The US embassy in London is offering money for British projects that promote Washington’s political priorities. Behind the respectable language of “public diplomacy” lies a familiar imperial practice: using money and institutional influence to make the interests of the US ruling class appear to be universal democratic values.
Serving and recently departed US State Department officials have expressed unease about the initiative. One told the Guardian: “While it’s not unusual to support public diplomacy efforts to showcase the special relationship between the US and UK, to specifically fund topics related to a narrow vision of America First is highly unusual.”
The same official accused the US government of trying to “create UK-originated narratives to support Maga propaganda”.
That phrase gets to the heart of the matter. Propaganda carries more weight when it appears to come from local organisations rather than directly from a foreign embassy. Washington isn’t simply explaining its policies. It is offering to fund British voices willing to reproduce its political line.
Capitalist power doesn’t rely on force alone. It also funds institutions, publications and campaigns that make ruling-class interests look like common sense. Marxists understand this as part of the ideological work of the capitalist state. The ruling class needs workers to accept its priorities as their own, whether those priorities involve military alliances, trade wars or support for reactionary governments abroad.
The grant notice says the funding isn’t intended to support partisan political activity or lobbying. That formal distinction does little to change its political purpose. Money doesn’t have to carry a party label to shape public debate. Selecting which ideas receive funding, and which don’t, is already a political act.
A spokesperson for the US embassy said the initiative was intended to strengthen US-UK ties “and deepen public understanding of the constitutional principles, rule of law, and democratic norms that underpin both nations”.
But the so-called special relationship has never been a partnership between equal peoples. It is an alliance between ruling classes, with the British state acting as Washington’s junior partner. British workers receive no special benefit from this arrangement. They get higher military spending, involvement in US-led wars and constant pressure to accept Washington’s enemies as their own.
Responding to allegations of meddling, the embassy added: “The Embassy is mindful of such concerns, and has discontinued Biden-era public diplomacy spending on divisive ideological projects such as ‘climate justice,’ LGBTQ activism, and race-based hiring initiatives – none of which, to our recollection, raised such complaints from officials.”
This reply exposes both the continuity and the change in US policy. Washington funded ideological projects under Biden, and it is funding them under Trump. The preferred themes have changed because different sections of the US ruling class use different political language. Liberal imperialism decorates itself with diversity and social progress. MAGA imperialism reaches instead for nationalism, reaction and the culture war. Both use state money to defend American capitalist power.
A second grant opportunity advertised through the embassy’s Public Diplomacy Section makes the imperial content even clearer. Applicants proposing “Educational and public awareness initiatives” are encouraged to pursue goals that include strengthening US prosperity and British economic resilience. They are also invited to secure British support for US policy, including “ensuring support for Israel’s right to defend itself”, and to counter competition from China.
A former State Department official said: “In the past the language for this stuff would be more like ‘increase understanding of US policy’. This is very openly saying more ‘persuade people to agree with US policy’.”
The official added: “Increasing support for Israel in a third country is weird. Can’t say if it’s ever been done, but it’s weird.”
From a working-class standpoint, the problem goes beyond diplomatic convention. Washington wants British organisations to help manufacture consent for US backing of Israel and its sharpening confrontation with China. These aren’t abstract questions of national values. They concern markets, trade routes, genocide, military power and the struggle between capitalist states over the division of the world.
Lenin described imperialism as the stage of capitalism dominated by monopolies, finance capital and rivalry among the great powers. The language has been modernised, but the system hasn’t changed. Today’s grant programmes are one small part of that machinery. They prepare the ideological ground by presenting US strategic interests as democracy, security and shared prosperity.
British workers have their own interests. They don’t need Washington to choose their enemies, write their politics or pay local organisations to repeat MAGA talking points. The answer is independent working-class politics, international solidarity and a determined refusal to let either wing of the US ruling class set the terms of public debate.
