Life for civil society in the United States has changed dramatically in the course of just one year. President Donald Trump’s administration has hit the NGO sector and its funders with a flurry of attacks — both rhetorical and regulatory — in a pattern that is recognizable to campaigners living under oppressive regimes worldwide.
“We see the same patterns of democratic backsliding and shrinking civic space all over,” said Veronika Móra, the director of the Ökotárs foundation in Budapest and a founding member of Civilizáció, a cooperative dedicated to supporting Hungarian civil society.
The U.S. is still in the early stages of such a shift. “We’re not yet Russia, we’re not yet Hungary,” said Yelena Litvinov, cofounder of Stroika, a U.S.-based organization that supports anti-authoritarian movements around the world.