Trump to Republicans on VOA: "KILL IT!"
President's instruction likely means Voice of America won't be revived in budget negotiations
CAPITOL HILL — In the moment after Kari Lake was harshly criticized by Democrats and praised by Republicans during today’s House Foreign Affairs Committee session, President Donald Trump instructed lawmakers of his party to drive a stake through the heart of the zombified Voice of America.
Someone quickly got word to Trump by the conclusion of the hearing that several Republicans, including the panel’s chairman emeritus Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas and the independent-minded Rep. Young Kim of California, expressed sentiments that some elements of VOA would be worth saving.
The president, heading out of the NATO Summit at The Hague, posted to his Truth Social platform: “Why would a Republican want Democrat “mouthpiece,” Voice of America (VOA), to continue? It’s a TOTAL, LEFTWING DISASTER — No Republican should vote for its survival. KILL IT!”
Sic decretum est.
There was little expectation before today that any Republican here on the Hill would fight for continued funding for VOA in the next federal budget. With Trump’s pronouncement, the odds are now nil.
That is likely the only matter of consequence from today’s hearing, which the Republicans had called (with Lake, the so-called special adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media as the only witness) and titled: “Spies, Lies, and Mismanagement: Examining the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Downfall.”
The purpose was to give Lake a multi-hour platform to justify her destruction of VOA and her quest to strangle most of the other U.S.-funded international broadcasters — grantees Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Arabic-language Alhurra TV under the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
Lake veered so far and so often from the truth today that the #SaveVOA campaign was compelled to fact-check her in real time on social media and compile a comprehensive refutation online.
Scott Nover of the Washington Post, who endured the entire three hour program in the Rayburn House Office Building, noted in his article that Democrats railed against Lake’s dismantling of USAGM, characterizing it as haphazard and demanded she explain what analysis had been conducted before making the deep cuts.
“These are ridiculous questions,” Lake told Rep. Gregory W. Meeks (New York), the top Democrat on the committee, when she was pressed about the lack of documentation.
The Hill news site, in its coverage, pointed out that Lake argued VOA should be stripped to bare essential resources and promote “President Trump’s message” to people around the world, particularly in areas controlled by American adversaries. The Hill erroneously referred to VOA as “an English-language broadcaster.” There are no English broadcasts at VOA, thanks to Lake. Prior to the mid-March purge VOA had nearly 50 language services programming for radio and/or TV plus voluminous daily content online and on social media.
Lake today conceded to temporarily propping up a walking dead VOA with a token presence in Dari, Farsi, Mandarin and Pashto (but not English nor any of the broadcaster’s 45 other radio/TV language services) to be run by just a few dozen personnel and while firing the other 1,400+ experienced staffers by the start of September.
In her concluding remark, Lake gave the game away, revealing that what has not already been fed into the wood chipper will also be pulverized. That appears to include the grantees.
The president, according to Lake, is calling for eliminating USAGM from this October “and I’m going to work to effectuate that.”
Some vestige of U.S. international broadcasting labeled the Voice of America may emerge at the State Department. But it will be shorn of the charter and firewall that ensured VOA’s balance and journalistic independence, no matter which party was in power here. The president will then have what he desired from the early days of his first administration — a government-run television service that will truly be the Voice of Trump.
The fact that Trump, in the midst of the Iran-Israel impasse took the time to refer to VOA and ask for its demise, it shows, in my opinion, that VOA will survive. It shows some republicans senators and congressmen are dragging their heels on eliminating the most powerful public diplomacy USA has. The order was given in March… but still the president needs to “remind” his legislators to kill the bill. It shows he doesn’t have all the tools he thought he had it. I’m confident VOA, as it is and we know it, will survive. This battle is not over yet.
Every journalist in this country should be in mourning