Kari Lake, the senior advisor to the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), said they have eliminated 1400 positions, an 85% reduction in personnel since March.
In a statement posted to X, Lake said the moves were part of President Donald Trump’s executive order to shrink the federal workforce.
“Reduction in Force (RIF) notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America — part of a transformation plan to create a more efficient, less biased USAGM funded and directed in accordance with America’s foreign policy objectives,” Lake said. “We will no longer subsidize anti-American, biased, wasteful media. We are proud to carry out President Trump’s executive order and deliver results the American people deserve.”
In March, Lake terminated a $250 million lease for a luxury high-rise building on Pennsylvania Avenue and implemented new safeguards to hold media leadership accountable for decades of waste, mismanagement, self-dealing, and failures to fulfill their mission.
The U.S. Agency for Global Media is absorbing the Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), which transmits news into Cuba from its Miami-based office in Florida, Lake said. According to Lake, OCB’s 33 employees have been retained.
The agency is implementing new standards to ensure taxpayer funded foreign media is consistent with the promise to put America first, Lake said.
“I look forward to working closely with President Trump to implement our plan to ensure the funding of America’s story is modernized, effective and aligns with America’s foreign policy,” Lake said.
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