Trump Orders Gutting of 7 Agencies, Including Voice of America's Parent

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: New York Times

Trump Orders Gutting of 7 Agencies, Including Voice of America's Parent

The order targeting the agencies, largely obscure entities that address issues like labor mediation and homelessness prevention, appeared to test the bounds of the president's power.


The Voice of America building in Washington. President Trump is seeking to dismantle the federal agency that oversees the outlet. Andrew Harnik/Associated Press

By Tyler Pager
Reporting from West Palm Beach, Fla.
March 15, 2025, 1:24 a.m. ET

President Trump signed an executive order on Friday seeking to dismantle seven additional federal agencies, including the one that oversees Voice of America and other government-funded media outlets around the world.

Mr. Trump directed the heads of the agencies, largely obscure entities that address issues like labor mediation and homelessness prevention, to eliminate all functions that are not statutorily mandated. The leaders should also "reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law," the order said.

Like many of the president's moves in his wide-ranging effort to shrink the government, the order appears to test the bounds of his authority. Voice of America's parent, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, for example, is congressionally chartered as an independent agency, and Congress passed a law in 2020 intended to limit the power of the agency's presidentially appointed chief executive.

In addition to Voice of America, the Agency for Global Media funds Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. The organization, with a budget of roughly $270 million and more than 2,000 employees, broadcasts in 49 languages. It has a weekly estimated audience of more than 361 million people.

{snip}

Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration. More about Tyler Pager
https://www.nytimes.com/by/tyler-pager

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/15/us/politics/trump-order-voice-of-america.html

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Hat tip, Joe.My.God.

https://www.joemygod.com/2025/03/new-trump-order-aims-to-dismantle-seven-agencies/

New Trump Order Aims To Dismantle Seven Agencies
March 15, 2025

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https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/continuing-the-reduction-of-the-federal-bureaucracy/

PRESIDENTIAL ACTIONS
CONTINUING THE REDUCTION OF THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY
The White House
March 14, 2025

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Purpose. This order continues the reduction in the elements of the Federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary.
Sec. 2. Reducing the Scope of the Federal Bureaucracy.
(a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, the non-statutory components and functions of the following governmental entities shall be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law, and such entities shall reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law:
(i) the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service;
(ii) the United States Agency for Global Media;
(iii) the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution;
(iv) the Institute of Museum and Library Services;
(v) the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness;
(vi) the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund; and
(vii) the Minority Business Development Agency.

{snip}

[creon]

1. Destroy

Those people want to destroy the Government. and the country.
If there is a reason, it it is to go back to 1900.

[Eugene]

2. Voice of America staff put on leave after Trump orders cuts

Voice of America staff put on leave after Trump orders cuts (Reuters)

Multiple workers at Voice of America, an international media broadcaster that operates in more than 40 languages, shared with Reuters an email that placed them on administrative leave with full pay and benefits "until otherwise notified."

The emails, sent by a human resources executive at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the VOA's parent agency, instructed them not to enter their work premises or access internal systems.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-signs-order-gut-voice-105902169.html

[KY_EnviroGuy]

3. The GOP's gutting of American society.continues.

From: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/society

society

1. A long-standing group of people sharing cultural aspects such as language, dress, norms of behavior and artistic forms.

2. A group of people who meet from time to time to engage in a common interest; an association or organization.

3. The sum total of all voluntary interrelations between individuals.

4. The people of one’s country or community taken as a whole.

5. A number of people joined by mutual consent to deliberate, determine and act toward a common goal.

GOPers say there's nothing in that definition about corporate profits so it must be useless and therefore destroyed.......

[0rganism]

4. It all makes sense if you posit that Trusk works for Putin

Not sure there's a successful competing theory, although disproving the null-hypothesis stupidity is always a challenge with Trusk.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. 'Bloody Saturday' at Voice of America and other U.S.-funded networks

'Bloody Saturday' at Voice of America and other U.S.-funded networks

NPR
By David Folkenflik
Published March 15, 2025 at 2:05 PM EDT

Journalists showed up at the Voice of America today to broadcast their programs only to be told they had been locked out: Federal officials had embarked on indefinite mass suspensions.

All full-time staffers at the Voice of America and the Office for Cuba Broadcasting, which runs Radio and Television Martí, were affected — more than 1,000 employees. The move followed a late Friday night edict from President Trump that its parent agency, called the U.S. Agency for Global Media, must eliminate all activities that are not required by law.

In addition, under the leadership of Trump appointees, the agency has severed all contracts for the privately incorporated international broadcasters it funds, including Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.

The termination notices for grants for the funded networks, two of which were reviewed by NPR, carried the signature of Trump's senior adviser Kari Lake, whom he placed at USAGM, not the agency's acting chief executive. Lake does not appear in her current job to have the statutory authority to carry out that termination. … Grant Turner, the former chief financial officer at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, called it "Bloody Saturday" for the agency and its networks.

{snip}

[OnlinePoker]

6. I know they were looking but have they gone after NPR and PBS yet?

More specifically the Corporation for Public Broadcasting? I know our local NPR station is coming up on the spring fund drive and pushed the goal from $400k last week to $450k this week. I'm assuming that's in expectation of the funding cuts.

[Captain Zero]

7. I'm told it's off the air in Germany except

For one radio channel.

And that the TV channel is on a short video loop, like just an identification loop.

[CBHagman]

9. Trump tried to privatize the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in his first term.

And on top of that, he tried to zero out all funding for the arts and humanities. Congress wasn't biting.

But in the second term Trump is pretty much in ax murderer mode, swinging at anything that moves. However, I don't know how that would work with public broadcasting, given that stations rely on various sources of funding.

[CBHagman]

8. Reporters are still soft-pedaling illegal actions.

It's been breathtaking to see how quickly U.S. media outlets normalized mass firings (illegal) and elimination of departments (illegal).