Voice of America faces mass layoffs as legal fight with Trump Admin escaltes
More than 500 Voice of America contractors are expected to lose their jobs as early as May 30, while the US-funded news service continues its legal battle with the Trump Administration over the dismantling of VOA’s parent agency.
“In accordance with President Trump’s executive order dated March 14, we are in the process of rightsizing the agency and reducing the federal bureaucracy to meet administration priorities,” Kari Lake, senior adviser of the US Agency for Global Media, told The Washington Post in an email.
“We will continue to scale back the bloat at USAGM and make an archaic dinosaur into something worthy of being funded by hardworking Americans.”
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In a memo to staff, VOA director Michael Abramowitz wrote that he is “heartbroken” over the terminations made by USAGM, an independent federal agency that oversees public service media networks.
“Some of VOA’s most talented journalists have been (personal services contractors) - many of whom have escaped tyranny in their home countries to tell America’s story of freedom and democracy.”
“I find this action inexplicable, and to my knowledge, no rationale has been provided by USAGM for this decision,” wrote Mr Abramowitz, who is one of the VOA plaintiffs suing the government over its cuts.
“We will continue to make efforts to help individual PSCs, especially those who face a possible return to hostile countries, in any and every way we can during this difficult time.”
The VOA workforce includes roughly 1,350 employees.
Full-time employees were not affected by the terminations, but there’s an expectation that those positions will be considered later, according to several people familiar with the situation who all spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
Ms Lake said 584 total employees were terminated across USAGM, which also includes the Office of Cuba Broadcasting.
She didn’t provide a breakdown but said the majority were from VOA.
Some of the terminated employees hold a J-1 visa and could be forced to leave the country after 30 days, according to a statement posted to X by the advocacy group Save VOA.
“Several of these journalists come from countries where they could be arrested or worse because of their reporting for VOA,” the statement said.
“The contractors are not ancillary - they are essential reporters, editors, producers and videographers.
The mass terminations are further evidence that USAGM intends to destroy the Voice of America,” said Steve Herman, VOA’s chief national correspondent, who has been on paid administrative leave since the end of February.
“This is a terrible blow as we go through the appeals process,” said Patsy Widakuswara, VOA’s White House bureau chief who is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging USAGM’s moves, “but we are not giving up.
My heart goes out to our most vulnerable colleagues, including J-1 visa holders who will have to leave the country and those with sick family members who will lose their health benefits. We will keep fighting.”
Fatima Tlis, a supervisory editor with VOA, wrote on X that while she was spared, her entire team of three, which included staffers who were granted political asylum by the United States, was let go Thursday.
“How does throwing on the streets the journalists you brought in on a promise of liberty and security help the American people?” she wrote.
Voice of America is currently in federal court suing the Trump Administration over its March executive order dismantling the USAGM.
The government has put most VOA staffers on paid administrative leave.
US District Judge Royce C. Lamberth issued a preliminary injunction ordering VOA staffers back to work on April 22, but a three-judge panel on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, including two Trump appointees, stayed that injunction on May 3.
VOA has since asked the full membership of the circuit court to consider reversing the three-judge panel decision and reinstating the lower court injunction.
The injunction still holds in one crucial area: Voice of America needs to fulfil its statutory mandate.
To do that, VOA has let about 30 people out of 1,300 return to work in the past two weeks.
Since then, VOA has resumed some of its work in Dari, Pashto, Persian and Chinese.
VOA has long been viewed by Democratic and Republican administrations as a key tool of American soft power abroad, broadcasting reliable and independent news into countries where it can be dangerous to gather and disseminate information.
It launched in 1942 to combat nazi propaganda and was a major diplomatic tool during the Cold War era.
Lake recently signed a deal to broadcast content from the right-wing cable network One America News on Voice of America and the Cuba-focused Radio Martí. She has promised not to turn VOA into “Trump TV” but has called it a “weapon” in America’s “information war.”
Since coming to Washington and telling associates that she saw potential in reforming VOA to align with the president’s “America First” agenda, Lake was instead detailed in April to the State Department, where she will work to scale back USAGM and its affiliated outlets, The Post reported.
