President Donald Trump in December chose former TV news anchor Kari Lake to lead the federal news agency Voice of America (VOA) during his second term.
Last week, the unsuccessful Arizona GOP senatorial and gubernatorial candidate, who has called journalists “monsters,” complained last that the agency had “Trump-proofed itself before Trump got into office again.”
Lake complained of the people working at VOA: “They have made it nearly impossible for him [Trump] to get his people in. In order for me to get in as director of VOA, seven people have to be confirmed by the Senate for me to get in.”
Lake revealed that Trump had named her Senior Advisor of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) which oversees Voice of America, among other broadcasting agencies.
On Friday, Trump signed an executive order on Friday calling for the dismantling of USAGM.
On Monday, Lake told Trump’s former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on his podcast that she’s overseeing the agency which has a $1 billion budget, which she says has “grown out of control.” She said the agency was “corrupt” and compared it to USAID.
The agency I am overseeing has a Billion-dollar budget.
Past admins funneled half that money into grantees —with little to no transparency.
I sent letters to those grantees defunding them.
We are going to be slimming this agency down drastically—like it’s on an Ozempic… pic.twitter.com/XwkHDUvjeL
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) March 18, 2025
Lake told Bannon that about half of the $1 billion budget had been funneled into grants that are not transparent about their missions, and said “we couldn’t see what was going on.”
She added: “So they’ve all been canceled. We’re no longer giving money to the grantees. And we’re going to be slimming this agency down, way down, it’s going on a Ozempic diet.”
MAGA supporters are showering Lake with compliments especially regarding her “Ozempic diet” comment but other conservatives question the overall purpose of the VOA and her approach to the agency.
One replied: “The only thing that will permanently solve the problem is to end it altogether. Otherwise, the next Democrat in charge will just fully fund it again.” Another wrote: “I hope the Ozempic analogy is accurate. That means you’re going to shut it down.”
Another commenter, not so pleased with Lake’s Elon Musk-like chainsaw approach, complained: “You defunded them without investigating what they actually do. You may be putting the agency on Ozempic, but there are side effects.”
Michael Abramowitz, the (former) director of Voice of America responded to Trump’s executive order in a statement: “I am deeply saddened that for the first time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced.”
He added: “I learned this morning that virtually the entire staff of Voice of America—more than 1,300 journalists, producers and support staff—has been placed on administrative leave today. So have I.”
Abramowitz acknowledged that the agency needs “thoughtful reform, and we have made progress in that regard. But today’s action will leave Voice of America unable to carry out its vital mission. That mission is especially critical today, when America’s adversaries, like Iran, China, and Russia, are sinking billions of dollars into creating false narratives to discredit the United States.”