There is a sickening symmetry to President Donald Trump’s actions: While undermining U.S. democracy at home, he is also trying end U.S. government support for democracy abroad. His victims range from a leading human rights organization to the U.S. government networks that beam factual information to victims of oppression around the world.
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In its first weeks, the administration, led by Elon Musk’s apparatchiks, tried to cut off congressionally appropriated funds for the National Endowment for Democracy, a Reagan-era institution that supports dissidents and activists around the world. NED sued to gets its money back and has succeeded in getting access to a backlog of drawdown requests to the U.S. Treasury. But sources tell me it’s still unclear whether it will continue to have access to appropriated funds going forward.
Democracy-promotion groups that depend on funding from the State Department or the U.S. Agency for International Development are in even worse shape. That includes Freedom House, one of the oldest and most respected human rights organizations in the world. It was established in 1941 by a group that included Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie, and it is best known for its annual Freedom in the World surveys; the last such survey found that “global freedom declined for the 19th consecutive year in 2024.” The organization also provides vital assistance to activists persecuted by tyrannical regimes around the world.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/06/trump-harris-reckoning-2024/
Now, the organization’s interim co-president Annie Boyajian tells me, “Freedom House has had to lay off a large portion of our staff and stop work on vital efforts relied upon by policymakers, business leaders, civil society organizations, human rights defenders and the general public” because it has lost access to its government grants.
Follow Trump’s first 100 Days
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Trump on Friday night signed an executive order to cut off all funding for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the parent agency of the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Radio and TV Marti, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and the Open Technology Fund, which works to circumvent internet censorship.
It is still possible that a court will block this flagrant power grab by Trump; a president shouldn’t have the executive authority to destroy a congressionally authorized agency or to cut off congressionally appropriated funds. But the impact of this capricious decree is already being felt, and by the time a judge acts, it might be too late to reverse the damage.
VOA Director Michael J. Abramowitz (who, until last year, was president of Freedom House), posted on Saturday a statement on Facebook: “I learned this morning that virtually the entire staff of Voice of America — more than 1300 journalists, producers and support staff — has been placed on administrative leave today. So have I.”
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This is an immense tragedy — and a massive setback for U.S. interests. As a Post news story noted, “VOA and its affiliates reach 420 million people in 63 languages and more than 100 countries each week.” Many of those people live in despotic countries such as China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela, where they have no other independent sources of information. My own parents were among the listeners of VOA when they were growing up in the Soviet Union in the 1960s. Naturally, dictators hate these networks because they provide an alternative source of information for people who are otherwise bombarded with state propaganda.
“The cancellation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s grant agreement would be a massive gift to America’s enemies,” RFE/RL President Stephen Capus said. “The Iranian Ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years. Handing our adversaries a win would make them stronger and America weaker.”
The White House news release announcing the defunding of VOA was a typical farrago of falsehoods, claiming without evidence that the august, 83-year-old organization spreads “radical propaganda.” Among the supposed examples of VOA bias: “In March 2019, Voice of America ran a segment about transgender migrants seeking asylum in the United States.” Note that this wasn’t a video advocating transgender rights; it was a news story whose accuracy isn’t disputed.
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Of course, with any large news organization, there are bound to be some legitimate quibbles about bias. The White House, for example, notes: “In July 2020, Voice of America faced criticism for ‘sharing a story and video appearing too favorable to presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.’” VOA did make a mistake by broadcasting on its Urdu-language network a campaign event at which Biden appealed for Muslim American support. But what the White House doesn’t note is what happened next. As Politico reported, “Top VOA officials, reviewing the material after red flags were raised about it externally, found it violated the network’s editorial policies and ordered it taken down.”
That’s an indication of how the U.S. Agency for Global Media tries to keep its output as factual as possible — although it will be hard to do that if election-denier Kari Lake is confirmed as VOA director and her fellow MAGA loyalist L. Brent Bozell III becomes chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. (Assuming that the agencies still exist if and when they are confirmed.)
If there are legitimate grounds for criticism of VOA’s coverage, then the obvious answer is to institute reforms, not to kill the entire organization.
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All of this amounts to a stunning and self-defeating repudiation of America’s legacy as a beacon of freedom around the world. We have not always been consistent or effective in championing democracy, but, at its best, the United States has done much to advance the cause of human rights. That, in turn, helps safeguard U.S. interests because dictatorships are much more likely than democracies to threaten us.
But Trump’s sympathies lie with the world’s despots. The champions of democracy are on their own. If other Western countries don’t step forward to expand their own democracy-promotion efforts, the vacuum that Trump is creating will be filled by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
Make sense of the latest news and debates with our daily newsletter
In its first weeks, the administration, led by Elon Musk’s apparatchiks, tried to cut off congressionally appropriated funds for the National Endowment for Democracy, a Reagan-era institution that supports dissidents and activists around the world. NED sued to gets its money back and has succeeded in getting access to a backlog of drawdown requests to the U.S. Treasury. But sources tell me it’s still unclear whether it will continue to have access to appropriated funds going forward.
Democracy-promotion groups that depend on funding from the State Department or the U.S. Agency for International Development are in even worse shape. That includes Freedom House, one of the oldest and most respected human rights organizations in the world. It was established in 1941 by a group that included Eleanor Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie, and it is best known for its annual Freedom in the World surveys; the last such survey found that “global freedom declined for the 19th consecutive year in 2024.” The organization also provides vital assistance to activists persecuted by tyrannical regimes around the world.
Advertisement
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/11/06/trump-harris-reckoning-2024/
Now, the organization’s interim co-president Annie Boyajian tells me, “Freedom House has had to lay off a large portion of our staff and stop work on vital efforts relied upon by policymakers, business leaders, civil society organizations, human rights defenders and the general public” because it has lost access to its government grants.
Follow Trump’s first 100 Days
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Trump on Friday night signed an executive order to cut off all funding for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, the parent agency of the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Radio and TV Marti, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks and the Open Technology Fund, which works to circumvent internet censorship.
It is still possible that a court will block this flagrant power grab by Trump; a president shouldn’t have the executive authority to destroy a congressionally authorized agency or to cut off congressionally appropriated funds. But the impact of this capricious decree is already being felt, and by the time a judge acts, it might be too late to reverse the damage.
VOA Director Michael J. Abramowitz (who, until last year, was president of Freedom House), posted on Saturday a statement on Facebook: “I learned this morning that virtually the entire staff of Voice of America — more than 1300 journalists, producers and support staff — has been placed on administrative leave today. So have I.”
Advertisement
This is an immense tragedy — and a massive setback for U.S. interests. As a Post news story noted, “VOA and its affiliates reach 420 million people in 63 languages and more than 100 countries each week.” Many of those people live in despotic countries such as China, Russia, Iran, North Korea and Venezuela, where they have no other independent sources of information. My own parents were among the listeners of VOA when they were growing up in the Soviet Union in the 1960s. Naturally, dictators hate these networks because they provide an alternative source of information for people who are otherwise bombarded with state propaganda.
“The cancellation of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s grant agreement would be a massive gift to America’s enemies,” RFE/RL President Stephen Capus said. “The Iranian Ayatollahs, Chinese communist leaders, and autocrats in Moscow and Minsk would celebrate the demise of RFE/RL after 75 years. Handing our adversaries a win would make them stronger and America weaker.”
The White House news release announcing the defunding of VOA was a typical farrago of falsehoods, claiming without evidence that the august, 83-year-old organization spreads “radical propaganda.” Among the supposed examples of VOA bias: “In March 2019, Voice of America ran a segment about transgender migrants seeking asylum in the United States.” Note that this wasn’t a video advocating transgender rights; it was a news story whose accuracy isn’t disputed.
Advertisement
Of course, with any large news organization, there are bound to be some legitimate quibbles about bias. The White House, for example, notes: “In July 2020, Voice of America faced criticism for ‘sharing a story and video appearing too favorable to presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.’” VOA did make a mistake by broadcasting on its Urdu-language network a campaign event at which Biden appealed for Muslim American support. But what the White House doesn’t note is what happened next. As Politico reported, “Top VOA officials, reviewing the material after red flags were raised about it externally, found it violated the network’s editorial policies and ordered it taken down.”
That’s an indication of how the U.S. Agency for Global Media tries to keep its output as factual as possible — although it will be hard to do that if election-denier Kari Lake is confirmed as VOA director and her fellow MAGA loyalist L. Brent Bozell III becomes chief executive of the U.S. Agency for Global Media. (Assuming that the agencies still exist if and when they are confirmed.)
If there are legitimate grounds for criticism of VOA’s coverage, then the obvious answer is to institute reforms, not to kill the entire organization.
Advertisement
All of this amounts to a stunning and self-defeating repudiation of America’s legacy as a beacon of freedom around the world. We have not always been consistent or effective in championing democracy, but, at its best, the United States has done much to advance the cause of human rights. That, in turn, helps safeguard U.S. interests because dictatorships are much more likely than democracies to threaten us.
But Trump’s sympathies lie with the world’s despots. The champions of democracy are on their own. If other Western countries don’t step forward to expand their own democracy-promotion efforts, the vacuum that Trump is creating will be filled by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
