MAGA Burns Down Kari Lake’s Media Empire

Weeks ago, former candidate for Arizona governor and US Senate Kari Lake was sworn in as the Director for the Voice of America (VOA). Now, President Trump is gutting it.

VOA, the US government’s international broadcasting network, has long played a role in shaping America’s image abroad. Funded by taxpayers, it operates outside US borders, promoting American values and countering foreign narratives through radio and television programming.

Established in 1942 during World War II, VOA expanded its reach during the Cold War, serving as a key tool of US soft power by providing news and information to audiences in countries where independent journalism was restricted or heavily censored. The VOA is a sub-agency of the United States Agency For Global Media (USAGM).

In a speech delivered last month to a room of conservative grassroots activists, Lake laid out a simple vision for the VOA. She said the mission of the department would be “accurate and honest reporting,” emphasizing that while the agency has a history of biased coverage, under her leadership, it would not serve as either a pro-Trump or anti-Trump platform. Prior to her runs for public office, Lake built a successful career as a broadcaster at the Phoenix-based FOX affiliate KSAZ-TV, where she worked for over 20 years, from 1999 to 2021.

After her TV career, Lake became a staunch Trump supporter and a repetitive focal point of his rallies over the years, eventually becoming a close ally. Despite her repeated electoral losses at the state and federal levels, her appointment to VOA was widely seen as a symbolic reward for her loyalty to the president. Lake first emerged as a vocal Trump supporter in 2021, during a time when many within the GOP establishment distanced themselves from him.

Kari Lake’s plans for VOA faced a significant challenge from the start: some within Trump’s circle viewed the network as outdated and unnecessary in the modern media landscape. Ric Grenell, President Trump’s special missions envoy, had been among the most vocal critics. In February, he dismissed the need for government-funded media outlets that exist under the USAGM umbrella, stating, “We don’t need government-paid media outlets.”

Billionaire and close Trump ally Elon Musk, who has been spearheading drastic funding cuts in Washington through his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), had also signaled that VOA would be next on the chopping block.

Musk had been vocal about eliminating what he saw as unnecessary government spending, calling VOA and other USAGM properties, including Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, “radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money.”