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President-elect Donald Trump has announced that Kari Lake will serve as the director of Voice of America, the international broadcasting media network funded by the federal government.
In a post on his Truth Social website, Trump said that Lake would work with the next head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media “to ensure that the American values of Freedom and Liberty are broadcast around the World FAIRLY and ACCURATELY, unlike the lies spread by the Fake News Media. Kari was a beloved News Anchor in Anchor in Arizona, which supported me by record margins, for over 20 years.”
“VOA was established in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda with unbiased news and information. It’s funded by the government through the U.S. Agency for Global Media. It is governed by a longstanding charter that legally requires the VOA to report ‘accurate, objective, and comprehensive’ news abroad,” Axios reported. “VOA broadcasts in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly global audience of more than 354 million people.”
Lake thanked Trump on X, adding, “I am honored that President Trump has asked me to lead the Voice of America. @VOANews is a vital international media outlet dedicated to advancing the interests of the United States by engaging directly with people across the globe and promoting democracy and truth.”
I am honored that President Trump has asked me to lead the Voice of America. @VOANews is a vital international media outlet dedicated to advancing the interests of the United States by engaging directly with people across the globe and promoting democracy and truth.
With an… pic.twitter.com/UWVdPeF6Ye
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) December 12, 2024
Reports surfaced earlier this week that Lake was one of the top candidates to be Trump’s ambassador to Mexico.
Lake, who has had Trump’s support for years and strongly supports strict border security, came up short in her bid for the Arizona Senate last month to Ruben Gallego, a Democrat. She also lost the 2022 election for governor of Arizona.
“A staunch Trump ally, Lake has remained close to the president-elect over the last few years, backing his unproven claims that the 2020 election was stolen. During her most recent run for office, Lake sought to moderate some of her positions, particularly on the topic of abortion. She also made efforts to mend fences with some establishment Republicans whom she had sparred with in the past,” Semafor reported.
“Lake has echoed Trump in backing strict limits on immigration. On the campaign trail, Lake described the influx of migrants entering the US as an ‘invasion.’ She campaigned on finishing the wall at the US southern border, increasing the number of judges who hear asylum claims, stepping up quick deportations of undocumented immigrants who cross outside official ports of entry, and building additional border detention facilities,” the outlet added.
Last week, Lake used an appearance on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast to address a report that she planned to join the conservative media outlet Newsmax.
“That reporting yesterday was absolutely fake news,” Lake told host Steve Bannon, who also remains close to President-elect Donald Trump. “Think about how bad the media is. You cannot hate them enough, Steve. You really, really can’t.”
Lake outlined the series of events that resulted in the false report, stating that both she and Newsmax refuted the allegations prior to the publication of the story.
“They reached out to me, asked if I was negotiating with Newsmax. I said, no, you know, get better sources. You’re wrong. Apparently, they reached out to Newsmax. Newsmax said it’s false, and they run the story anyway,” Lake explained.
Lake spent over two decades as an anchor at Phoenix’s Fox 10 television station. After leaving the station, she became one of the most vocal allies of Trump and later ran for governor of Arizona in 2022.
She lost to now-Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who refused to debate the former newscaster ahead of the election.
