The funding was announced by U.S. Chargé d’Affaires David Kostelancik, who has previously appeared to openly criticise the Trump administration by alluding to "apparent inconsistencies in [U.S.] foreign policy" and remarking that "not every criticism of the government is ’fake news’."
Breitbart London spoke to a State Department official who confirmed it supports what it calls "democracy and human rights programming" in many countries, and that its intentions in Hungary ‐ a NATO ally ‐ are to "support media outlets operating outside the capital ... to produce fact-based reporting and increase their audience and economic sustainability".
The State Department also echoed Kostelancik’s claim that too many Hungarian news outlets are sympathetic to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s popular conservative government ‐ which has earned powerful enemies by opposing the European Union on mass migration, building a highly effective border wall, and exposing the network of European politicians deemed "reliable allies" by billionaire open borders campaigner George Soros.