Democrats have yet another scandal on their hands as the 2026 midterm election cycle enters its peak phase.
Americans for Public Trust on Friday launched a new database designed to help lawmakers, watchdog groups, journalists, and the public track the flow of foreign money into American politics.
According to the organization, the database has already identified more than $5 billion in foreign-linked spending and is expected to continue expanding as additional information is collected.
And some of the biggest recipients include the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the ClimateWorks Foundation, and the Gates Medical Research Institute, all left-wing groups that support Democrat causes and priorities, according to APT.
“As we enter the height of midterm election season, it is critical that the public is aware of the vast sums of foreign funds flowing across our borders to influence the outcomes of our political battles,” APT Executive Director Caitlin Sutherland told The Center Square.
Per its website, Americans for Public Trust works on “restoring trust by holding the powerful accountable.”
Sutherland told the outlet “whether through ballot initiatives, issue advocacy, or voter registration, American politics is indisputably being shaped by foreign cash.”
“That’s why we’ve created this first-of-its-kind database to help the public untangle the complex web of foreign money bankrolling leftwing nonprofits,” Sutherland added, per the outlet.
The new database is called Follow Foreign Money and so far, it’s tracked more than 520 groups, discovered more than 12,000 records, and tracked $5 billion-plus in foreign spending.
And there is much more out there to be found, the group says.
APT said that “foreign governments, foreign charities, and foreign nationals are actively exploiting loopholes on the state and federal level that allow their money to flow into important policy fights and electoral tools.”
“Foreign money funding advocacy in the United States is a threat to our democracy and must be exposed and stopped,” the group added.
Americans for Public Trust said that while federal law prohibits foreign nationals from making direct political contributions to U.S. candidates and campaigns, foreign money can still be used to finance certain election-related activities, including lobbying, protests, ballot initiative campaigns, and ballot-harvesting efforts.
According to the organization, Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss is among the most prominent foreign donors identified in its database.
APT reports that Wyss has contributed more than $300 million to the Sixteen Thirty Fund, among other organizations, per The Center Square, which also reported in 2024 that the fund helped financially support Amendment 3 in Missouri, which enshrined abortion into the state’s constitution.
During debate over the issue, Missouri Sen. Ben Brown (R) cited foreign-funded ballot campaigns as an example of the potential influence of overseas money in state politics, arguing that foreign donors could “essentially purchase amendments” to a state constitution through multimillion-dollar contributions.
Missouri subsequently joined several other states in prohibiting foreign money from being used to finance ballot initiative campaigns.
According to Americans for Public Trust, other foreign-based donors that have contributed to U.S. nonprofit organizations include the London-based Arcadia Fund, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, the IKEA Foundation, and other international philanthropic organizations.
The watchdog organization also said that higher education is influenced by foreign money, with “nearly $12 billion from China and Qatar – countries that are openly hostile to the United States – [having] flooded the American higher education system for decades.”
Also, climate activism throughout the country is being supported by foreign funding, as “a group of foreign ‘charities’ has spent almost $2 billion bankrolling U.S. policy fights and advancing an extreme climate agenda,” APT said.
