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By Robert Inlakesh \/\u00a0MintPress News<\/a><\/p>\n The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2014and many of his most prominent right-wing supporters\u2014are directly linked to some of the most radically pro-war, pro-Israel organizations in the country. These connections form a sprawling web of lobbying groups, tech billionaires, and media figures who consistently promote Israeli interests above those of ordinary Americans.<\/p>\n Why has the pro-Trump right suddenly pivoted from branding itself as a bastion of free speech to openly supporting censorship and state-led crackdowns? This MintPress News investigation uncovers a donor-driven advocacy network driving that ideological shift.<\/p>\n Since the early 2000s, writer and activist David Horowitz has been at the center of a movement that claimed to defend free speech while portraying Muslims and leftists as existential threats to Western civilization. In the aftermath of 9\/11, Horowitz\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0for the profiling of \u201cPalestinian\u201d and \u201cIslamic\u201d people and\u00a0infamously stated<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthe Palestinians are Nazis.\u201d<\/p>\n Through the David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC), founded in 1998, he and his donors built a media and policy network that shaped the careers of nearly every major pro-Trump conservative figure active today. The Southern Poverty Law Center\u00a0designated<\/a>\u00a0the DHFC a hate group, and it has\u00a0received<\/a>\u00a0anonymous dark money routed through Donors Trust, which has also funded white nationalist causes.<\/p>\n Horowitz focused much of his activism on college campuses, pushing inflammatory anti-Islam and pro-Israel\u00a0narratives<\/a>\u00a0intended to\u00a0provoke backlash<\/a>. He then framed protests against his appearances as proof that the left and Muslim communities oppose the First Amendment.<\/p>\n This strategy laid the foundation for figures like Ben Shapiro, who built his early career on college campus tours,\u00a0defending<\/a>\u00a0even hate speech as protected expression and popularizing slogans like \u201cfacts don\u2019t care about your feelings.\u201d Shapiro began as a\u00a0fellow<\/a>\u00a0at the DHFC, and his first book, \u201cBrainwashed: How Universities Indoctrinate America\u2019s Youth,\u201d was published in 2004.<\/p>\n Shapiro would later become editor-in-chief of Truth Revolt, a website funded by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, where his managing editor was Jeremy Boreing. The two would go on to co-found what is now The Daily Wire. Both also worked with organizations\u00a0linked<\/a>\u00a0to Israeli intelligence circles before eventually hiring Jordan Peterson. Although Peterson had previously said little about Israel, upon joining the Daily Wire he adopted a vocal pro-Israel stance and later met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n The DHFC has also funded or aligned with numerous high-profile right-wing figures, including former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon, former national security adviser John Bolton, Pamela Geller, and Dutch politician Geert Wilders. Trump\u2019s current Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth,\u00a0received<\/a>\u00a0$30,000 in speaking fees and honoraria from the Freedom Center between 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n Candace Owens, now a high-profile conservative commentator, was\u00a0initially recruited<\/a>\u00a0by Horowitz, but later came under attack from his affiliated activists after publicly expressing support for Palestinian rights.<\/p>\n \u201cI started my career, my political career, on YouTube making just funny, satirical videos, and I got an email from David Horowitz inviting me to this conference, and let me just tell you what a big deal it was for me. I had no connections whatsoever,\u201d Owens once recalled.<\/p>\n Following Horowitz\u2019s death on April 29, 2025, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk\u00a0acknowledged<\/a>\u00a0his influence: \u201cWithout David Horowitz, I\u2019m not sure Turning Point USA would exist. Over 90% of our earliest major donors were introduced at a David Horowitz event\u2014thanks to his warm endorsements and generous introductions. His support opened doors that would have otherwise remained closed.\u201d<\/p>\n What Kirk revealed is crucial: Horowitz operated as a connector within an elite donor class that used his introductions to finance pro-Israel right-wing media and political infrastructure.<\/p>\n Elon Musk\u2019s growing alignment with Israeli policy became publicly visible in 2024, when he forged a surprise relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu. But his ties to the Freedom Center ecosystem began earlier. Musk has amplified Freedom Center talking points, including\u00a0a study<\/a>\u00a0falsely claiming that USAID helped fund the Taliban\u2014a narrative later used to justify calls to defund the agency.<\/p>\n More consequentially, when SpaceX sought to\u00a0raise $750 million<\/a>\u00a0in January 2023, the lead investor was the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, co-founded by Ben Horowitz\u2014David Horowitz\u2019s son.<\/p>\n Andreessen Horowitz holds investments in several companies linked to Israeli intelligence and surveillance, including TOKA, founded by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Ben Horowitz was also involved in\u00a0early efforts<\/a>\u00a0to organize a pro-Trump tech elite alliance before\u00a0stepping back<\/a>.<\/p>\n SpaceX itself has\u00a0collaborated<\/a>\u00a0with Israeli weapons firms and state-linked companies such as Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), and ImageSat International (ISI), helping launch military satellites.<\/p>\n Another key Freedom Center financier is Robert Shillman, founder of Cognex Corporation. Shillman and his family foundation have supported right-wing figures like\u00a0Laura Loomer<\/a>, Bridgette Gabriel, and\u00a0Project Veritas<\/a>. He also donates to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a neoconservative think tank that has played a central role in pushing for regime change wars in the Middle East.<\/p>\n From 2002 to 2013, Shillman\u00a0donated<\/a>\u00a0over $2.4 million to the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF), a U.S.-based nonprofit that aid to Israeli military personnel.<\/p>\n In 2018, The Guardian revealed that Shillman funded a fellowship supporting far-right provocateur Tommy Robinson, who\u00a0received a salary<\/a>\u00a0of about \u00a35,000 a month to work at the Canadian outlet Rebel Media.<\/p>\n The Gatestone Institute, another key node in the network and donor to Tommy Robinson, was founded by Nina Rosenwald\u2014dubbed by critics as \u201cthe sugar mama of Muslim-hate<\/a>\u201d for her role in bankrolling anti-Muslim and pro-Israel media initiatives.<\/p>\n Gatestone has supported figures like Douglas Murray, a British pundit who was recently mocked for making a\u00a0bizarre appeal<\/a>\u00a0to authority during his appearance on \u201cThe Joe Rogan Experience,\u201d where he called for more airtime for pro-war \u201cexperts\u201d to push a pro-Israel narrative. Murray has described anti-Muslim blogger Robert Spencer as a \u201cbrilliant scholar.\u201d Unsurprisingly, Spencer\u2019s website, Jihad Watch, was long sponsored by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.<\/p>\n Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman also fits into this ecosystem. In 2024, Ackman\u00a0promoted<\/a>\u00a0the Shirion Collective\u2014a campaign that encouraged doxxing of pro-Palestinian students and faculty, and has been\u00a0accused<\/a>\u00a0of inciting physical violence and using AI surveillance tools to suppress dissent.<\/p>\n Ackman and Marc Andreessen were both\u00a0appointed<\/a>\u00a0as advisors to the Trump administration\u2019s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a now nearly defunct initiative aimed at federal reform.<\/p>\n Another element of the broader advocacy network resurfaced with surprising aggression in late 2023: the militant group\u00a0Betar<\/a>.<\/p>\n Founded nearly a century ago by fascist Zionist leader Ze\u2019ev Jabotinsky, Betar had long faded into obscurity. But following Israel\u2019s offensive in Gaza, the group reemerged\u2014mirroring the tactics of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), which was previously designated a terrorist organization by U.S. authorities.<\/p>\n Betar activists have revived street-level intimidation tactics, including threatening prominent scholars and UN officials with symbolic \u201cpagers\u201d\u2014a reference to a notorious 2024 Israeli covert operation involving explosive-laden devices that caused mass casualties in Lebanon.<\/p>\n Human rights observers have exposed how the group is compiling watchlists of pro-Palestinian academics, organizers, and public figures, which it presents to Trump-aligned officials as candidates for future deportation or prosecution.<\/p>\n The group has also openly praised military operations that resulted in the deaths of civilians, including children.<\/p>\n Betar\u2019s resurgence has been widely attributed to Israeli-American public relations executive Ronn Torossian, a\u00a0contributor<\/a>\u00a0to FrontPage Magazine\u2014an outlet created by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.<\/p>\n From Silicon Valley investors and right-wing influencers to defense contractors and political operatives, a vast and interconnected donor class has reshaped the American right in the image of a hardline pro-Israel agenda. Their messaging recasts Muslims as enemies of the West, delegitimizes anti-war and pro-Palestinian activism, and presents dissent as a threat to national security.<\/p>\n This same network, once obsessed with defending free expression, now embraces censorship, blacklists, and government surveillance\u2014so long as it targets their ideological opponents.<\/p>\nThe Horowitz Connection<\/h3>\n
The Tech Bros<\/h3>\n
Propaganda and Politics<\/h3>\n
From Free Speech to Authoritarianism<\/h3>\n
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