'Autocrats rejoicing': Outrage after Trump's 'toxic' move to shut down 'beacons of hope'
Donald Trump's decision to cut back significantly on Kari Lake's Voice of America caused some outrage on Saturday.
David Enrich of the New York Times reported on Saturday that, "Journalists at Voice of America were just informed that they’ve been put on administrative leave."
"Two people there told me this went to all fulltime employees," he said, including a purported email to the journalists.
Authoritarian expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat responded to that development, saying, "Trump's mandate as a Putin partner and ally of autocracy is to erase American democracy's global footprint in terms of military scientific informational humanitarian and every other kind of influence: it's all going to be shut off, go dark, be diminished."
ALSO READ: 'Came as a surprise to me': Senators 'troubled' by one aspect of government funding bill
VOA Director Michael Abramowitz said, "I am deeply saddened that for the 1st time in 83 years, the storied Voice of America is being silenced."
"VOA needs thoughtful reform and we have made progress in that regard. But today’s action will leave VOA unable to carry out its vital mission," he added.
Failed GOP candidate Kari Lake, installed by Trump to oversee VOA, said she supported the move by Trump.
Other observers were outraged.
Journalist Josh Marshall chimed in, "When you see headlines like 'Trump orders closure of Voice of America'. That's not how it works."
"Congressional created, funded part of the US government. All of this stuff is illegal. Just because it's happening doesn't make it less illegal," Marshall then added.
The founder of the Frontelligence Insight said that "emails placing Voice of America employees on indefinite leave" along with other actions by the Trump administration are a "devastating blow to democracy and a major gift to anti-American authoritarian regimes worldwide."
Branislav Slantchev, Professor of Political Science at the University of California San Diego, added, "So it is. I can’t even begin to describe how an Eastern European who grew up on the other side of the Iron Curtain feels about this."
"VoA and [Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] were the beacons of hope, the window into what the free world looked like, and they gave people hope to persist and eventually bring down the communist regimes that many thought would last forever," he added.
Trump ally Richard Grenell, on the other hand, celebrated the cuts.
"VOA and RFE lost its original mission a long time ago. I was complaining about their activism in 2005 when I saw the UN VOA correspondent embarrassed to push US government policy despite being paid by US taxpayers," he then added. "They aren’t journalists. They are paid by the American people."
Christian Christensen, Professor at Stockholm University, said, "Trump/Musk fans calling Voice of America things like 'global PBS' and 'left-wing propaganda.' VOA has been pumping out anti-leftist, pro-Capitalism propaganda for decades."
"These people literally have no idea what they are shutting down or why. The ignorance is utterly toxic," he added.
Margaret McCuaig-Johnston, most recently Executive Vice-President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, said, "Trump just closed Voice of America. Autocrats worldwide are rejoicing. In 1979 I was in China and VOA was the only source of info on the war raging between China and Vietnam. The Chinese employees in the hotel where we listened to it were even more interested."