President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday aimed at gutting the parent of US government-funded media outlet Voice of America and six other federal agencies, his administration’s latest step to shrink bureaucracy.
The order instructs the agencies – largely little-known entities including one that provides funding for museums and libraries and one tackling homelessness – to reduce their operations to the bare minimum mandated by the law.
“This order continues the reduction in the elements of the Federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary,” the order, disclosed late on Friday, says. Trump, who clashed with the Voice of America during his first term, picked former news anchor Kari Lake to be its director for his second. Lake, a staunch ally of the president, has often accused mainstream media of harbouring anti-Trump bias.
Voice of America, an international media broadcaster that operates in more than 40 languages online and on radio and television, is overseen by the US Agency for Global Media. The agency also funds Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.
In addition to the Agency for Global Media, Trump’s order also targets the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the US Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and the Minority Business Development Agency for cuts.
