Witnesses Sound The Alarm On Foreigners Bankrolling Leftist Causes In America
By Shawn FleetwoodForeign nationals are quietly bankrolling leftist causes throughout the United States, several witnesses told House lawmakers on Tuesday.
The concerning news came during a House Ways and Means Committee hearing focused on noncitizens pouring foreign dollars into U.S.-based nonprofit organizations. These groups, many of the witnesses said, are employing such funds to advance left-wing causes and policy priorities across the country.
“It’s refreshing to have a hearing where all witnesses share strong agreement on a central point, namely, foreign money should be kept out of American politics,” said Capital Research Center President Scott Walter. “A lot of these [foreign funding] problems involve America’s nonprofit sector, which is traditionally a glory and a strength of this exceptional country. But foreigners abuse this sector — especially tools like fiscal sponsorship and donor-advised funds, which aren’t inherently bad things — in order to hide their influence ops.”
In his testimony, Walter referenced the “politicized” and recently re-acquisitioned Arabella Advisors, a “dark money” network that includes various tax-exempt 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations that subsidize various left-wing ventures. Among these groups is the U.S.-based Sixteen Thirty Fund, which has reportedly received more than $200 million from leftist Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss and his Berger Action Fund.
As documented in a March 2025 Americans for Public Trust (APT) report, the Sixteen Thirty Fund has “spent $130 million bankrolling ballot issues in 26 states” since 2014. Among these are left-wing measures codifying abortion into state constitutions, raising the minimum wage, and more.
“The precise reason this Swiss billionaire or any other foreign billionaire can do this is because foreign money running through foundations and nonprofits to influence policy and advocacy is not prohibited,” APT Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland said. “This has allowed Mr. Wyss to keep the lights on at numerous left-wing nonprofits around town, including giving $280 million to Sixteen Thirty Fund, $30 million to the League of Conservation Voters network, $9 million to the ACLU network, and $7 million to Indivisible — the chief organization leading nationwide protests.”
“How these tax-exempt organizations can simultaneously raise and spend hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign actors, be it from Switzerland or China, all while seeking to influence policies in our backyard, is a problem worth solving,” she added.
The APT executive director also highlighted the interference of British billionaire Christopher Hohn and other foreign charities in bankrolling U.S.-based leftist causes — particularly those pushing the left’s climate agenda.
Foreigners’ subsidization of left-wing activities throughout the United States isn’t exclusive to ballot measure campaigns and environmentalism, however. It also appears to be a significant component of ongoing anti-ICE demonstrations in major American cities.
In his testimony, Network Contagion Research Institute co-founder Adam Sohn pointed to concerning reports surrounding Neville Roy Singham, an American-born millionaire who now lives in Shanghai and is reported to have extensive ties with the Chinese Communist Party. As recently reported by the New York Post, Singham “has become a major funder of left-wing activist networks, including protests in Minnesota and other cities, all coordinated from his base in Shanghai.”
According to Fox News, House lawmakers launched a probe into Singham last year “for his alleged involvement in funding the anti-ICE riots that took place in Los Angeles.” Singham has since faced renewed scrutiny amid allegations that he has bankrolled groups that are purportedly helping fan the flames of recent anti-ICE demonstrations in Minneapolis, Minnesota, following the deaths of two anti-ICE activists.
“This is not grassroots protest. It is a repeatable system for paralyzing American infrastructure on demand, financed through U.S. tax law and aligned with a hostile foreign power,” Sohn said in reference to Singham’s reported activities. “It is an active vulnerability we cannot afford to leave intact.”
For their part, House Democrats and their witness (Public Citizen Co-President Robert Weissman) spent most of their time attacking one man: Donald Trump. The committee’s Democrats and Weissman — whose organization previously backed leftist-led efforts to pack the Supreme Court — repeatedly criticized the president and his administration for accepting a $400 million plane from Qatar.
WATCH: @CaitlinAPT calls out the irony of a foreign-funded witness testifying before @WaysandMeansGOP about foreign influence in U.S. politics:
— Americans for Public Trust (@apublictrust) February 10, 2026
“We have the Democrat witness joining with us that has actually received a donation from the Wyss Foundation — the very Swiss… pic.twitter.com/ILIFB3n6ii
“We can and we should have effective instruments to address undue, improper, foreign influence. They have to be administered robustly, but also fairly and without regard to point of view,” Weissman said. “Right now, however, the Trump administration is actively degrading those institutions, rules, and policies, while simultaneously threatening to use them against its political adversaries. Our democracy needs a complete reversal.”
Weissman’s repeated attacks on the president ultimately prompted pushback from Republican Rep. Beth Van Duyne. The Texas congresswoman noted that while Weissman has “positioned [himself] as a leading voice against dark money and foreign influence in American democracy,” his Tuesday testimony “has been nothing more than a hit job on President Trump.”
“Instead of confronting how foreign actors linked to the Chinese Communist Party, Iran, Qatar, and other adversarial regimes have exploited tax-exempt organizations to influence American politics, support terrorism, fuel antisemitism, and sow division within our country, your remarks have focused on attacking President Trump while giving a pass to networks that amplify foreign, malign influence on the left,” Van Duyne said. “And until you and my Democrat colleagues apply the same rigor to your own funding ecosystem and to left-leaning dark money networks, your calls for reform are pretty much hollow and your credibility compromised.”
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