The president slashed federal funding to the US media arm described by his adviser as “a large rot and burden to the American taxpayer”
A US district choose has issued a restraining order in opposition to President Donald Trump’s effort to downsize the federal company that bankrolls Voice of America, the WWII-era broadcaster later retooled by the CIA right into a Chilly Battle propaganda weapon.
In mid-March, Trump ordered sweeping cuts at VOA’s father or mother group, the US Company for International Media (USAGM), as a part of a broader push to cut back federal waste and realign overseas assist and different mushy energy initiatives with the administration’s “America First” doctrine. The chief order additionally focused Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), one other USAGM entity based within the early Nineteen Fifties as two separate CIA entrance organizations.
In response, VOA journalists, unions, and press freedom NGOs sued the company and its management, warning that the broadcaster – which has “promoted America’s democratic beliefs overseas since World Battle II” – would undergo “irreparable hurt,” whereas its overseas staff might face “deportation to their dwelling international locations.”
On Friday, District Decide James Paul Oetken issued a brief restraining order barring the Trump administration from terminating the contracts of roughly 1,200 VOA staff who had been positioned on depart earlier this month.
The choose prohibited USAGM from implementing Trump’s order and from “continuing with any additional try and terminate, reduce-in-force, place on depart, or furlough any USAGM worker or contractor.” The ruling additionally blocks the company from terminating federal grants or contracts, or shuttering present places of work.
Trump-appointed senior USAGM adviser Kari Lake defended the cuts earlier this month, calling the company “not salvageable.”
“From high to backside, this company is a big rot and burden to the American taxpayer – a nationwide safety danger for this nation – and irretrievably damaged,” she stated.
Elon Musk, Trump’s authorities effectivity czar, additionally advocated for shuttering VOA and RFE/RL again in February. The CIA-linked broadcasters had worth through the Chilly Battle, he argued, however “no person listens to them anymore.” He described the shops as “radical left loopy individuals speaking to themselves whereas torching $1B a 12 months of US taxpayer cash.”
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