Killing the Signal

Trump Silences Voice of America and Hands the Mic to Propaganda, because of course.

Back in the day, when we got our news from the daily paper, propaganda was a relatively crude affair. Disinformation — or dezinformatsiya, as the Russians called it — was spread through press releases or articles placed in foreign outlets. Unwitting American editors would pick up these stories and reprint them, allowing Moscow to subtly shape public opinion. This practice began more than a century ago, and it worked. Slowly, quietly, it influenced American politics.

Flash forward several generations, and dezinformatsiya has become a constant, highly evolved operation — conducted 24/7, 365 days a year — by digital armies of Russian trolls. They plant stories across Facebook, Instagram, and X, bypassing traditional gatekeepers. Gone are the days when editors and journalists screened content for accuracy and fairness. Today, a flood of articles, memes, and videos — many of them forged or distorted — are amplified by millions of bots designed to create the illusion of popularity and legitimacy.

Modern dezinformatsiya works because tens of millions of Americans no longer rely on professional journalists. Years of attacks by Fox News and others have conditioned people to distrust fact-checked reporting. To see the results, just look back at 2016, when Russia's disinformation machine helped tilt the election toward Donald Trump.

In response to that foreign attack, we took some initial steps to defend ourselves. We invested in counter-disinformation tools and reinvigorated platforms like Voice of America (VOA). But now, Trump is unilaterally disarming — and handing the advantage back to our adversaries.

During my time in Congress, I was a strong supporter of VOA. It has always been one of America’s most effective and affordable tools for promoting democracy and countering propaganda abroad. Broadcasting honest news in dozens of languages, VOA and its sister outlets like Radio Free Europe played a key role in winning the Cold War — not with bullets, but with truth. They showed people trapped behind the Iron Curtain what freedom looked like. It was a cheap alternative to war, and it worked.

But now, that legacy is under assault. In a matter of months, Trump has gutted the U.S. Agency for Global Media. He’s shuttered VOA broadcasts that reached 325 million people around the world. He’s canceled long-standing partnerships with Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty, and even shut down smaller but important outlets like Radio Martí, which broadcast into Cuba. These weren’t propaganda arms — they told the truth, and that truth made authoritarian regimes nervous.

Meanwhile, Trump also closed the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, which was established in 2016 to expose and counter foreign disinformation. This was one of the things I pushed the hardest for in Congress, and it succeeded. It was small — about 40 people — but highly effective. It tracked lies spread by Russia, China, Iran, and terrorist groups, and helped limit their influence in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Why shut it down? Because far-right activists and GOP lawmakers falsely claimed the office was biased against conservatives — without offering a shred of evidence. Ironically, their baseless accusation was itself a textbook example of disinformation. But they had found a target, and Trump was more than happy to destroy it. If the move pleased Vladimir Putin, all the better.

The assault on VOA was especially personal for Trump. He’s held a grudge against its journalists since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. As they reported on the virus’s spread and its consequences, VOA often contradicted Trump’s disinformation — from bogus treatments to false claims about testing and travel bans. Later, the outlet also called out his lies about the 2020 election.

So, in March, Trump made his move. He placed nearly all of VOA’s 1,000-plus staff on administrative leave, effectively silencing the network. A lawsuit was filed to contest the action, but the damage was done. And now it may be made permanent.

Recently, Trump’s administration revealed plans to relaunch VOA — but with a dark twist. Much of its content will be replaced by “news” from the far-right, pro-Trump network One America News (OAN). From the moment Trump descended that golden escalator in 2015, OAN has served as his loyal mouthpiece. They’ve attacked his enemies, defended his lies, and styled themselves as “one of Trump’s greatest supporters.”

Now, thanks to a new contract, they’ll be subsidized by taxpayer dollars — broadcasting Trump-aligned propaganda in 49 languages worldwide. It’s not about America anymore. It’s about advancing Trump’s personal brand. A global PR campaign, cloaked in the flag, designed to boost his image and maybe even pave the way for more Trump-branded real estate ventures around the globe.

Once again, Trump’s policies serve his interests and damage the nation. He’s dismantling our defenses against foreign propaganda — just as it grows more sophisticated and dangerous. He’s squandering a decades-old tool of American soft power. And he’s dragging the credibility of our news institutions through the mud.

Pretty soon, we won’t be the beacon of truth the world looks to.

We’ll just be another source of dezinformatsiya.