Our Mission
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is engaged in an active campaign to sabotage America. Their goal is nothing less than world dominance.
The Chinese government in Beijing is carrying out a sophisticated plan designed to exert control over America’s economy, food supply, lawmaking, and education. One crucial element of the CCP’s blueprint for domination is to infiltrate states across the country.
From buying up farmland to influencing state legislative outcomes by directly lobbying lawmakers, the Chinese government will stop at nothing to exert control in the United States.
China’s threat is comprehensive. The CCP’s focus is not just Washington, D.C. – they desire influence at the state and local levels as well. State officials must not allow foreign adversaries to take over local economies or write our laws.
The Protecting America Initiative is a coalition of concerned American citizens and public policy experts who are committed to stopping Chinese influence in the states. Our mission is to stop the threat of Communist China at the state level. By protecting American independence now, we will safeguard our American future for generations to come.
Our Team
RICHARD GRENELL, Senior Advisor
Former Ambassador to Germany and Acting Director of National Intelligence in the Trump Administration
Richard Grenell is an American diplomat who most recently served as Acting Director of National Intelligence in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Grenell served as the United States Ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020 and as the Special Presidential Envoy for Serbia and Kosovo Peace Negotiations from 2019 to 2021. Grenell also ran the U.S government's global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality in the 69 countries where it is a crime to be gay. Grenell was named Acting Director of National Intelligence by President Trump in February 2020, officially making him the first openly gay person to serve in a President's Cabinet. On April 26, 2018, Grenell was confirmed by the United States Senate by a vote of 56 to 42 as Ambassador to Germany and presented his credentials to the President of Germany on May 8, 2018. Grenell was a U.S. State Department spokesperson at the United Nations for 8 years during the George W. Bush administration and was a voting member of the United Nations Security Council. Grenell also was the foreign policy and national security spokesman for the 2012 GOP Presidential nominee. Grenell has been placed on the Iranian government's sanctions list for his work in promoting human rights, something they call "promoting homosexuality". Grenell received the U.S. National Security Medal, the nation's highest security award, as well as the nation's highest Medal of Honor from Kosovo and from Serbia. Grenell is the co-creator of an Artificial Intelligence technology for chronic patients which was formed from his 2013 diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Grenell has a B.A. from Evangel College and an M.P.A. from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Lee Zeldin, Senior Advisor
Former U.S. Congressman from NY-1, member on the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and New York gubernatorial candidate
Lee Zeldin is a former United States Congressman, representing New York’s First Congressional District from 2015-2023. Most recently, Zeldin sent shockwaves across the nation after nearly winning the New York Gubernatorial campaign as a Republican, receiving more votes than any Republican statewide since Nelson Rockefeller 52 years earlier. With Lee running strong at the top of the ticket, Republicans were able to flip several suburban House districts across the state which resulted in a Republican majority in the House of Representatives.
Congressman Lee Zeldin grew up in Suffolk County, New York, where he graduated from William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach. Congressman Zeldin graduated from the State University of New York at Albany (SUNY) and then Albany Law School. At just 23 years old, Lee Zeldin was sworn into the New York State Bar, making him the youngest attorney in the state.
Lee Zeldin spent four years on Active Duty with the U.S. Army after completing ROTC, and served in different capacities, including as a Military Intelligence Officer, Prosecutor, and Military Magistrate. In the summer of 2006, while assigned to the Army’s elite 82nd Airborne Division, Zeldin deployed to Iraq with an infantry battalion of fellow paratroopers in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He still serves to this day as a Lieutenant Colonel in his 22nd year in the United States military.
In 2010, Lee Zeldin was elected to the New York State Senate. As a State Senator, Congressman Zeldin led the successful effort to repeal the MTA Payroll Tax for 80 percent of employers, a job killing tax that was hurting New York’s small businesses. He also created the PFC Joseph Dwyer Program, a peer-to-peer counseling program for veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI); the program quickly expanded across New York.
Following four years in the State Senate, Lee Zeldin was elected to Congress in 2014 where he served eight years on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and six years on the House Financial Services Committee. As one of two Jewish Republicans in Congress, Representative Zeldin was a co-chairman of the House Republican Israel Caucus, which had over 100 members. He championed many important local priorities for his district, including the successful effort to save Plum Island, a large number of Army Corps of Engineers projects, and a $2 billion Electron Ion Collider he was able to steer to Brookhaven National Lab. He quickly became a prominent and outspoken national voice on U.S. foreign policy, border security, military affairs, combating antisemitism, and much more.
In the ensuing months after finishing his four terms in Congress, Zeldin created and is the Chairman of a new charity called Zeldin Cares, joined the Board of the Republican Jewish Coalition, and founded Zeldin Strategies, where he serves as CEO. He otherwise remains active in public service, traveling the state and country to deliver speeches, frequently participating in media interviews, and growing the Republican Party through his Leadership America Needs PAC.
Lee currently resides in his hometown of Shirley with his wife, Diana, and their twin daughters, Mikayla and Arianna.