A controversial U.S. State Department office once accused of suppressing conservative viewpoints under the Trump administration is quietly resuming some of its original work despite its recent shutdown. Critics claimed leaked documents would expose the Global Engagement Center as a tool for domestic censorship, but two former senior officials insist the files reveal no such misuse. The office, defunded and dissolved after Trump’s return to power, had been a target of Republican skepticism over its role in combating foreign propaganda. With its operations partially revived, questions remain over whether its mission—or its political legacy—has truly changed.
Inside the US state department, critics are still attacking a shuttered office established to counter foreign propaganda. Now, some of its work is also being resumedA botched leak of purportedly explosive government files to a prominent conservative online personality was supposed to offer proof of what the Trump administration and its allies have long alleged: that a little-known office inside the US state department, created to fight foreign propaganda, had secretly become a tool for domestic censorship.Two former high-ranking officials at the Global Engagement Center (GEC), a target of Republican ire that lost its funding in 2024 and was disbanded after Donald Trump’s return to office in 2025, say the documents show nothing of the kind. Continue reading...
