In June 1985, Joe Biden cast a losing vote against the repeal of the 1976 Clark Amendment that barred the United States from supporting the right-wing UNITA rebels in Angola. Biden, an opponent of the UNITA rebels’ close ally apartheid South Africa, was one of only 34 senators to vote against allowing the aid. The repeal paved the way for the Reagan administration to aid the UNITA rebels in the name of fighting communist influence in Africa, particularly Cuban forces dispatched by Fidel Castro to fight against the right-wing guerrillas. Soon thereafter, the Reagan administration briefed the Senate Intelligence Committee on a plan to funnel $15 million in covert aid to UNITA. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan invited Jonas Savimbi, the head of the rebel group, to the White House and praised the prospect of Savimbi achieving “a victory that electrifies the world and brings great sympathy and assistance from other nations to those struggling for freedom.” Savimbi was a darling of conservative U.S. think tanks and large oil corporations, most prominently Chevron Corp. His chief lobbyist in securing aid from Congress and the Reagan administration was Paul Manafort, who would go on to be President Donald Trump’s campaign chair. According to Human Rights Watch, “U.S. covert aid to UNITA totalled about $250 million between 1986 and 1991.” By 1989, an estimated 100,000 people had been killed in Angola’s civil war and tens of thousands of people had lost limbs, largely as a result of UNITA’s widespread use of land mines.
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
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IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
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I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
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