[Salon] The US ran Democratization Programs; Does it need one Itself? - Guest Post by Alex Poppe

The US ran Democratization Programs; Does it need one Itself? Alex Poppe 07/18/2026 Tulsa, OK (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Former USAID Administrator Samantha Power established the Democracy Delivers Initiative to support emerging democracies. When a reformer was elected to office, Democracy Delivers surged attention, support, and resources to that reformer so he/she could deliver economic and social benefits to voters. When voters experienced how their lives were better under a democratic system, the hope was they would continue to vote for reformers as the difficult process of political and economic reform took place. I served as the strategic communications advisor for this initiative. The inaugural cohort contained nine countries, grouped geographically: Armenia, Moldova, Maldives, Nepal, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Ecuador, and the Dominican Republic. During my tenure, Fiji and Guatemala joined the initiative while Tanzania was stripped of its Democracy Delivers designation. Although I did not set the criteria or adjudicate which countries were included, I did participate in the decision-making to remove Tanzania from the initiative due to its repression of human rights and government-sponsored violent crackdown on political opposition before elections. Fiji was invited to join the Democracy Delivers Initiative due to its historic peaceful transition of power following its national elections. I used to mentally compare Fiji’s transition of power to the January 6th attacks on the US Capitol and wonder if the United States would qualify as a Democracy Delivers country if it were under consideration. Almost 18 months into President Trump’s second term, a term characterized by corruption, attacks on the free press, and moves to limit free and fair elections, I doubt the United States would be a Democracy Delivers contender. Much of the corruption characterizing the present administration centers in the executive branch. Senator Chris Murphy detailed President Trump’s corruption on the Senate floor in June 2026. His examples illustrate how the president, his family, and members of his administration have used their positions of power to enrich themselves and do favor for the wealthy friends. The president’s dealings in crypto currency, from which he made $1.4 billiondollars during his first year in office, are illustrative. His acting Attorney General Todd Blanche terminated several DOJ investigations (started under the previous administration) into crypto companies. Then the acting AG got rid of the entire DOJ enforcement team working to root out crypto-related fraud and money-laundering schemes. Acting AG Blanche is a major investor in crypto companies, and his boss, the president, is a major player in the industry, owning several crypto companies. One company the president and his family own issues several crypto coins with no transparency about who buys them. Rather, the president promotes them and invites people to events to purchase them. As of September 2025, the president made $57 million selling crypto tokens to entities with ties to North Korea, Iran, and Russia. One month later, the president pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who helped the president set up his crypto business. The Trump administration used high-level diplomatic pressure, including a phone call from President Trump to the president of Kazakhstan, to help Vulcan Elements, now part of Kaz Resources, lock up access to an $80 billion tungsten deposit in Kazakhstan. Within weeks of that meeting, which was not publicly announced, President Trump’s two oldest sons became investors in the same company while the federal government was simultaneously preparing to put $1.6 billion behind the deal. Vulcan was worth $200 million before the deal. After Donald Trump Jr. became an investor, the Pentagon took a $50 million stake in Vulcan Elements and gave Vulcan Elements a $620 million taxpayer funded loan. After the deal, Vulcan Elements became worth $2 billion. Contract awards are another area rife with corruption under the present administration. Steven Miller, who oversees ICE, owns up to a quarter of a million dollars in Palantir stock. Right before his holdings became public, the administration awarded Palantir a $30 million contract to provide real time surveillance information to ICE officers, but there had not been a competitive bidding process for that contract. Atlantic Industrial coatings won a $13.1 million no-bid contract, which later grew to $14.6 million, to renovate the reflecting pool. Atlantic Industrial Coatings had no prior experience in federal construction. Similarly, the administration secretly awarded a no-bid $500 million contract to Clark Construction for the East Wing ballroom project. Additionally, over half of the publicly-identified people who donated to the president’s White House ballroom project have received new or expanded federal contracts worth $50 billion in total. The free press has suffered under President Trump’s administration. Recently, the DOJ issued subpoenas to New York Times reporters who reported on the new Air Force One’s security concerns. The government is trying to force reporters to disclose sources in an effort to intimidate news organizations and make sources more reluctant to report misconduct. Although the plane was a gift from the Qatar government, American tax payers have spent $400 million to retrofit and upgrade it. Addressing the security concerns reported by the New York Times could cost tax payers up to $1 billion. In addition to the DOJ-issued subpoenas, the FBI raided the home of Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson, seizing all her devices during an investigation into leaked government documents. The administration has restricted press access to the Pentagon after some news organizations refused to sign a policy restricting reporters from gathering unauthorized information. According to Politico, the Pentagon press office is now considered classified and therefore off limits to reporters. The FCC has explored revoking broadcasting licenses for networks that aired programming critical of the president. Likewise, the administration pushed to strip federal funding from NPR and PBS, which some media outlets have declared as politically motivated. From pardoning the January 6th rioters to having election deniers sworn in as the attorney general and the FBI director to threatening 2020 election officials with prosecution, President Trump has been trying to undermine free and fair elections since he returned to office. His tactics to influence the upcoming mid-term elections include increasing voting restrictions, pushing for redistricting mid-decade, gutting election security infrastructure, questioning previous election results to undermine public trust in the electoral process, punishing those who have combatted election denialism, and trying to nationalize elections. According to the US Constitution, Congress has the ability to pass federal election legislation while states control their elections. Photo of Brussels sign by Francesco Tarini on Unsplash The president is pressuring Congress pass the SAVE America Act, which would disenfranchise voters. According to the Brennan Center, the SAVE America Act would require people to show a passport or birth certificate to register to vote. Many people register to vote online, especially in rural areas. Others register to vote through voter drive campaigns or civic outreach when they don’t have their passport or birth certificate on them. Many Americans don’t have a passport, which is expensive to obtain, or easy access to their birth certificate. Married women who have taken their husband’s last name will face potential obstacles if their birth certificates and passports do not list their married names (an impossibility on a birth certificate). The SAVE America Act empowers local officials to decide if a person has done enough to prove citizenship if they do not have a specified document, but officials can face civil or criminal penalties if they fail to collect the necessary paperwork. The SAVE America Act also requires states to give their voter rolls to DHS. Finally, the SAVE America Act requires a photo ID to vote, but school IDs are not acceptable nor are tribal IDs unless they have an expiration date, which many do not contain. For American democracy to recover, we need to elect reformers to office at the local, state, and federal levels. Since there is no more Democracy Delivers, it is up to us to mobilize attention, support, and resources to the leaders who make decisions to better the country and its citizens instead of enriching themselves.