President Donald Trump has mandated the dismantling of the Voice of America (VOA), a state-funded U.S. media outlet he has frequently criticized for allegedly promoting biased reporting. A senior White House official described VOA as “the Voice for Radical America,” accusing it of disseminating divisive propaganda for years.

On Friday, Trump signed an executive order targeting the closure of seven government offices, including the United States Agency for Global Media, the parent company of VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The order stipulates that “the non-statutory components and functions of the following governmental entities shall be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law,” and demands a reduction in their statutory functions and personnel to the minimum required by law.

Kari Lake, appointed by Trump as the next chief of VOA in December, and currently a senior advisor at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, advised employees to “check your email” for updates about their job status. Lake, a former news anchor and Republican political candidate from Arizona, shared this information on the social media platform X, also noting the impact on the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB).

According to the Wall Street Journal, employees received emails on Saturday informing them of their termination, although the exact number of affected employees remains unclear. Following these developments, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, under Lake’s guidance, released a statement declaring the agency “not salvageable” and described it as a “giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer—a national security risk for this nation—and irretrievably broken.”

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The executive order also targets other agencies including the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and the Minority Business Development Agency.

VOA has faced criticism for its coverage, including accusations of “sanitizing” Hamas and not highlighting the group’s actions during a parade of coffins of Israeli hostages in Gaza. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast criticized VOA for not labeling Hamas and its members as terrorists in its internal communications, despite their actions.

The news outlet has also been scrutinized for other controversial stories, such as an article questioning “What Is ‘White Privilege’ and Whom Does It Help?” and a story and video likened to a Biden campaign video, along with downplaying the Hunter Biden laptop controversy during the 2020 presidential campaign.

A former VOA employee, in an op-ed last year, called for the dismantling of the outlet, criticizing it as a “hubris-filled rogue operation” often reflecting a leftist bias and failing to uphold journalistic standards and management accountability.