At President Donald Trump’s directive, Kari Lake, the special adviser to U.S. Agency for Global Media, is attempting to strip her department’s spending down to the bare bones. But federal judges paused her changes, leaving the agency’s workforce in place.
“We want you to boil this agency down to the statutory minimum, cut back on the bloat,” she told Newsmax last week.
What’s on her chopping block? The several entities under USAGM, including Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.
Nonprofits like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Open Technology Fund and Frontline Media Fund also fall under USAGM.
Legal battles
So far, Lake’s efforts to dismantle the agency have been stopped by federal judges. On Friday, a federal judge in New York issued a restraining order against Lake, preventing her from “any further attempt to terminate, reduce-in-force, place on leave, or furlough” employees and contractors. Judge James Paul Oetken said the USAGM is a statutorily authorized agency that’s funded by Congress.
The network, which broadcasts to international audiences, including countries that don’t have freedom of the press, went dark for the first time in over eight decades under Lake. Following Trump’s March 14 executive order to “reduce the scope” of many agencies, including USAGM, Lake quickly moved to suspend more than 1,300 employees at VOA and banned them from entering the media network’s offices.
“Even if the agency survives in some form, the actions being taken today by the Administration will severely damage Voice of America’s ability to foster a world that is safe and free and in doing so is failing to protect U.S. interests,” wrote VOA Director Mike Abramowitz in a personal post on Facebook, as Politico reported.
What’s next for Voice of America
Despite the restraining order, Lake sent her employees an email last week, offering the agency’s federal employees pay through September in exchange for a voluntary resignation. It’s a move out of Elon Musk’s playbook — his Department of Government Efficiency made similar offers to other federal agencies that are on a diet under Trump 2.0.
The VOA hasn’t produced any new content since March 15. In a “60 Minutes” special, Steve Herman, the chief national correspondent, who was placed on an “excused absence” amid an investigation into his social media posts, defended VOA’s mission. He said he heard people from countries like North Korea first viewed the network as another propaganda channel, but then they see the objective reporting on the U.S. and the world, “warts and all,” and the role of the free press that is constitutionally allowed to criticize its own government — something “that doesn’t happen everywhere.”
VOA told its viewers in China about pro-democracy demonstrations in their country and the spread of COVID-19. In Russia, it broadcast about the conflict in Ukraine.
But the network has remained on Trump’s bad side since his first term in office. “If you heard what’s coming out of the Voice of America, it’s disgusting. What things they say are disgusting toward our country,” he said in 2020, as CBS News reported.
What is Kari Lake up to?
Lake, a TV news anchor in Phoenix turned gubernatorial then Senate candidate, is well-versed in the “information war,” which is why “we won’t become Trump TV,” she said at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month.
And while she believes the network can be saved, she said in February it will not fuel “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” unlike other legacy media networks.
Last week, Lake’s attempts to reduce funds for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty were stopped after a federal judge paused her changes. While in conversation with Newsmax, Lake said she is working with four people from DOGE to get spending under control.
She touted canceling a nearly $250 million lease in Washington, D.C., taken out in USAGM’s name, and canceled VOA’s contracts with newswire services like The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
“But if we do not cut spending and do so quickly, we will not have a republic, no matter how incredible President Trump is. We have to cut spending. We can’t keep spending this way. DOGE is helping do that,” she said.
How much of the taxpayer funds go toward USAGM? Congress approved $950 million for this agency, as per Axios. VOA was allotted $300 million while Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is the recipient of the second-largest grant of $153 million.