In an exclusive interview with The Gateway Pundit, Trump’s head of the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), Kari Lake, discussed her overhaul of the government’s global news agency and the criticism she faces from leftwing media that seeks to protect its global media complex.
The Gateway Pundit has reported extensively on Lake’s leadership of the USAGM, where, amid attacks from the press and judges stonewalling her, she has exposed the massive corruption and waste of taxpayer funds, rooted out taxpayer-funded globalist mouthpieces, purged the agency of unscrupulous employees, and is still fighting to reduce the agency’s workforce by 85% in accordance with Trump’s orders to shrink bureaucracy. “You don’t need as many people to do the job with the advancement of technology,” Lake noted.
“I’m really proud of the work that we’re doing. We’re covering the statutorily required languages, we’re broadcasting into Iran right now, and of course, there’s so much happening in Iran, and I’m really proud of the work that we’re putting out. Before I got here, and for many years, this agency was putting out, sometimes, anti-American news, and that’s not what the American taxpayer is expecting. When they’re footing the bill for this news to go out across the globe, we want to make sure that we’re not putting something that’s anti-American out.”
Lake shared more on her success to date in ending the globalist propaganda amid “malicious lawsuits” against her for shrinking the agency down to the statutory minimum. Lake maintains that, despite attempts by far-left judges to stop her, “we will be shrinking down the size of this agency, and eventually we will be making sure that people are moved off the payroll.” She further revealed that she ultimately wants to “zero out” the agency and have the Department of State take over broadcasting the United States’s message and foreign policy to the world.
“My ultimate goal is to take this agency, and this was part of the President’s budget, reduce the agency down to zero, and move the assets over to the State Department,” she told The Gateway Pundit.
As a result of her agenda, Lake is currently facing relentless and coordinated smears from the leftwing media over her efforts to “rightsize” the agency, which she described as “the most corrupt agency in Washington, DC.”
The Gateway Pundit reported on one of these attacks in a story by the Atlantic, which accused Lake of causing “profound damage to America’s foreign broadcasters, and to America’s ability to communicate with the world.” The piece by leftist hacks Anne Applebaum and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez selectively quoted Lake and misrepresented her statements to push a narrative about mismanagement and massive waste of taxpayer funds at the agency.
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The Atlantic further accused Lake of blocking Persian news services’ access to transmission services that would allow the people of Iran to receive news during protests against the Iranian Regime.
Other reports, including the Washington Post’s “Kari Lake is Making Trump’s Job Harder in Iran” and Bloomberg’s “Iranian Internet Goes Dark as US Agencies Clash Over VPN Funding,” go more in-depth on this allegation, claiming that the Open Technology Fund (OTF), a nonprofit virtual private network service funded by USAGM, is being throttled by Lake amid pressure from RINO Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
The dispute arose over Lake’s plan to fund OTF services by advancing $10 million to OTF from their 2026 budget, rather than having the Department of State transfer $10 million to USAGM for disbursement to the VPN service. Lake says this would be the slowest method to give Iranians access to the internet and information, as the US considers kinetic warfare in Iran.
Lake previously said in a letter to Senator Lindsey Graham that the traditional method of routing money from the State Department through USAGM “would take months.” But Graham and Senator James Lankford (R-OK) have pushed back on Lake’s plan, arguing that it’s “not viable,” according to the February 14 Bloomberg story. Lake further said in a statement to Bloomberg, “We are working hand-in-glove with the State Department to deliver on President Trump’s priorities.”
“Support is on the way to ensure a steady flow of information — as fast as possible — through VPNs and a variety of other mechanisms,” she added. “We will continue working tirelessly to deliver in this historic moment despite the Iranian regime’s suppression.”
The February 13 story from the Washington Post describes Lake as “an unwitting ally” of Iran and “the hapless acting head of U.S. Agency for Global Media,” who “has worked tirelessly to cripple the U.S.-backed ‘freedom radios’ — including Voice of America and Radio Farda — that broadcast into Iran to counter regime propaganda.” It goes on to suggest that Kari Lake is being uncooperative with the State Department’s attempt to fund OTF, that she is sabotaging the President’s agenda with regard to Iran, and that Trump should fire her.
It would appear that Lindsey Graham, who is mentioned in both stories as the leader of opposition to Lake’s plan, planted these stories.
Lake explained the dispute, telling The Gateway Pundit that “We jumped in and said, we can get you money right away, and we were willing to try to get them that money within three days,” but “some lawmakers wanted some circuitous route where it went from the State Department to USAGM and then back over to OTF, which was going to take longer,” she said. “We were working the whole time with the State Department,” she added.
Though she did not speculate on the reason behind the pushback on her plan to send the money “from point A to point B,” she did appear to drop a hint, stating, “The deep state loves this agency, and they hate the fact that I’m in here working to modernize it.” Lake also highlighted the lack of transparency from OTF, noting that the USAGM previously handled VPN access in-house through the Office of Internet Freedom before funneling money through OTF for the same service. “The problem with these grantees is a lot of times there’s no transparency. It’s opaque. We don’t know where the money’s going,” she said, likening OTF to the globalist USAID slush fund and noting that OTF even once sued the agency for attempting to conduct oversight of a $19 million grant.
Where is all of this money going, and why are some in our government fighting so hard to keep the shady operation intact?
Lake further discussed her attempts to root out the waste, fraud, and abuse within the agency, as she faces smears from the media for actually saving the agency hundreds of millions of dollars, she says, as well as her efforts to stop the agency and its grantees from pushing globalist propaganda and meddling in other countries’ political landscapes.
Watch the full interview below:
