Co-Opted Voices: How Foreign Powers and Ideological Networks Are Undermining America from Within

From Europe’s unraveling to the U.S. front line—how Qatar, China, Iran, and their allies are using influence, money, and media to fracture democracy

Introduction: The Warning from Across the Atlantic

Europe’s moral crisis did not begin overnight. For years, Jewish communities and democratic institutions warned of foreign ideological infiltration, antisemitism, and cultural decay creeping into universities, political systems, and civil society. Those warnings were dismissed—until it was too late.

Now, that same contagion is spreading to the United States, where foreign governments, extremist ideologies, and compromised media figures are manipulating public discourse to undermine the nation’s democratic foundations. The objective is not simply to alter U.S. foreign policy—it is to weaken America’s unity, moral confidence, and global leadership.

As Europe’s crisis shows, when democratic societies abandon vigilance, corruption enters not through invasion but through invitation.

1. From Europe to America: The Ideological Virus Crosses the Atlantic

The Muslim Brotherhood’s ideological network, long active in Europe, has expanded its influence in North America through think tanks, nonprofits, and academic partnerships. These entities often present themselves as humanitarian or cultural organizations but advance narratives that challenge democratic institutions and U.S. alliances.

A report by Trends Research & Advisory (2025) notes that Brotherhood-aligned networks pursue a “long-term strategy to weaken democratic societies from within,” using universities, religious centers, and advocacy groups as platforms rather than violence as their weapon of choice. Similarly, France’s Ministry of Interior warned in 2025 that the Brotherhood’s methods, though “non-violent, represent a real threat to national cohesion and democratic institutions” (France 24, 2025).

Those same strategies are now evident in the United States, where foreign-funded organizations, campus coalitions, and influencers promote narratives that align closely with Qatari, Iranian, and Chinese state interests.

2. The New Battleground: America’s Universities

American campuses, once centers of intellectual freedom, have become ideological laboratories where antisemitism and anti-democratic sentiment flourish under the guise of social justice.

Following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks, student demonstrations at major universities celebrated Hamas militants and vilified Israel—echoing rhetoric propagated by Middle Eastern regimes hostile to U.S. interests (Beaumont, 2024).

According to B’nai B’rith International (2025), antisemitic incidents have surged on American campuses, often tolerated or excused by administrators afraid of political backlash. Jewish students report harassment, intimidation, and social ostracism for supporting Israel or expressing dissenting views.

This is not merely cultural unrest; it is ideological infiltration. When foreign powers fund academic centers, student organizations, or visiting scholar programs, they are not investing in education—they are buying influence. The line between activism and manipulation blurs, leaving universities vulnerable to becoming propaganda pipelines.

3. Co-Opted Voices: How Foreign Influence Captures America’s Commentators

The erosion of America’s democratic resilience is no longer confined to academia. It now extends to media influencers who shape national opinion, often unwittingly amplifying foreign agendas.

Candace Owens: From Patriotism to Propaganda

Once a strong advocate for conservative American values and a vocal supporter of Israel, Candace Owens has dramatically shifted her stance—now echoing narratives sympathetic to Hamas and critical of U.S. allies.

In 2024, investigative pieces and public feuds exposed claims that Owens had been approached by Qatari intermediaries offering compensation for “reframed commentary” on Middle Eastern affairs (iNews ZoomBangla, 2024). Although no conclusive evidence of payment exists, the pattern of sudden ideological reversal raises questions about the extent of Qatar’s media-influence operations (PowerMentor, 2025).

Owens’s transformation mirrors the strategic goal of Qatari and Iranian influence campaigns: to erode pro-Israel sentiment, fracture conservative unity, and weaponize “anti-establishment” rhetoric against America’s own democratic institutions.

Tucker Carlson: The Echo of Doha

Few figures have shaped American political discourse as profoundly as Tucker Carlson. Once an outspoken defender of Western democracy, his recent posture toward Qatar—including a highly publicized interview with the Qatari Prime Minister—illustrates how foreign regimes leverage access, prestige, and media partnerships to co-opt influential voices.

Reports from the Quincy Institute (2025) and Global Influence Ops (2025) reveal that Qatar’s lobbying machine has actively targeted U.S. right-wing media, cultivating relationships with high-profile commentators like Carlson through well-funded public-relations firms and access-driven events. His 2025 Doha interview was reportedly facilitated by a Qatari-funded lobby group that provided both venue and talking points, according to Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filings.

This strategy is deliberate. By influencing conservative icons, Qatar and its allies exploit America’s polarization from both ends—recruiting right-wing and left-wing media alike to echo their preferred narratives while attacking U.S. democratic institutions as “corrupt” or “imperial.”

The Broader Pattern: Influence by Design

Between 2016 and 2025, Qatar spent an estimated US $250 million on lobbying and influence operations in the United States—more than any other foreign government (Quincy Institute, 2025). These operations included 627 registered political contacts with members of Congress, think-tank executives, and journalists.

By embedding itself within U.S. political and cultural ecosystems, Qatar has perfected the art of soft-power manipulation—investing in think tanks, sports, universities, and media to reshape public opinion while masking its authoritarian realities (The Week, 2025).

When leading commentators like Owens and Carlson echo narratives favorable to Qatar or hostile to America’s democratic allies, it signals not independent journalism but strategic capture.

4. Foreign Powers Exploiting American Division

Beyond Qatar, other adversarial regimes have learned the same lesson: divide the United States from within and watch its influence collapse abroad.

• China funds university research programs and Confucius Institutes designed not to promote understanding, but to normalize censorship and authoritarian ideals.

• Iran supports proxy media and lobbying networks that undermine U.S. credibility in the Middle East, while spreading antisemitic propaganda online.

• Russia continues to amplify extremist voices across social media, seeding chaos and conspiracy to erode trust in democracy itself (Department of Homeland Security, 2025).

Together, these efforts constitute a full-spectrum information war—one that relies on disinformation, ideological infiltration, and the co-option of high-profile American figures.

5. America’s Moral Immune System Is Failing

Democracy cannot survive without moral conviction. Yet America’s civic institutions—media, universities, and government alike—are showing signs of immune collapse.

When antisemitism becomes normalized, when foreign-funded organizations shape curricula, and when media icons serve as conduits for hostile regimes, the very idea of truth becomes negotiable.

As one analyst observed, “Foreign powers don’t need to defeat America militarily when Americans can be persuaded to hate their own country for free” (PowerMentor, 2025).

6. Reclaiming Democratic Integrity

To resist this ideological occupation, the United States must rebuild transparency, accountability, and civic education.

• Disclose all foreign funding in universities, media, and think tanks.

• Expand FARA enforcement to include academic partnerships and influencer agreements.

• Revive civic literacy—teaching history, constitutional governance, and critical reasoning as defenses against propaganda.

• Reaffirm that democracy is not a partisan value but a national inheritance.

America’s greatness has never been measured by conformity, but by moral courage. The task now is not to silence debate—but to ensure that the voices guiding it are truly American.

Conclusion: The Price of Complacency

What Europe ignored for decades is now America’s challenge. The rise of antisemitism, the capture of intellectual life, and the manipulation of influential voices by foreign powers are not isolated crises—they are symptoms of democratic decay.

If the United States allows its discourse, its universities, and its media to be weaponized against itself, it will lose not only global leadership but the moral center that defines it.

Democracy dies not by invasion, but by persuasion. The question is whether Americans will recognize the attack before it is too late.

References

B’nai B’rith International. (2025). A climate of fear and exclusion: Antisemitism at European universities. B’nai B’rith International. https://www.bnaibrith.org/our-focus/israel/combating-anti-semitism/report-antisemitism-at-european-universities/

Beaumont, P. (2024, May 3). College Gaza protests reveal deep divisions on U.S. campuses. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/03/college-gaza-protests-antisemitism

Department of Homeland Security. (2025). Foreign influence operations and domestic destabilization threats in the United States. Office of Intelligence and Analysis.

France 24. (2025, May 21). Muslim Brotherhood movement poses threat to national cohesion, French government report says. France 24. https://www.france24.com/en/france/20250521-muslim-brotherhood-movement-poses-threat-to-national-cohesion-french-govt-report-says

Global Influence Ops. (2025). FARA filings reveal Qatar influence operations targeting U.S. right-wing media. https://www.global-influence-ops.com/fara-filings-reveal-qatar-influence-operations-targeting-us-rightwing-media

iNews ZoomBangla. (2024). Qatar payment remarks spark explosive feud between Candace Owens and Laura Loomer. https://inews.zoombangla.com/qatar-payment-remarks-spark-explosive-feud-between-candace-owens-and-laura-loomer

PowerMentor. (2025). When voices flip: Are Qatar and Hamas influence campaigns shaping U.S. commentary on Israel? https://www.powermentor.org/blog/when-voices-flip-are-qatar-and-hamas-influence-campaigns-shaping-us-commentary-on-israel

Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. (2025). Soft power, hard influence: How Qatar became a giant in Washington. https://quincyinst.org/research/soft-power-hard-influence-how-qatar-became-a-giant-in-washington

Rodan-Benzaquen, S. (2025, June 3). How the Muslim Brotherhood is capturing Europe. The Free Press. https://www.thefp.com/p/how-the-muslim-brotherhood-is-capturing

The Week. (2025). Qatar’s power play: How influence reshaped Washington. The Week. https://theweek.com/politics/qatar-power-play-influence-washington

Trends Research & Advisory. (2025). European policies toward the Muslim Brotherhood: Motivations and future implications. Trends Research & Advisory. https://trendsresearch.org/insight/european-policies-toward-the-muslim-brotherhood-motivations-and-future-implications