Foreign Influence Operations in U.S. Under House Scrutiny

President Trump signed an Executive Order on April 23, 2025, titled "Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence at American Universities," mandating full and timely disclosure of foreign funding by higher education institutions. In August, the Pentagon instructed universities to audit collaborations with organizations associated with rebranded Confucius Institutes, requiring findings to be reported to the Department of Defense by August 31.

A new Trump Presidential Memo on countering domestic terrorism revives Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) enforcement, targeting NGOs and foreign-linked agents for violations and money laundering.

What They're Saying

Four witnesses testified at the hearing.

Mike Gonzalez, the Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum Senior Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, focused on ideological capture and funding networks. He testified that a "red-green" alliance of far-left groups working with Islamist organizations channels money through intermediary organizations before directing funds toward U.S.-based groups that organize protests and produce political messaging. Gonzalez specifically alleged that Neville Roy Singham, who lives in China, uses his wealth to provide millions of dollars and personnel to extremist groups including CodePink, the People's Forum, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. He cited Fox News Digital's analysis documenting $278 million flowing from Singham into six core nonprofit organizations beginning in 2017 that promulgate "anti-America, pro-China propaganda." The People's Forum alone received $22.44 million from Singham, according to Gonzalez's testimony.

Gonzalez recommended dramatically strengthening FARA enforcement, including criminal referrals for non-compliance. He also urged expanding the definition of "foreign principal" to cover Chinese Communist Party-linked entities operating through intermediary organizations, requiring universities to disclose all foreign gifts and contracts above a lower threshold than currently mandated, and shutting down or more tightly regulating Confucius Institutes and similar soft-power vehicles.

Dr. Matthew Johnson, a senior fellow at The Jamestown Foundation specializing in China's elite politics and technology policy, detailed how authoritarian states use layered networks of front organizations, social media manipulation, and diaspora community targeting to conduct influence operations. Johnson warned that Beijing increasingly seeks to influence debates over national security by working through American institutions and organizations. He detailed The Jamestown Foundation's research into Chinese Communist Party "overseas police stations" operating in U.S. cities and noted that authoritarian influence operations increasingly exploit legal loopholes in campaign finance law to funnel money through shell companies.

Johnson recommended establishing a dedicated interagency counter-influence task force with a permanent mandate, requiring social media platforms to disclose state-linked advertising and coordinated inauthentic behavior in near-real time, investing in open-source intelligence capabilities within the intelligence community to track influence operations at scale, and strengthening information-sharing between federal agencies and state and local governments.

Sam Lyman, head of research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute, brought a novel focus on cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence infrastructure as vectors for foreign financing. Lyman cited Treasury and Office of Foreign Assets Control data on the North Korean Lazarus Group using decentralized finance bridges to launder proceeds from cyberattacks. He noted that China's digital yuan is designed with full transaction surveillance built in and referenced a 2025 Financial Crimes Enforcement Network report documenting Iranian use of cryptocurrency exchanges to fund influence operations. Lyman testified on a foreign influence campaign specifically targeting America's artificial intelligence buildout, linking cryptocurrency and AI infrastructure vulnerabilities to adversarial state actors.

Lyman recommended targeting enforcement at mixers, privacy coins, and decentralized finance protocols used by state actors rather than at Bitcoin broadly, opposing any legislative mandates for cryptocurrency "backdoors" or blanket transaction surveillance, strengthening the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's analytical capacity to track illicit flows without expanding mass surveillance, and distinguishing clearly in law between permissioned digital currencies like China's digital yuan and permissionless networks like Bitcoin.

Donald K. Sherman, president and chief executive officer of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, centered his testimony on enforcement gaps and the need for transparency safeguards. Sherman cited Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's own investigations into foreign-linked dark money flowing into U.S. political campaigns and referenced Department of Justice Inspector General reports documenting chronic understaffing of the FARA Unit.

Sherman recommended fully funding and staffing the Department of Justice's FARA Unit and the Federal Election Commission's enforcement division, closing the "dark money" loophole in campaign finance law that allows foreign funds to enter U.S. elections through 501(c)(4) organizations, requiring beneficial ownership transparency for limited liability companies and shell companies used to funnel foreign money, strengthening whistleblower protections for individuals who report foreign influence activities, and ensuring that counter-influence efforts are nonpartisan and subject to independent oversight to prevent weaponization.

The Contradiction: Enforcement vs. Dismantling

While witnesses advocated for stronger enforcement, expanded task forces, and greater transparency, the administration has simultaneously dismantled key infrastructure for detecting and countering foreign interference.

In February 2025, former Attorney General Bondi dissolved the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the closure of the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office, which had succeeded the Global Engagement Center after its legislative authority terminated on December 23, 2024.

Between January and August 2025, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence slashed more than 500 staff members, or roughly 30 percent of its workforce. Former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced she would eliminate additional positions and scale back the Foreign Malign Influence Center, with plans to reorganize the office by "eliminating the National Intelligence University and shrinking the Foreign Malign Influence Center."

Political Stakes

Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI-4) authored a bipartisan State Department authorization provision that President Trump signed into law, authorizing the undersecretary to lead synchronized and coordinated efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign information manipulation and malign activities.

Background

A July issue of Small Wars Journal detailed the Chinese Communist Party's "active campaign to undermine U.S. interests" through "economic espionage, traditional espionage, state-directed cyber intrusions, talent recruitment programs, information warfare, and covert influence networks." The Center for Foreign Interference Research documented a Chinese Communist Party move in June to establish a "Comprehensive Foreign Interference Operations Framework" combining trade leverage with covert political interference.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China's June report, titled "The PRC's Transnational Repression and Malign Influence in 2025," found that the Chinese government's transnational repression and malign influence operations pose significant threats to human rights and sovereignty, intimidating and censoring legal residents on U.S. soil.

Senators Adam Schiff (D-CA) and John Curtis (R-UT) introduced the Stop Transnational Repression Act of 2026 in July. The legislation would create the first federal definition for the crimes of transnational repression and institute enhanced criminal penalties. The Disclosing Foreign Influence in Lobbying Act was passed by the Senate on December 16, 2025.

The Complication

Ranking Member Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA-37) used the hearing to raise a broader concern: the full committee has not held a single hearing on Trump's business deals with countries in the Middle East or the lavish gifts Trump has accepted from foreign governments.

The Trump administration approved the export of 500,000 advanced artificial intelligence chips to the United Arab Emirates. A top UAE national security advisor, chairman of the Emirates Wealth Fund, and controlling shareholder of the artificial intelligence company G42 bought a 49 percent stake in President Trump's crypto company, World Liberty Financial. In addition, 100,000 advanced artificial intelligence chips were greenlit for direct sale to G42, a company with ties to the People's Republic of China.

President Trump accepted a $400 million plane from the Qatari government. Investors with Dominari Securities, which is housed at Trump Tower in New York and partly owned by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, joined with other partners to take a 20% stake in a corporate entity related to a Kazakhstan project. Cantor Fitzgerald helped raise $210 million in new capital for an entity related to the Kazakhstan mining deal.

What's Next

The administration has already moved on some fronts, such as the April 2025 executive order on university transparency and the August directive from the Pentagon on Confucius Institutes.

Senators Adam Schiff (D-CA) and John Curtis (R-UT) introduced the Stop Transnational Repression Act of 2026 in July.

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