Judge blocks Trump from firing Voice of America staff –The president slashed federal funding of the U.S. media arm, described by an adviser as “a giant rot and burden to the American taxpayer” [Exactly.] | 30 March 2025 | A U.S. district judge has issued a restraining order against President Donald Trump’s effort to downsize the federal agency that bankrolls Voice of America, a WWII-era broadcaster later retooled by the CIA into a Cold War propaganda weapon. In mid-March, Trump ordered sweeping cuts at VOA’s parent organization, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), as part of a broader push to reduce federal waste and realign foreign aid and other soft power initiatives with the administration’s ‘America First’ policies. The executive order also targeted Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), another USAGM entity founded in the early 1950s as two separate CIA front organizations.