Internal watchdogs at the State Department said in a new report that the Trump administration’s push to shutter Voice of America hurt its ability to advance U.S. national interests and support democratic values globally by countering disinformation and propaganda with independent journalism.
The report, published by the department’s Office of Inspector General last week and publicized on Tuesday, also questioned the purported savings that Trump officials touted for nearly closing V.O.A., which provides news to authoritarian countries with limited press freedom such as China and Iran.
The assessment of the internal watchdog echoes concerns raised by critics, including some Republicans in Congress who warned that the cuts to Voice of America would allow U.S. adversaries to spread disinformation in regions crucial to American foreign policy goals. China and Russia each spend billions of dollars a year to disseminate content favorable to their governments, including disinformation, according to the State Department.
“The reduction in operations diminished U.S.A.G.M.’s capacity to fulfill its core statutory mission of informing, engaging, and connecting people worldwide in support of freedom and democracy,” the report said, referring to Voice of America’s parent agency, the United States Agency for Global Media.
A few weeks into his second term, President Trump handpicked Kari Lake, a frequent election denier, to lead Voice of America’s parent agency. Ms. Lake soon led efforts to shutter Voice of America and other federally funded news outlets, firing nearly all of V.O.A.’s 1,400 employees, canceling contracts and terminating grants.
Immediate court challenges followed, and federal courts largely enjoined the administration from closing down the news group. In March, a federal judge voided Ms. Lake’s appointment as the interim head of the news agency and nullified nearly all of her actions. Still, the administration has brought back only a handful of Voice of America journalists from paid leave, as the court battle continues.
The cuts to V.O.A. broadcasting hampered the agency from “advancing U.S. national interests, supporting democratic values and countering disinformation,” the report said. The news group now provides limited broadcasts in fewer than 10 languages, compared with 49 languages it broadcast in until March 2025. V.O.A. had served more than 360 million people globally.
The watchdog report said decisions to cut broadcasting operations “had significant impact on U.S. priorities,” adding that the news group had only one employee fluent in Persian to report on the U.S.-led attack on Iran in June 2025 that bombed the country’s nuclear facilities.
The global media agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The report notes that the agency concurred with the watchdog’s findings and suggested that it would adopt the auditors’ recommendations.
During her tenure at the global media agency, Ms. Lake declared V.O.A. and its parent agency “a rotten piece of fish” for what she saw as rampant “waste, fraud and abuse.” But the auditors’ report said that her decisions incurred “additional costs to taxpayers.”
It laid out detailed accounts of mishaps including botched firings of hundreds of journalists still on paid leave, costing the federal government more than $6 million a month. The report’s calculation shows that the federal government has spent more than $100 million to keep V.O.A. journalists on leave, after courts barred it from firing them.
The report also said the global media agency canceled a 15-year property lease for the news agency and its support staff, and moved remaining employees to the NASA building in Washington despite warnings that the building lacked broadcasting capacity. It relocated back to an old building “after taxpayer resources were used to cover” the move, the report said.
“You can’t dismantle U.S. international broadcasting without a plan,” said Patsy Widakuswara, the White House bureau chief at Voice of America who is on paid leave and sued the administration over the layoffs. “The administration has robbed itself of a trusted voice the world listens to.”
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