The Donald Trump administration is reportedly preparing grants for MAGA-aligned projects in Europe as it overhauls US foreign aid priorities. According to a state department notice reviewed by the Financial Times, the core objective of the grants is to bolster freedom of speech in the UK and Europe, which the administration claims is under attack. MAGA is an acronym for “Make America Great Again,” a political movement and slogan popularized by Trump during his US presidential campaigns.

Proposed Grant Allocations

The report said the largest grant, $40 million, would go to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit established by Congress whose latest tax filing showed total assets of just $12.1 million. Other funding includes $2 million to challenge the European Union’s Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act, and $5 million for a “civilisational alliance” focused on defending free expression and national sovereignty.

Conservative life peer Toby Young’s Free Speech Union International is also set to receive $5 million, although it has not formally applied for the grant. The proposal also earmarks $2 million for groups in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, funding to counter judicial censorship in Brazil amid the Bolsonaro case, and $1 million to document human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in South Africa.

Additional Funding and Status

A separate notification includes a $7 million earmark for 878, a British-American think tank co-founded by Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former Conservative cabinet minister, whose website describes it as dedicated to strengthening the “civilisational partnership” between the UK and the US. The Financial Times, citing a source, reported that there are no actual plans to provide the funding, and that the document was drafted by a junior State Department staffer, surprising some senior officials. The state department said all programs remain “in active deliberation.”

The grants plan follows the European Commission’s €120 million ($140 million) fine against Elon Musk’s X over alleged Digital Services Act violations.

Wall Street sold off this week despite the arrival of the best inflation report of 2026, as investors abandoned the semiconductor trade that has driven the market rally for three years. The technology sector slumped 5.2% for the week, marking one of its worst performances of the year. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (NASDAQ: SMH), often used as a proxy for the artificial intelligence trade, was down nearly 18.5% month to date, tracking toward its worst month since November 2008.

Two cooler-than-expected inflation reports failed to stop the tech wreckage. Consumer prices cooled in June to 3.5% year-over-year from 4.2%, marking the first decline of 2026. On a monthly basis, inflation fell 0.4%, the sharpest drop since April 2020. Producer inflation also fell, with the headline Producer Price Index down 0.3%. Traders are now heavily positioned for the Federal Reserve to leave interest rates unchanged at 3.75% at its July meeting.

IBM's Historic Drop

The week's defining collapse belonged to International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM). Shares plunged 25.2% on Tuesday, the worst single-session decline in the company's history, surpassing the drop during Black Monday in October 1987. The decline followed a preannouncement of second-quarter results. Revenue came in at $17.2 billion, roughly $700 million short of Wall Street forecasts, while adjusted earnings landed at $2.93 per share against a $3.02 estimate.

CEO Arvind Krishna highlighted a budget shift in the final weeks of the quarter, noting that clients pulled spending out of software and infrastructure and redirected it into AI hardware, such as memory chips, servers, and storage.

Memory Stocks Selloff

The selloff in memory stocks was triggered by an estimate from South Korean brokerage KIS for SK Hynix Inc. (NASDAQ: SKHY), which sat 8% below consensus. The brokerage cited slower-than-expected shipments of HBM4, the high-bandwidth memory stacked alongside AI processors. SK Hynix fell 15% in Asia on Monday, its worst day ever, while its U.S. depositary receipt closed its first week of trading deep in the red. SanDisk Corp. (NASDAQ: SNDK) and Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) both fell more than 20% on the week.

Consumer Sentiment Rises

University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment jumped 10% for a second consecutive month, hitting its highest reading since February on falling gas prices. Year-ahead inflation expectations eased to 4.2% from 4.6%, while long-run expectations held at 3.3%. Survey director Joanne Hsu cautioned that the rebound may be fragile, as more than 70% of interviews were completed before U.S. strikes on Iran resumed on July 7 and pump prices turned higher again.