Trump freezes U.S.-funded VOA, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on Saturday put journalists at Voice of America and other U.S.-funded broadcasters on leave, furthering his aim to trim federal agencies.

Hundreds of reporters and other staff at VOA, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe and other outlets received a weekend email saying they will be barred from their offices and should surrender press passes, office-issued telephones and other equipment.

Trump, who has already eviscerated the U.S. aid agency and Education Department, on Friday issued an executive order listing the U.S. Agency for Global Media as among "elements of the federal bureaucracy that the president has determined are unnecessary."

Kari Lake, a firebrand Trump supporter and former Arizona news anchor who was put in charge of the media agency after she lost a U.S. Senate bid, wrote in an email to media outlets she supervises that federal grant money "no longer effectuates agency priorities."

A White House press official, Harrison Fields, simply wrote "goodbye" in 20 languages in a post on X, in what appears to be a jab at VOA's multilingual coverage.

(With input from AFP)