The Washington Post published on 13 March 2026 an article titled "Trump Picks Head for VOA Parent Amid Lake Legal Battle" by Scott Nover and Adam Taylor.
The Trump administration nominated defeated Arizona candidate for governor and US senator, Kari Lake, to oversee the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which runs the Voice of America (VOA) and several other organizations such as Radio Free Asia. The idea was to put Lake in charge to shut down these semi-independent government media outlets.
US District Judge Royce Lamberth recently ruled that Lake has been illegally running USAGM and nullified months of Lake's actions, including a mass layoff of hundreds of employees. The Trump administration has now responded by naming Sarah B. Rogers, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy, as the new chief executive of USAGM. She will apparently keep her current position in the State Department while assuming her new role as CEO of USAGM.
The White House only provided enough funding to shut down USAGM, but the US Congress rejected that approach and appropriated $653 million for the agency's operations this year.
Comment: This development keeps the VOA and its sister organizations alive but now under the direct supervision of the State Department. USAGM and its media organizations will apparently lose much of their previous independence. It is also not clear how many of the USAGM work force have remained during this demoralizing and unsettled past year.
