Kari Lake, the failed politician and MAGA loyalist leading the U.S. Agency for Global Media, is planning to shut down the Hungarian branch of congressionally funded Radio Free Europe in what is effectively a gift to Hungary’s illiberal, Trump-loving prime minister.
On Wednesday — that is, two days before Orban was scheduled to visit the White House — Lake sent a letter to Florida GOP Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart saying the Trump administration was yanking funding for Radio Free Europe’s Hungarian Language Service, also known as Szabad Europa. Her reason: the “programming has undermined President Trump’s foreign policy by opposing the duly elected prime minister Viktor Orban.”
The letter was posted by former Voice of America Washington correspondent Steve Herman, who retired from VOA earlier this year amid Lake’s efforts to gut that organization. An account linked to Lake’s political operation promoted a story about the cuts as well.
In March, political scientist Ron Linden explained in The Hill why efforts to silence Radio Free Europe are a “gift to autocrats,” arguing they effectively cut off people in repressed societies from vital information about goings-on in their country. So while Lake’s letter claims the termination of the Hungarian platform is necessary to avoid meddling with a NATO ally — and claims similar cuts will be made to platforms in other NATO-allied countries for similar reasons — this seems more like an obvious present for the president’s autocratic buddy in Orban, a man whose dictatorial power and influence Trump has fawned over.
It’s worth noting the letter doesn’t include any examples of content alleged to undermine the Orban regime. Aside from that, claims from the Trump administration about supposedly not wanting to undermine a NATO ally are undercut by the fact that Canada is a NATO ally and Trump spent the early part of this year openly fantasizing about taking it over by force. Lake has sought to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media and all of the organizations under its umbrella — including Voice of America — after Trump issued a March executive order demanding the agency and several others he doesn’t like be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” Announcing the shutdown of Hungary’s Radio Free Europe branch on the eve of Orban’s visit leaves little doubt Trump’s dismantling of the USAGM and its organizations is primarily designed to benefit his illiberal allies abroad.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
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