Published in partnership with the Center for Media and Democracy
As the United States has started yet another war in the Middle East, one think tank, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), has been a leading advocate both in making the case to go to war against Iran and to continue it. FDD’s founder and CEO Mark Dubowitz issues a constant stream of pro-war posts on X, and its experts are widely quoted in the media weighing in as the war in the region has escalated.
But the role the Marcus Foundation has played in advancing the case for the war appears to have gone largely unnoticed.
In 2025, the Marcus Foundation donated $19 million to FDD, according to Forbes—well more than half of the group’s total budget for the prior year and a massive increase from the $5.75 million it had contributed to FDD in 2024 (which was similar to the amount it had given in previous years).
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Launched by Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus, who died in November 2024, the foundation is now chaired by Frank Blake, who served as CEO of Home Depot from 2007 to 2014. The foundation’s board includes Marcus’s two sons and Ken Langone, a major GOP donor who co-founded the world’s largest home improvement retailer with Marcus.
The Marcus donations are by far the largest FDD has ever received, helping to fuel the organization’s rapid growth over the past few years. In 2021, FDD spent just under $17 million on its small battalion of analysts and commentators. By 2024, that number had almost doubled to $32.5 million.
As a hawkish pro-Israel group, the FDD views Iran as engaged in a “multi-front war” against Israel. After advocating for strikes on Iran over the course of many years, FDD has actively argued against a diplomatic settlement in recent weeks, with Dubowitz writing in the New York Post that any truce that does not result in the destruction of Iran’s missile capability is unacceptable, and most recently arguing for resumed combat and regime change if Iran does not accept U.S. terms.
In 2015, FDD led the campaign against President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, with reports at the time noting that FDD staff and fellows had testified against the deal 17 times in Congress and spoken out against it 35 times on cable news. In 2017, leaked emails revealed that Dubowitz had worked with Emirati Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba to pressure Iran. Over the years, the think tank has heavily focused on regime change in Iran above all else, though it has also aggressively criticized the governments of Qatar and more recently Turkey.
In the six weeks that the U.S. and Israel have waged war against Iran—a war in which President Trump has threatened to permanently destroy Iran’s “whole civilization”––FDD analysts have been a fixture on cable news, particularly on Fox News, Newsmax, NewsNation, and CNN. Even a reputable outlet like the BBC has hosted FDD experts four times in the past month without disclosing the organization’s ideological orientation or any of its donors.
The New York Times has also quoted FDD experts twice since the war began, both of whom advanced pro-war views; interviewed Dubowitz for an opinion piece with Ross Douthat; and published an op-ed by FDD fellow Mark Montgomery, a retired rear admiral, in which he warned Trump against “prematurely” calling off the war.
A Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) analysis was unable to find any mention of FDD’s donors or its connections to Marcus or Langone in any of the press hits citing its experts.
In addition to directing the foundation’s funds to FDD, Marcus and Langone have also made major donations to Trump and the GOP. Marcus donated $7 million to pro-Trump super PACs in 2016 and $10 million to a pro-Trump super PAC in 2020, while Langone donated $1.8 million to Republican super PACs in 2024.
In 2015, Marcus called Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran a “deadly” one.
Other major donors to FDD in 2024 (the most recent year for which comprehensive figures are available) include the family foundation of WhatsApp founder Jan Koum, which donated $350,000; the One8 Foundation connected to former hedge fund manager and charter school backer Jonathon Jacobson, $338,000; the Alta and John Franks Foundation, $250,000; and the Jarvis Foundation, which is connected to Grosvenor Capital Management executive Stephen Malkin and donated $200,000, according to a CMD analysis of nonprofit filings.
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