The Trump administration has issued termination notices to more than 600 employees at Voice of America (VOA), marking a substantial downsizing of the U.S. government’s flagship international broadcaster.
The decision, formalised on Friday, is part of a wider effort to dismantle federal media operations and reduce the footprint of the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
According to multiple sources familiar with the process, the layoffs affect approximately 1,400 personnel across USAGM, including VOA and its affiliated services. This equates to an 85% cut to the agency’s workforce. Only 250 employees will remain in service, with no dismissals reported within the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which employs 33 staff.
The terminations include journalists from the network’s Persian-language service, several of whom had only recently been recalled from administrative leave due to escalating tensions in the Middle East, following Israel’s recent strike on Iranian targets. Their reactivation was short-lived; they too received termination notices on 20 June.
The cuts follow earlier rounds of dismissals and furloughs dating back to May, during which hundreds of contract staff were informed their roles would be made redundant. On Friday, the process culminated in full-scale reductions, with the affected employees now on paid leave until Labour Day (1 September), at which point they will be removed from the federal payroll. Reports indicate that some younger employees are being dismissed without severance, potentially in breach of existing agency policy.
Voice of America, a federally funded broadcaster created in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda during the Second World War, had operated in 49 languages and reached a global audience of over 360 million people. It has long been viewed as a key instrument in American public diplomacy, offering news and analysis in regions where local media is under state control or restricted. As of June 2025, VOA now broadcasts in just four languages, with radio transmission continuing only in Afghanistan.
The administration maintains that the reduction is a necessary measure aimed at eliminating what it describes as an “out-of-control federal bureaucracy”. “Today, we took decisive action to effectuate President Trump’s agenda to shrink the out-of-control federal bureaucracy,” said senior adviser Kari Lake in a statement issued Friday. She added that the decision is aligned with the broader goal of “putting American taxpayers first”.
In thread below: Presidential adviser Kari Lake says US Agency for Global Media is laying off 85 percent of workforce, including Voice of America.
Full statements of Lake and those VoA staffers suing Trump administration in thread. https://t.co/QkB8IR7NfA
— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) June 20, 2025
Critics have accused the administration of politicising a historically non-partisan institution. President Trump has repeatedly labelled VOA “anti-Trump” and referred to it as the “Voice of Radical America”. Journalists at the agency, however, argue that they have continued to operate under long-established standards of editorial independence and impartiality.
Employees affected by the layoffs have brought legal action against the administration, arguing that the terminations undermine federal obligations to promote free press internationally. However, the courts have so far declined to intervene.
“As our legal team fight[s] for our rights under the law, we call on Congress to continue its long tradition of bipartisan support for VOA,” read a statement from plaintiffs involved in the legal case. “Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and extremist groups are flooding the global information space with anti-American propaganda. Do not cede this ground by silencing America’s voice.”
The move has drawn criticism from foreign policy analysts and former USAGM officials, who argue that the closure of VOA’s language services creates a vacuum in information dissemination, particularly in countries where disinformation is already prevalent. Some foreign ministries in allied countries have reportedly expressed concern over the loss of access to independent American news content.
The Trump administration began issuing reduction-in-force (RIF) notices in stages from mid-March, following the president’s executive order instructing USAGM to pursue the “maximum dismantling” of its operations. Friday’s wave of terminations is widely seen as the final stage of that process.
Voice of America’s capacity to resume meaningful operations in the future remains uncertain. While a skeletal team will continue to manage residual programming, observers suggest that the network’s original mandate to provide timely, factual reporting to audiences lacking press freedom has been effectively neutralised.
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