An independent external auditor “working on behalf of and under the direction of the Office of Inspector General” in February issued the results of its attempt to audit the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s FY 25 financial statements.
According to the Office of Inspector General, which is run by the U.S. Department of State, “The external auditor found that because of the significance of the matters described in the ‘Basis for Disclaimer of Opinion’ section of the report, it could not obtain sufficient and appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion on the financial statements.”
The auditor reported “a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting related to insufficient audit evidence” and “identified a reportable instance of noncompliance with laws, regulations, contracts, and grant agreements related to establishing and maintaining effective internal controls.”
background here: https://t.co/bmKZKCOFUH
— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) March 4, 2026
The Atlantic Monthly‘s Anne Applebaum, who has written extensively about the de facto — she has not received Senate confirmation — leader of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, MAGA loyalist Kari Lake, responded to the audit report writing: “The organization’s finances are too chaotic even to assess.”
Applebaum’s latest article titled, ‘What Is Kari Lake Trying to Achieve?’, describes Lake as an Arizona politician who “has wasted millions of dollars while blocking U.S. efforts to bring reliable news to repressive countries.”
As seen below, in an interview with The Gateway Pundit* last week, Lake said, “My ultimate goal is to take this agency, and this was part of the President’s budget, reduce the agency down to zero, and move the assets over to the State Department.”
[*The Gateway Pundit was described by Newsweek in 2018 as “a far-right fake-news website” and by CNN in 2019 as a website “prone to peddling conspiracy theories.”]
.@KariLake: “My ultimate goal, is to take this agency, & this was part of the president’s budget, reduce the agency down to zero & move the assets over to the State Department.
This is soft diplomacy, what we’re doing here. This is a soft power & it’s part of diplomacy, &… pic.twitter.com/HlHi7rNwBh
— Kari Lake War Room (@KariLakeWarRoom) February 26, 2026
In an attempt to answer the title question, ‘What Is Kari Lake Trying to Achieve?’, The Atlantic article notes that Lake has recently purchased a condominium in her native state Iowa, which sparked questions about a potential congressional run. When asked by The Atlantic if she would again run for public office (she lost both her gubernatorial and Senate runs in Arizona), Lake said in a statement, “If and when I decide to run for office, The Atlantic will be the very last to know.”