US grants to UK conservative groups draw foreign meddling accusations

US State Department plans $7 million grant to 878, a group co-founded by Rees-Mogg

The US State Department intends to grant $12 million to conservative organisations in the United Kingdom, the Guardian reported, in a move critics describe as an attempt to influence foreign politics. Of that total, $7 million is going to a group called 878, co-founded by the former Conservative minister and television host Jacob Rees-Mogg, whose net worth the newspaper estimated at more than £100 million.

The organisation, which the Guardian said appears to have been incorporated in the UK in March, describes itself on its website as “a leading British and American thinktank, dedicated to strengthening the civilisational partnership between the United Kingdom and the United States.”

The grants follow the Trump administration’s decision in February 2025 to effectively shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Shortly after President Trump wrote on Truth Social, “THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE” and “CLOSE IT DOWN!”, most USAID staff were placed on indefinite administrative leave under what the administration framed as an “America first” agenda. In the lead-up, some outlets, including Fox News, repeated without evidence claims that USAID was spending millions on condoms for Gaza, the Guardian reported.

A former US official told the Guardian that normal funding processes are being subverted so that money can go to Trump-aligned causes. Further funds are being offered through calls for proposals from European groups to develop “civilizational self-confidence in Europe” and address “national sovereignty, migration, censorship, and lawfare challenges in line with our shared political philosophy, law, and Western heritage,” according to the report.

The process behind the grants has drawn scrutiny. Zsuzsanna Végh, a researcher in liberal democracy, told the i Paper that “the advertising of the funding calls follows a long period of networking among Maga and like-minded European actors, which have already facilitated the identification of a pool of possible recipients.” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned the Trump administration against interfering in German elections following the grants, and Lisa Smart, a Liberal Democrat MP, accused the funding of “meddling in our democracy.”

The US embassy in London is separately offering grants of up to $500,000 for “public education” programmes meant to foster a “national conversation” about “shared civilizational values” between the United Kingdom and the United States. One recently departed US State Department official told the Guardian that this seems to be an attempt to “create UK-originated narratives to support Maga propaganda.”

The moves align with the administration’s stated posture toward Europe. Last December the new US national security strategy claimed Europe faced “civilizational erasure” and said US policies must include “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations,” which the Guardian reported as calling for bolstering far-right parties and influencers across the continent.

The column also placed the sums in broader context, contrasting the $12 million in UK-facing grants with the war with Iran, which it said has cost at least $37.5 billion so far, and citing a Politico poll finding that only a third of Trump’s base thought the war in Iran was worth the cost, down from half in May. It noted that President Trump, who made an estimated $2.2 billion last year, has brushed off cost-of-living concerns, declaring: “I don’t want to hear about the affordability.”