More than a year after attempting to dismantle the Voice of America news outlet, we find out the Trump administration is paying $1.6 million a week to keep 420 staffers on administrative leave.
More than a year after the Trump administration attempted to dismantle Voice of America, it is paying an estimated $1.6 million a week to keep 420 of its staffers on administrative leave, according to a State Department inspector general report. https://t.co/UDPT6Dp26W
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 2, 2026
Voice of America is an international broadcaster funded by the United States federal government.
It is the largest and oldest of the US’s existing international broadcasters, producing digital, TV, and radio content in 48 languages for affiliate stations around the world.
From the Washington Post (gift link):
The U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, slashed its workforce in March 2025, placing 994 of its 1,147 federal employees on leave, cutting 594 of its 602 contract workers and halting broadcasts, according to the agency’s count.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in March 2025 ordering that USAGM be shrunk to the “minimum presence and function required by law.”
The effort was spearheaded by Kari Lake, a Republican former TV broadcaster from Arizona who became a Trump-aligned firebrand and ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor and U.S. senator before joining the Trump administration. Lake called USAGM a “giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer” and canceled a building lease for the agency.
A federal judge later found that she had been illegally acting as the agency’s CEO and he struck down her mass layoff plan.
Trump apparently wanted the news outlet gone because he saw some of its past reporting as unflattering (or not fawning enough) to him.
On May 6, 2025, Trump ally Kari Lake, the acting head of the agency overseeing VOA at the time, announced that One America News, a far-right, pro-Trump network known for promoting conspiracy theories, would provide news coverage for VOA.
Read more here.
Voice of America, which began broadcasting in 1942 to fight Nazi propaganda during World War II, will be fed coverage from right-wing cable network One America News, announced Kari Lake
More: https://t.co/M2yGGkJnPHhttps://t.co/M2yGGkJnPH
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) May 8, 2025
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