VOA journalists put on administrative leave after Trump axes parent agency

Journalists at Voice of America (VOA) were put on administrative leave on Saturday, a day after President Trump signed an executive order aimed at eliminating the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), VOA’s parent company.

Reporters at VOA were placed on “administrative leave with full pay and benefits until otherwise notified,” according to a copy of an internal memo that was obtained by The Hill, adding that it is “not being done for any disciplinary purpose.”

The memo was sent out by the human resources executive from USAGM on Saturday morning. The total number of recipients is unclear, but one source familiar with the matter told The Hill that “most” VOA employees were put on administrative leave.

VOA workers were instructed not to enter their work premises or access USAGM internal systems without permission from the human resources executive or “prior” permission from their supervisors.

The two-page memo, that was sent just past 9:40 a.m. local time Saturday, came after Trump penned an executive order to gut seven federal agencies, including USAGM, telling them to “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel.”

“This order continues the reduction in the elements of the Federal bureaucracy that the President has determined are unnecessary,” the order said.

Apart from USAGM, Trump’s order included the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and the Minority Business Development Agency.

VOA’s workers were told that, if asked, they will be expected to “immediately” surrender their USAGM badge and press pass, “as well as any keys or other official government property, including documents, records, electronic and telephone devices, and other equipment.”

Employees were also told in the memo that they still have to be available by phone and email during business hours. Workers were instructed to provide their personal contact information — phone number, email address, and mailing address — by Monday to the department's human resources departments.

VOA’s workers have to remain available to report for work if told so within one business day after being contacted. If unavailable to report for work, they were instructed to contact a human resources representative “so that your administrative leave can be changed to the appropriate leave category.”

The journalists will remain employees of USAGM while on administrative leave, according to the memo.

The VOA is an international broadcaster that operates in nearly 50 languages. USAGM also funds Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.

After winning the 2024 presidential election, Trump selected former Arizona gubernatorial and Senate candidate Kari Lake to head VOA. Lake, a former TV anchor, told the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in mid-February that VOA will not become“Trump TV” under her leadership.

Trump nominated conservative activist L. Brent Bozell III to be the leader of USAGM, who would then pick the head of VOA.

Republicans have leveled a number of bias accusations against VOA and other U.S.-publicly-funded news outlets, including NPR and PBS.

Tech billionaire and senior Trump adviser Elon Musk called for VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to be terminated.

“Europe is free now (not counting stifling bureaucracy). Hello?? 2. Nobody listens to them anymore,” Musk said in an early February post on the social platform X. “3. It’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money.”

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