President Donald Trump signed an executive order to reduce the operations of U.S. government-funded media outlet Voice of America and six other federal agencies, in an effort to shrink bureaucracy. The order targets agencies such as the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, as well as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. The order instructs these agencies to eliminate all operations not mandated by law, reducing their personnel to the minimum required.
Trump’s administration has clashed with VOA in the past, and the president has appointed former news anchor Kari Lake as the new director for his second term. Lake has been vocal about alleged anti-Trump bias in mainstream media. The order also targets other agencies such as the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, and the Minority Business Development Agency for cuts.
This executive order is part of Trump’s efforts to remake the federal bureaucracy, with the assistance of tech billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. The administration’s goal is to reduce the federal workforce by potentially eliminating over 100,000 jobs, freezing foreign aid, and cancelling numerous programs and contracts. Some Republicans have criticized publicly-funded media outlets like VOA for bias against conservatives, with Musk calling for VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to be shut down. Lake, in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, expressed support for improving VOA rather than dismantling it completely.
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