the Media Diversity Institute (MDI) with the support of six partners spread throughout Europe.” The project has operated in multiple countries, and its programs are aimed at fighting antisemitism in media, social media, and politics. The project and MDI have long sought to push back against various forms of bigotry and hate, including anti-Muslim hatred.
MDI was also a signatory to a 2024 letter urging the Israeli government to allow reporters open access to Gaza. And in September 2025, the organization joined a protest in Brussels opposing Israel’s slaughter of journalists in Gaza. “We stand by our colleagues in Gaza who bravely risk their lives to document conflict,” Luc Steinberg, the head of operations at MDI Global, said in a statement. “We demand those responsible for their deaths be held accountable.”
But the group’s focus on combating antisemitism was so prominent that – according to documents that were read to Zeteo– when the State Department inked its contracts with MDI to help fund its “Trolls”-related work, the titles or lead paragraphs of multiple grant applications were specifically about fighting anti-Jewish hatred.
The organization had partnered with the US State Department over the course of Republican and Democratic presidencies, and the first Trump administration saw the work worthwhile enough to keep funding the project during his initial four years in office. That all changed last year. …
