In a stunning move, Kari Lake, Senior Advisor to the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), announced that the agency is cutting its workforce by 85 percent to better align with President Trump’s goal of limiting federal bureaucracy in all of the government’s many agencies.
For context, in a post on X on June 20, 2025, Kari Lake announced what she described as “mass terminations” at the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), leaving the agency operating at what Lake called “the statutory minimum.” Furthermore, in her announcement, Lake explained that the goal of the workforce reduction was to prioritize the American taxpayer.”
In addition, Lake shared a press release in which she described USAGM as a “bloated, biased, and dysfunctional agency,” adding that the decision to lay off the overwhelming majority of the agency’s workforce was “about putting America first and cutting off taxpayer funding.” Moreover, Lake said that by firing 639 employees at the agency, she was working to dismantle “a decades-old slush fund of government waste and liberal media activism.”
Continuing, Lake said that the agency is now “lean and focused” and is acting as a “clear example of responsible government —cutting waste, restoring accountability, and delivering on the promise to put American taxpayers first.” In addition, the press release shared by Lake confirmed that since February 2025, the agency has extended two rounds of the ‘Fork in the Road’ program,” which offers “full pay through September 30, 2025.”
When the USAGM senior advisor posted the announcement online, prominent America First politician Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican lawmaker from Georgia, praised Lake online, writing, “This is the power of @DOGECommittee oversight. We exposed it. Trump is cutting it. Great work, Kari!”
In addition, Rep. Greene, who serves as Chairwoman of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, announced in a March 20, 2025, press release that she had “formally requested key records” from Lake “following serious allegations of corruption, financial mismanagement, and national security failures.” Moreover, the congresswoman alleged that the agency had long “engaged in rampant cronyism, issuing corrupt contracts to friends and family through the Open Technology Fund (OTF).”
Furthermore, Rep. Greene’s press release explained that thanks to President Trump’s leadership, multiple corrupt USAGM officials were terminated in 2020. However, the congresswoman clarified, “The Biden Administration quietly reinstated many of these same individuals, allowing them to resume their previous activities with zero consequences.” Moreover, Rep. Greene demanded access to any settlement agreements, grant agreements, and any relevant communications from “a third-party investigation” into USAGM “by the law firm McGuire-Woods.”
"*" indicates required fields
Importantly, Lake’s announcement that USAGM would be dramatically cutting back its workforce came just months after President Trump ordered federal agencies to continue “the reduction of the federal bureaucracy” on march 14, 2025, calling on a list of agencies, including USAGM, the Federal Mediation and Concillation Service, the Minority Business Development Agency, and several others, to “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.”
Featured image credit: Kari Lake via X