The Trump administration continued with the federal government on Saturday, as it began to make a significant cut to the voice of America and other state-driven programming of democratic ideals.
While Congress accepted the government’s funding on Friday night, Trump ordered the administration to cut the functions of a number of agencies as much as possible in accordance with the law. One of the relevant institutions was the US Agency for Global Media, which oversees the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia, as well as Radio Marti, which broadcasts news in Spanish in Cuba.
In an executive order signed late Friday, Trump revealed a number of smaller offices and agencies doing everything from struggling homelessness to financing libraries.
The order says that the agencies and offices will review their federal grants. The grants will be “eliminated to the maximum extent that corresponds to the applicable legislation.”
Trump has criticized Voice of America since his first term of office. Supporters argued that radiovry Asia was an important tool for fighting Chinese propaganda.
Notices went to Voice of America staff who placed them with administrative leave on Saturday morning. Kari Lake, the loss of the Republican Senate in Arizona and the nominee nominee by Trump as adviser to the agency, wrote on X that staff should investigate their email.
Later, Reporters Without Borders said that the notices are being expanded to everyone who works for VOA.
The advocacy group said it “condemned this decision as a departure from the US historical role as a defender of free information and calls on the US government to restore VOA and insists that Congress and the international community act against this unprecedented move.”
The agency also sent out notices that end grants to radio rows Asia and other broadcasting projects operated by the agency. Voice of America reports on US domestic news in other countries, often in local languages.
Radio -free Asia, Europe and Marti broadcast news in authoritarian countries such as China, North Korea and Russia. It is estimated that the networks have an audience of 427 million people. Their efforts began during the Cold War and they are part of a group of organizations supported by the state to develop American power and fight authoritarianism. One such organization targeted by Trump is the US Agency for International Development.
The latest reduction is especially challenging because the World Media Agency is an independent agency charged by Congress, which in 2020 adopted a law that limited the competence of the agency’s presidential executives. Trump has already done several moves after the establishment of the Congress Congress Mandates A potential Supreme Court across the boundaries of presidential power.
Trump also aimed at the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an agency that supports libraries, archives and museums in all US states.
The order also incurs cuts in a number of other agencies, including the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a non -part -minded tank, as well as the US Interagency Council for Homelessness and the Community Development Fund.
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Additional reporting by AP.
