As Iran War Rages, Trump’s Gutting of Voice of America Undermines U.S. Influence

As American and Israeli forces attack Iran, a critical weapon in our arsenal ​is badly broken​​.​ An enemy missile or a cyberattack did not destroy it; it was dismantled from within, a victim of Donald Trump’s shortsightedness.  

The gutting of America’s international broadcasting and public-diplomacy tools—specifically the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), and the Voice of America’s (VOA) Persian service—amounts to unilateral disarmament in the information war. It is a mammoth strategic blunder, the consequences of which are coming into relief. Just as the administration has spurned allies and is now begging for their help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, it has taken a hatchet to these public diplomacy tools and is hastily trying to rebuild them.  READ MORE