How US bullied Vilnius into dropping support for conference critical of Trump

The US pressured Lithuanian, Canadian and EU diplomats to withdraw their support for the Disinfo 2026 conference in Vilnius, which criticised Donald Trump and America’s interference in other countries’ politics. The pressure was first felt by the conference's speakers and organisers.

“A few days before the conference, a number of colleagues started receiving emails from Michael Shellenberger who runs a Substact where he goes after democracy defenders,” Adam Fivenson, one of the speakers and an associate at the Center for Security, Innovation and New Technology at American University in Washington, told LRT.lt.

According to Fivenson, many saw this as an intimidation attempt, as Shellenberger is considered close to the US State Department and to senior figures in the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

Immediately before the conference, “we started hearing that sponsors had been approached”, Fivenson said, adding that first it was the European Union’s External Action Service, the de facto foreign ministry of the bloc, then Canada and Lithuania.

“We had no intention of deepening the rift between Lithuania and the US. And we view it as tremendously unfortunate that the US chose to try to use our event and our panel as a wedge to undermine Lithuanian security,” Fivenson said.

Lithuania's Foreign Ministry did not confirm whether pressure from Washington had prompted its decision to withdraw as a conference sponsor.

In responses provided to the media, the ministry stressed it had no role in coordinating the contents of the conference and that some parts of the programme were inconsistent with the government's position and Lithuania's interests.

“Our [US] government is still quite diverse in perspectives and in many ways in terms of departments, officials, voices. I fully understand that Lithuania may still have great working relationships with some folks, while the State Department is trying to throw a wrench in things because of our panel.

“That's what gives me some confidence that there are many people on both sides that understand the stakes of the moment and wouldn't play politics with Lithuanian safety and security,” Fivenson said.

The sensitivity of the US State Department to the disinformation topic was “really strange”, Fivenson said.

“It is hard to understand why they decided to put all our security relationships at risk over a single discussion at a researchers' conference,” he added.