US government to sell propaganda HQ

The main office of CIA cutout Voice of America has been listed for “accelerated disposal,” according to Bloomberg.

The administration of US President Donald Trump is moving to sell the headquarters of state-funded media outlet Voice of America (VOA), Bloomberg has reported.

VOA’s building is among several properties designated for “accelerated disposal” under Trump’s initiative to downsize government operations, the news outlet wrote on Thursday. Besides VOA, the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building houses offices for the outlet’s sprawling parent entity, the US Agency for Global Media, as well as for the Department of Health and Human Services.

In March, the US president ordered sweeping cuts at USAGM, as part of a wider move to cut federal spending and realign foreign aid and other soft-power tools with his administration’s policy. While the move prompted legal pushback, last week a US court lifted an injunction that had stood in the way of the agency being further dismantled.

Trump, who has described VOA as “radical propaganda” and an “unnecessary” burden on the US taxpayer, fired nearly 600 of the outlet’s contractors on Thursday.

The state-funded outlet was established in the 1940s to counter Nazi propaganda and later shifted its focus to spreading pro-Western messaging in the Soviet bloc. VOA has liaised with and been fed intelligence by the CIA, and is widely regarded as one of Washington’s international propaganda arms.

USAGM subsidiary outlets Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting are also in the firing line as part of Trump adviser and government efficiency czar Elon Musk’s effort to trim the federal budget, Bloomberg noted.

The US General Services Administration, which manages government real estate, briefly listed 443 federal properties for sale all at once in March, before retracting the listing within a day. The sales have since been moving forward with more deliberation, according to Bloomberg.

Faced with backlash during the massive federal cuts Musk oversaw, the tech mogul has announced that he would cut back his role in the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). According to an ABC opinion poll from late April, 57% of respondents disapproved of Musk’s performance in government, while just over a third endorsed his work.