Patriot Brief

• BreakThrough News has pushed messaging critical of President Donald Trump following the capture of Nicolás Maduro.

• The outlet receives substantial funding linked to Neville Roy Singham, a known supporter of the Chinese Communist Party.

• Analysts warn the group operates less like independent media and more like coordinated foreign-aligned propaganda.

The loudest voices rushing to defend Nicolás Maduro after his capture weren’t coming from Caracas — they were coming from Brooklyn. BreakThrough News wasted no time framing Trump’s operation as “imperialism,” carefully ignoring the Venezuelans celebrating in the streets and across the diaspora. That omission wasn’t accidental. It was the point.

BreakThrough News markets itself as “independent” and “grassroots,” but its funding trail tells a different story. Millions of dollars flow in from nonprofits tied to Neville Roy Singham, a megadonor who doesn’t just sympathize with the Chinese Communist Party — he actively promotes its worldview. When an outlet with that backing consistently sides with America’s adversaries, skepticism isn’t paranoia. It’s common sense.

The pattern is familiar. When Trump moves aggressively against hostile regimes — whether Venezuela, Iran, or narco-terror networks — the same constellation of media outfits, activists, and “nonprofits” snap into action. They flood social media, produce slick videos, and stage protests, all while insisting they’re merely speaking truth to power. In reality, they’re laundering authoritarian propaganda through American platforms.

What makes this especially troubling isn’t that BreakThrough News has opinions. In a free country, that’s allowed. It’s that audiences are being sold a false premise — that this is organic, independent journalism rather than a coordinated influence operation aligned with foreign interests hostile to the United States.

When a so-called news outlet echoes the talking points of dictators, dismisses evidence of narco-states, and attacks U.S. actions while taking money tied to CCP-aligned networks, the word “independent” stops meaning anything. At that point, it’s not journalism. It’s manipulation with better lighting.

From Daily Caller:

An “independent” media outlet tied to a pro-China megadonor aims to turn Americans against President Donald Trump for his aggressive stance toward Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro.

New York City-based nonprofit BreakThrough News has spent years telling its audience, which includes more than a million YouTube subscribers, that the now-captured Maduro’s socialist regime is not the corrupt “narco-state” Trump portrays it to be. The group takes large payments from the People’s Forum and the Justice and Education Fund (JEF), two left-wing nonprofits with connections to tech guru and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) supporter Neville Roy Singham, according to tax filings.

President Trump posts photo of Nicolás Maduro after his capture. pic.twitter.com/4UzV0QsvRj

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 3, 2026

The Trump administration announced Saturday that the U.S. arrested Maduro and his wife in Venezuela on drug and weapons charges, accusing them of helping “narco-terrorists” flood the U.S. with cocaine. Two of his relatives were sentenced in New York in 2017 on similar charges. The U.S. has also had a full blockade in place for Venezuelan oil exports since December and repeatedly blown up suspected drug trafficker boats believed to be traveling from the region.

“Hours after the U.S. announced the capture of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, First Lady Celia Flores, Venezuelans hit the streets in defiance of U.S. imperialism and the abduction of their head of state,” BreakThrough News said in a Saturday X post — ignoring the opposing throngs of Venezuelans who celebrated the dictator’s ouster both in and beyond their country.

In addition to original commentary, BreakThrough News’ messaging on Venezuela has included videos of translated remarks by Maduro denouncing Trump’s attacks and claiming that his actions are purely about obtaining oil. Trump on Saturday floated having U.S. companies invest in Venezuela’s oil infrastructure to “start making money for” America.

A September 2023 BreakThrough News video titled “Maduro-Xi Meeting: How China and Venezuela are Changing the World” featured host Eugene Puryear praising the two dictatorships for challenging the foreign policy interests of “the Democrats in the White House and … the Republicans.” BreakThrough News also attended a Shanghai summit with other media organizations hosted by the CCP-controlled East China Normal University in 2023, The Daily Beast reported.

The outlet did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

BreakThrough News describes itself as “a nonprofit media and educational organization dedicated to independent, fact-based reporting and commentary on a diverse range of issues affecting the global movements for social justice.” Its money comes only from “viewers, supporters, and foundations that share our mission” and not corporations or governments, according to its website.

In reality, the group’s so-called independent journalism amounts to a secretive propaganda campaign backed by well-funded activists, according to the think tank Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI). The NCRI has dubbed such organizations “the Singham Network.”

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