Adversarial states are cultivating U.S. activists as overseas influencers and mouthpieces, turning domestic radicals into tools of foreign propaganda and pressure. The path often runs from street radicalization at home to travel, media festivals, and on‑camera endorsements of hostile slogans abroad. This blends soft power, information ops, and sabotage‑adjacent activism.
— It reframes foreign‑influence risk as a citizen‑centric problem that spans propaganda, FARA enforcement, and protest security rather than only state‑to‑state espionage.
Stu Smith
2026.01.08
90% relevant
The City Journal piece alleges The People’s Forum hosted and coordinated protests in direct sympathy with Maduro, hosted pro‑North Korea events (Nodutdol), and has been flagged in congressional questions about CCP ties — matching the existing idea that foreign states can cultivate and leverage U.S. activist networks to advance their objectives.
2026.01.05
62% relevant
Though the existing idea focuses on adversary states using U.S. activists, this article documents the reverse dynamic — U.S. partisan media and officials (e.g., JD Vance, MAGA podcasters, Trump administration signals) being used to influence British politics — fitting the broader pattern of external actor leverage via activist/media networks.
Stu Smith
2025.10.08
100% relevant
Calla Walsh’s speech in Tehran (“Death to America, Death to Israel”), participation in Iran’s Sobh International Media Festival, and subsequent advocacy from Lebanon after a U.S. sabotage case.