Trump's Attack on America's National Security

Trump’s Gift to Russia and China

Photo Credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post

Trump’s Gift to Russia, China, and America’s Adversaries: A National Security Disaster

In just over two weeks, Trump has crippled U.S. national security, delivering massive wins to Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. One radical move after another, he has dismantled America’s defenses against foreign interference, corruption, and election meddling—deliberately exposing the U.S. to attack—while simultaneously waging war on our law enforcement and national security agencies

By unraveling critical national security protections, Trump has signaled to adversaries that the U.S. will no longer actively counter their influence. These moves not only endanger America’s electoral integrity but also open the door for authoritarian regimes to expand their control and further infiltrate key institutions with impunity.

Dismantling America’s Defenses: A Direct Gift to Russia

One of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s first acts was to disband the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, a unit dedicated to countering adversarial interference in U.S. politics. Created after Russia’s attack on the 2016 election, the task force investigated foreign hacking, cyberattacks, election infrastructure breaches, and influence operations—including on social media.

Now? Russia, China, and Iran have free rein to attack U.S. elections with barely any FBI oversight.

Bondi also gutted enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)—ensuring that foreign political operatives can work in America without disclosure or consequence. This means that lobbyists, political influencers, and even disinformation agents working on behalf of foreign governments can now operate freely within the U.S. without fear of repercussions. The removal of these enforcement mechanisms effectively greenlights covert foreign influence on U.S. lawmakers, policies, and political campaigns.

And let’s not forget that FARA once served as a key tool for holding foreign agents and lobbyists accountable—including Trump’s former associates. Case in point: Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign manager, was convicted under FARA for secretly working on behalf of Russia while influencing U.S. policy on Ukraine.

Rolling Out the Red Carpet for Russian Oligarchs

And there’s more... Bondi shut down Task Force KleptoCapture, which was created in 2022 to freeze and seize assets of Kremlin-linked oligarchs funding Russia’s war machine. This task force targeted billionaires like Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg, seizing their superyachts and luxury properties. With its dissolution, dirty Russian blood money will soon be floating in the U.S. financial system.

Not only does this decision weaken sanctions enforcement, but it also gives Russian elites a pathway to funnel illicit wealth through American banks and real estate. The move undermines Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s genocidal aggression and signals to all corrupt foreign actors that America is open for business when it comes to laundering stolen assets. With the disappearance of financial scrutiny, foreigners will be free to fund pro-Kremlin initiatives, influence policymakers, and shape U.S. policy in Moscow’s favor.

If You Think It Stops There—Nope.

Bondi also shifted enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), a key tool for targeting bribery and illicit financial networks. By deprioritizing white-collar crime and corruption cases, her office has effectively signaled to foreign entities that violations will no longer be aggressively prosecuted. This move will embolden corrupt officials, business figures, and oligarchs to engage in unchecked financial manipulation, further entrenching foreign influence in critical sectors of the U.S. economy.

USAID Shutdown: Our Adversarie Dream

And all of this while Trump has also shuttered USAID, one of the U.S.’s strongest tools for countering authoritarian influence abroad. USAID has been essential in stabilizing fragile states, promoting democracy, providing life-saving humanitarian aid, and blocking Russian and Chinese expansionism. By shutting it down, Trump has given autocratic regimes free rein to dominate vulnerable nations.

Without USAID, U.S. allies will be defenseless against foreign influence. Russia and China will expand unchecked, filling the void with economic coercion and military partnerships. Countries in Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe will lose resources to resist foreign domination, making them easy targets for authoritarian control, corruption, and manipulation.

USAID’s closure cripples America’s global influence, reducing its ability to shape international policy and maintain key alliances. Russia and China will now accelerate their Belt and Road Initiative and energy dominance, cementing control over global politics while the U.S. retreats from the world stage. The consequences will echo for generations, weakening democracy and emboldening autocrats.

Trump’s National Security Purge

All this is happening as Trump continues an further assault on America’s intelligence infrastructure and is pushing buyout offers to the FBI, CIA, NSA, and other national security agencies, aiming to purge career officials and replace them with loyalists. These potentially illegal forced exits will cripple intelligence operations at a time of heightened global threats.

To make matters worse, the CIA exposed new hires in an unclassified transmission, at the request of the White House, revealing the names of young analysts recruited to counter China. According to The New York Times, “The list included first names and the first initial of the last name of the new hires, who are still on probation—and thus easy to dismiss. It included a large crop of young analysts and operatives who were hired specifically to focus on China, and whose identities are usually closely guarded because Chinese hackers are constantly seeking to identify them.” With foreign intelligence services constantly hunting for vulnerabilities, this intentional move put American operatives directly in harm’s way.

The intelligence community is already struggling to retain talent, and these buyouts will further erode U.S. counterintelligence capabilities, leaving adversaries like Russia and China with a clear advantage. This mass purge is not just an internal shake-up—it is a deliberate weakening of the very institutions that safeguard U.S. national security.

Elon Musk’s Seizure of the Federal Government

As Trump dismantles America’s defenses, Elon Musk is dismantling agencies while stealing and copying sensitive data on federal employess and all Americans. Musk, who previously held secret calls with Putin and has lucrative contracts with China, is siphoning sensitive U.S. data. Federal agencies are losing control of critical national security data.

America’s Retreat from Democracy

This isn’t just bad policy—it’s outright national sabotage. Trump is:

• Eliminating U.S. defenses against foreign election interference

• Welcoming back foreign operatives and their dirty money

• Ending enforcement against Russian and Chinese corruption

• Destroying America’s ability to counter authoritarian influence abroad

• Allowing Elon Musk unchecked access to sensitive U.S. intelligence and data on all Americans, risking espionage and foreign infiltration

This is a dangerous disaster for U.S. security, democracy, and global influence.

What Comes Next?

With Trump promising to “end the war in Ukraine” without details and dismantling every institution meant to hold Russia accountable, the question isn’t if Moscow will exploit these openings—it’s when and how aggressively.

Trump is carrying out a catastrophic betrayal of America’s global leadership and a direct attack on U.S. security.