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.