US President Donald Trump has called for the shutdown of Voice of America (VOA), labeling it a ‘left-wing disaster’ and urging Republicans to support his campaign to dismantle the state-funded news outlet. The move comes as part of his broader push to eliminate wasteful government spending, with Trump arguing that VOA has become increasingly partisan over recent decades. He has called for its shutdown, claiming it is a ‘TOTAL, LEFTWING DISASTER’ and that no Republican should vote for its survival.
Senior Trump adviser Kari Lake, who has been tasked with overseeing the dismantling of the agency, described the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees V, as ‘rotten to the core’. Lake urged the agency to be reshaped to align with Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda. She stated that nearly 640 full-time staffers and more than 500 contractors have been laid off at USAGM and VOA, highlighting the significant impact of these cuts on the organization.
Meanwhile, Committee Chairman Brian Mast described USAGM as a ‘cesspool of spies, lies, and mismanagement’ that ‘has promoted the very propaganda it was created to defeat’. He accused the agency of hiring foreign nationals, many of whom he says are ‘quite literally, security risks’. Democratic and press freedom advocates have criticized the move, with Clayton Weimers of Reporters Without Borders USA calling it an ‘unprecedented gift from Trump to the dictatorial censorship regimes in countries like China and Iran’. Such criticisms highlight the deepening ideological divide over the role of state media in the United States.