5 Recent Instances of Foreign Malign Influence Threatening U.S. National Security

America is letting its adversaries win the information war. The latest blow to U.S. efforts to fight this war came in August, when the U.S. intelligence community learned of the reduction in size and reorganization of the Foreign Malign Influence Center (FMIC), a subcomponent of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). This ill-advised action comes on the heels of similar reductions within the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI.

Russia, China, and Iran are actively conducting foreign malign influence campaigns to influence policy and public opinion in America and abroad in ways that advance their interests, resulting in disrupted counterterrorism operations, aggravated civil unrest, and threatened critical industries. Five recent adversary operations demonstrate the risks of reducing U.S. capabilities to counter foreign malign influence.

1. Russian influence contributed to Niger’s decision to force the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

In 2024, Niger compelled the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the central African country who had been conducting counterterrorism operations against the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. Russian disinformation played a major role in influencing Niger’s government, according to Gen. Michael Langley, then the head of U.S. Africa Command, in testimony before Congress. As early as 2021, a network of pro-Russian Facebook pages had promoted a demonstration in Niger to demand the withdrawal of foreign forces.

Separately, in the immediate aftermath of the 2023 Niger coup, Russia ramped up its efforts on Telegram to cast Moscow and Beijing as leading a broader anti-colonial movement across the Sahel region. Russia even funded civil society organizations in Niger to hand out flags at pro-military demonstrations.

Weeks after Niger ended its military agreement with Washington, Russian troops began operating out of a U.S.-constructed military base in Niger.

2. Chinese social media adopted fake American personas to promote protests against rare earth processing facilities in Texas and Oklahoma.

China dominates the market for rare earth minerals, which are essential components of technologies ranging from smartphones to fighter jets. This dominance has enabled China to coerce countries economically. For example, China blocked exports of rare earths to Japan — which relied on China for 90 percent of its rare earths — in 2010, amid a maritime dispute. The Department of Defense (DOD) recognized in 2021 that the United States faces similar risks. The DOD attempted to mitigate them by signing an agreement with the Australian company Lynas, which opened a processing facility in Texas.

In response, Beijing created inauthentic accounts on social media to pose as Texans expressing environmental concerns over the facility and attempting to incite protests against it. Beijing conducted similar campaigns against a processing facility in Oklahoma and a Canadian rare earth miner. Though the campaign against the Texas facility gained minimal traction, the DOD took the campaign seriously, responding by reaffirming the necessity and sustainability of its efforts to diversify rare earth supply chains.

3. Russia, China, and Iran exploited anti-Israel protests to attempt to foster societal strife in the United States.

In July 2024, then Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines confirmed that Iran “sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests [within the United States] regarding the war in Gaza” by posing online as activists, encouraging protests, and financially supporting protestors. The ODNI later detailed a specific incident in which Iran encouraged and offered money to a U.S. person to attend a protest in Washington, DC. China also leveraged covert social media accounts calling on protestors to “flood the encampments” on college campuses. Likewise, a Russian operation posing as a U.S. news website exploited the protests to criticize the United States for having “completely forgotten about domestic affairs” in a “rush to help our controversial allies.”

Russia, China, and Iran’s ongoing efforts to exploit anti-Israel protests and foster societal strife in the United States are occurring in the context of broader attempts by these countries, which also spread anti-Zionism and antisemitism, to stoke anti-Western sentiment and destabilize countries across the globe, including France and Australia.

4. Beijing attempted to drive a wedge between the United States and Taiwan via disinformation regarding biological warfare.

In 2023, Beijing conducted a disinformation campaign alleging that the United States was forcing Taiwan to construct a level four (highest level) bio-containment laboratory for biological warfare research. Subsequent stories reported that this lab was linked to a separate U.S. request for Taiwan officials to collect blood samples from Taiwan residents, which allegedly would enable America to bioengineer anti-Chinese genetic weapons. Fact-checkers in Taiwan exposed the stories’ source document as a forgery with signs of Chinese government authorship.

This campaign was clearly intended to drive a wedge in the U.S.-Taiwan partnership by stoking mistrust in America. The campaign echoed an infamous Russian disinformation campaign alleging that the United States had created AIDS as a bioweapon in Fort Detrick, Maryland. The Kremlin adapted this narrative during its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine by alleging that the United States funded biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine.

5. Iran hacked and leaked sensitive data from the Trump campaign in 2024.

In the lead-up to the 2024 U.S. presidential elections, an Iranian state-sponsored cyber threat actor known as APT-42 conducted a hack-and-leak against President Donald Trump’s campaign. APT-42 successfully gained access to vulnerability research about his running mate, JD Vance, which it then sent to both the Biden campaign and mainstream media outlets. Though the outlets reported the incident, they did not publish the specific information about Vance contained in the vulnerability research.

A Democratic political operative and independent journalist, however, did share the material. The FBI responded by indicting three cyber actors from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who were responsible for the campaign. Iran also attempted to undermine Trump’s campaign with a network of fake news websites targeting specific voter demographics, including Muslims in Michigan and African Americans. Though Iran clearly did not successfully subvert President Trump’s campaign, its effort shows how U.S. adversaries seek to interfere in U.S. elections to shape the outcome in line with their national interests.

Rear Adm. (Ret.) Mark Montgomery is the senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI) at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he is also a senior fellow. Max Lesser is a senior analyst on emerging threats at CCTI. For more analysis from the authors, CCTI, and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Mark on X @MarkCMontgomery. Follow CCTI and FDD on X @FDD and @FDD_CCTI. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.