US President Donald Trump’s administration has significantly changed the State Department’s annual report on human rights worldwide, dramatically reducing any claims of abuses in allied countries such as Israel.

Instead, the US State Department in its widely anticipated 2024 Human Rights Report released on Tuesday sounded an alarm about the erosion of freedom of speech in Europe and ramped up criticism of Brazil and South Africa, both of which Washington has clashed with over a host of issues.

Any criticism of governments over their treatment of LGBTQI rights, which appeared in Biden administration editions of the report, appeared to have been largely omitted. Washington referred to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine mainly as the “Russia-Ukraine war.”

The report’s section on Israel is much shorter than last year’s edition compiled under the Biden administration and contains no mention of the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The report was delayed for months as Trump appointees dramatically altered an earlier State Department draft to bring it in line with “America First” values, according to government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Explaining the changes, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said during a Tuesday briefing that the reports focusing on 2024 “remove redundancy, increase readability, and are responsive to the legislative mandates that underpin the report, rather than an expansive list of politically biased demands and assertions.”

In previous versions of the report on Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip — including ones compiled during Trump’s first term — claims and figures from UN organizations and rights groups regarding alleged abuses were incorporated, though they were almost completely removed in the 2024 report.

Concerns of rights abuses by Israel were kept general, and there was no mention at all of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, which has gone largely unchecked and even taken the lives of several US citizens. Palestinian attacks against Israelis — beyond those related to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror onslaught — also went unmentioned.

On the brief section about press freedom, the report states, “NGOs and journalists reported authorities restricted press coverage and limited certain forms of expression, especially in the context of criticism against the war or sympathy for Palestinians in Gaza.”

“Israel occasionally ordered the closing of Palestinian radio stations in the West Bank for ‘inciting behavior that could harm public safety or public order,’ including support for terrorism,” it adds.

In the section on torture, the report highlights the abuse that Israeli hostages testified to having endured during their captivity in Gaza.

As for the alleged torture of Palestinian prisoners by Israel, the report says that Jerusalem “acknowledged [that the] Shin Bet and police used violent interrogation methods that it referred to as ‘exceptional measures,’ but the Ministry of Justice did not provide information regarding the frequency of interrogations or the specific interrogation methods used.”

The country reports introduced new categories such as “Life” and “Liberty,” and “Security of the Person.”

“There were no credible reports of significant human rights abuses,” the 2024 report said about El Salvador, in sharp contrast with the 2023 report that talked about “significant human rights issues” and listed them as credible reports of unlawful or arbitrary killings, torture, and harsh and life-threatening prison conditions.

Washington’s bilateral ties with El Salvador have strengthened since Trump took office, as the administration has deported people to El Salvador with help from President Nayib Bukele, whose country is receiving $6 million from the US to house the migrants in a high-security mega-prison.

The Trump administration has moved away from the traditional US promotion of democracy and human rights, seeing it as interference in another country’s affairs, even as it criticized countries selectively, consistent with its broader policy towards a particular country.

One example is Europe, where Trump officials repeatedly weighed in on European politics to denounce what they see as suppression of right-wing leaders, including in Romania, Germany, and France, and accused European authorities of censoring views such as criticism of immigration.

This year’s report was prepared following a major revamp of the State Department, which included the firing of hundreds of people, many from the agency’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, which takes the lead in writing the report.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in April wrote an opinion piece that said the bureau had become a platform for “left-wing activists,” saying the Trump administration would reorient the bureau to focus on “Western values.”

In Brazil, where the Trump administration has clashed with the government, the State Department found the human rights situation declined, after the 2023 report found no significant changes. This year’s report took aim at the courts, stating they took action undermining freedom of speech and disproportionately suppressing the speech of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro, among others.

Bolsonaro is on trial before the Supreme Court on charges he conspired with allies to violently overturn his 2022 electoral loss to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Trump has referred to the case as a “witch hunt” and called it grounds for a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods.

In South Africa, whose government the Trump administration has accused of racial discrimination towards Afrikaners, this year’s report said the human rights situation significantly worsened. It stated that “South Africa took a substantially worrying step towards land expropriation of Afrikaners and further abuses against racial minorities in the country.”

In last year’s report, the State Department found no significant changes in the human rights situation in South Africa.

Trump, earlier this year, issued an executive order that called for the US to resettle Afrikaners, describing them as victims of “violence against racially disfavored landowners,” allegations that echoed far-right claims but which have been contested by South Africa’s government.

Amnesty International USA’s Amanda Klasing said the report sent a “chilling message” that the United States will overlook abuses if doing so suits its political agenda.

“We have criticized past reports when warranted, but have never seen reports quite like this,” she said.