WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday directing sweeping cuts to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America, and six other federal agencies, marking his administration’s latest push to downsize government operations.
The order instructs the agencies to scale back their activities to the bare minimum required by law, eliminating any programs or functions not explicitly mandated by statute.
“This order continues the reduction in the elements of the Federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary,” the document states.
Voice of America (VOA), which broadcasts news in more than 40 languages online and on radio and television, has long been a target of conservative criticism. Trump, who frequently clashed with VOA during his first term, appointed former news anchor Kari Lake as its new director. Lake, a staunch Trump ally, has accused mainstream media of harboring anti-Trump bias and has suggested that publicly funded media outlets require reform.
VOA operates under the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which also funds Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. In addition to targeting that agency, Trump’s order affects the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and the Minority Business Development Agency.
According to the order, these agencies must eliminate all non-statutory operations and “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.”
The move is part of Trump’s broader effort to overhaul the federal bureaucracy, a project he has largely entrusted to billionaire Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. The initiative, known as DOGE, has so far proposed cutting more than 100,000 federal jobs, freezing foreign aid, and canceling thousands of government programs and contracts.
Some conservatives have argued that publicly funded media outlets like VOA promote liberal bias. Last month, Musk called for the shutdown of VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in a post on his social media platform, X.
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Lake acknowledged calls to dismantle VOA but argued it could be reformed. “I understand the frustration,” she said, “but I believe we can make it better.”
