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Outlet profile

The Trace

U.S. center-left

Owned byIndependent nonprofit — Trace Media Inc.; no parent company
FundingDonor-funded nonprofit; major funders include Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund (a Bloomberg-connected gun control group), the Joyce Foundation, Emerson Collective, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, George Lucas Family Foundation, McCormick Foundation, and others; operating budget approximately $5.2 million
On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

The Trace was founded in June 2015 as a nonprofit news organization dedicated solely to covering gun violence in the United States, at a time when editors argued that mainstream outlets dropped the story between high-profile mass shootings. It launched with seed funding from Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, the gun control advocacy organization connected to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and from the Joyce Foundation, a left-leaning Chicago-based philanthropy. The outlet operates as Trace Media Inc. and has a structural leadership tie to Everytown: John Feinblatt, who serves as president of Everytown for Gun Safety, also holds the title of president of The Trace. The Trace maintains a stated editorial independence firewall between donors and news decisions, and over time it has diversified its funder base to include the MacArthur Foundation, Emerson Collective, Lenfest Institute for Journalism, and several other foundations. Media Bias/Fact Check rates it Left-Center with high factual reporting, reflecting its gun-control-adjacent editorial orientation alongside generally credible sourcing and a clean fact-check record. The outlet grew into a significant source of investigative and data-driven journalism on firearms policy, the gun industry, and shooting statistics, and it has partnered with larger news organizations on joint investigations. Since the start of Trump's second term in January 2025, The Trace has produced sustained critical coverage of administration actions — including more than $1 billion in terminated or delayed federal grants for gun violence prevention, deep cuts to CDC firearms research staff, rollbacks of ATF dealer regulations, and the legislative elimination of the $200 tax on gun silencers under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Sources

  1. The Trace (website) — Wikipedia
  2. Our Mission — The Trace
  3. Donor and Financial Transparency — The Trace
  4. The Trace — Bias and Credibility, Media Bias/Fact Check
  5. The Trace — InfluenceWatch
  6. The Trace's Guide to Trump's First Year Back in Office
  7. Trump Has Slashed Federal Funding for Gun Violence Prevention
  8. How The Trace Changed Reporting on Guns in America — Arnold Ventures

Profile compiled 2026-07-17; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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