President Donald Trump has taken the reevaluation of the media seriously, following through on his frustrations and promises of change in the legacy media.

Acting CEO of U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which governs the Voice of America, announced the elimination of 532 positions at the media group, as The Daily Caller reported.

The CEO has been asked to restructure the USAGM and its affiliated broadcasting groups in accordance with a March 14 executive order from Trump.

The president has been in legal battle over the order, however, and a federal judge blocked the firing of Voice of America director Michael Abramowitz just last week.

From Lake

Lake posted on social media about the massive change to the group, saying that the reduction was at the order of the president.

"Tonight, the U.S. Agency for Global Media initiated what is known as a reduction in force, or RIF, of a large number of its full-time federal employees,” Lake said.

“We are conducting this RIF at the President's direction to help reduce the federal bureaucracy, improve agency service, and save the American people more of their hard-earned money," she wrote in a memo.

The other side

Legal Journalist Luke Johnson spoke for the other side, saying he was struggling with "sadness and anger over the dismantling of our beloved Voice of America.”

According to Johnson, “VOA was a key tool to inform ordinary Soviets and other repressed people of the dangers of communism and totalitarianism,” which assisted with the fight for freedom, “serving as the antithesis of the Kremlin's Pravda, which spreads propaganda and lies to ‘useful idiots.’”

The journalist also called Lae’s actions “callous” and with the intent to “silence criticism.” Johnson drew a straight line from Lake’s publicly shared opinion that the election process has been contaminated to her role in the firings.

“Dismantling Voice of America was an act of profound ignorance,” Johnson said. “VOA is not a news outlet; it's a US foreign policy tool that helped bring down an empire without firing a shot. Discarding it now, especially with the resurgence of Russia, is a tragedy.”

Support for the move

Those backing the Trump administration, however, have a very different view, saying that the individuals relieved of their position were not working with the American best interest at heart.

Former PayPal executive and self-proclaimed "Philosopher Capitalist" Rod Martin said that “Voice of America was hijacked decades ago—turned from anti-communist truth-telling into a taxpayer-funded megaphone for globalist propaganda.”

🚨 TRUMP JUST FIRED 500+ DEEP STATERS AT VOA

Voice of America was hijacked decades ago—turned from anti-communist truth-telling into a taxpayer-funded megaphone for globalist propaganda.

Now Trump is dismantling it, job by job.

THREAD 🧵 pic.twitter.com/bGipAX75rU

— Rod D. Martin (@RodDMartin) August 30, 2025