As the leader continued his plan to rebuild the state without the approval of Congress, US President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday began cutting significant portions of Voice of America and another government-run, pro-democracy software.
Trump directed his administration to lessen the features of various agencies to the bare minimum that is permitted by law on Friday night, soon after Congress passed its most recent funding bill. That included the US Agency for Global Media, which provides Spanish-language information to Cuba through Radio Marti, Radio Free Europe, and Asia, and Voice of America.
Kari Lake, the unsuccessful Democrat from Arizona and the US Senate, posted on X that people should check their emails on Saturday night. Trump has appointed her as a mature advisor to the company. That was when finds started outing placing Voice of America employees on paid administrative leave.
Additionally, the company sent observes terminating funding for Radio Free Asia and other software it manages. Voice of America provides private information from the United States to other countries, frequently translated into local language. In nations like China, North Korea, and Russia, where authoritarian regimes exist, Radio Free Asia, Europe, and Marti broadcast media.
The networks, when combined, approach an estimated 427 million individuals. They date back to the Cold War and are a part of a system of government-funded agencies that include USAID, another organization that Trump has targeted.
Because the Agency for Global Media is a self-contained separate organization, which passed a legislation in 2020 restricting the authority of the company’s executive officers, the most recent cuts are provocative. Trump has previously acted in some ways to end federally mandated programs, evoking a potential Supreme Court showdown over executive branch rule.
Additionally, Trump’s decree requires cuts for a number of lesser-known, less well-known government organizations, including the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a democratic consider tank, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.
The Trump presidency has now revoked deals with outside media companies, including the Associated Press, and suspended a well-known journalist who criticized Trump.
