Trump taps election denier to head global media operation VOA

Republican US Senate candidate Kari Lake (R) speaks alongside former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally at Findlay Toyota Arena in Prescott Valley, Arizona, on October 13, 2024. FILE PHOTO/Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON — US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday appointed election denier Kari Lake to be the new director of Voice of America, the state-funded international media organization.

VOA has reach around the world, with programming in a slew of African, Asian and European languages, including Somali, Dari and French.

It receives US funding but is generally considered a reliable, independent media operation, covering global and US news for international audiences.

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However, previous leadership under Trump’s first administration came under fire for politicizing the outlet.

Lake, a former television news anchor, is a hard-line conservative who ran in 2022 as the Republican candidate for governor of the southwestern state of Arizona and for US Senate in 2024, losing both times.

She has repeatedly refused to accept her past election defeats, as well as Trump’s 2020 loss to Joe Biden.

As he prepares to take office in January, Trump’s staffing announcements have consisted of close allies.

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“I am pleased to announce that Kari Lake will serve as our next Director of the Voice of America,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social website.

“She will be appointed by, and work closely with, our next head of the US Agency for Global Media… to ensure that the American values of Freedom and Liberty are broadcast around the World FAIRLY and ACCURATELY, unlike the lies spread by the Fake News Media.”

In his first term, Michael Pack, Trump’s head of the US Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA, raised concerns when he moved in 2020 to strip an internal firewall at the organization meant to insulate the newsroom from political interference.

A VOA White House reporter was also investigated for supposed anti-Trump biases during Trump’s first administration.