“To date, the administration has not offered a viable alternative for the #UnitedStates to counter Chinese #propaganda,” the report said.
“To date, the administration has not offered a viable alternative for the #UnitedStates to counter Chinese #propaganda,” the report said.
But the #Democrats were most withering about the cuts to the #VoiceOfAmerica & #RadioFreeAsia, which for decades pierced #authoritarian veils around the #world. The report noted that in recent years some of that support came from then-Sen #MarcoRubio, Trump’s secy of #State & #NationalSecurity adviser, who has not publicly dissented from the admin’s decision to lay off nearly all the staff at both outlets.
The report likens China’s spending to what the #US did when it expanded the #PeaceCorps & gave help to #InternationalStudents seeking to study at its #colleges & #universities.
“#China is using its #diplomatic levers across Global South nations to paint the #UnitedStates as an unreliable partner,” the report concluded.
The report opens with the cutbacks at the #State Dept, whose US based staff is being reduced by about 17%, & on #InternationalAid programs focused on #food, #medicine & #education. #China, it notes, has increased its diplomatic budget by 8.4%, committed $500M to the #WHO & “continues to spend billions on international educational & cultural exchange programs.”
The minority-issued report comprises the first comprehensive #political & #policy response by #Democrats to the series of #BudgetCuts, confrontations with top #research #universities & termination of programs that comprised the elements of American #SoftPower that have defined #Trump’s first 6 months in office.
Democrats … chose the relationship with #China to frame its #NationalSecurity critique.
#Democrats on the #Senate #ForeignRelations Committee will release a report on Monday accusing the #Trump administration of ceding #global #influence to #China. The report says the admin has eroded #US #SoftPower by shuttering #InternationalAid operations, slashing #funding for basic #research & alienating #allies.
#geopolitics #USpol #TrumpIsWeak
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/us/politics/democrats-china-report-trump.html?smid=url-share
The #State Dept began firing >1,350 #US based employees Friday as the #Trump admin goes ahead with an unprecedented overhaul of its #DiplomaticCorps, undermining US ability to defend & promote interests abroad.
The #layoffs, which affect 1,107 #CivilService & 246 #ForeignService officers in the US, come as the US faces multiple global #crises: #Russia's war in #Ukraine, the #Gaza conflict, & the #MiddleEast on edge due to tensions between #Israel & #Iran.
#SoftPower
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/state-department-says-it-will-fire-more-than-1350-workers-trumps-shake-up-2025-07-11/
"America’s New Anti-Vaccine Foreign Policy — The trump administration is ending U.S. support for immunizations abroad because of its opposition not only to foreign aid, but to vaccination itself."
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/06/gavi-funding-kennedy-anti-vaccine/683368/
#RFKjr #Gavi #vaccines #PublicHealth #antivax #antiscience #SoftPower #dystopia
…
#Democrats pointed to a surge in Iranians tuning into #RadioFarda, the Persian-language news service funded by the #USAGM. Amid the recent #war between #Israel & #Iran, they argued, the #US should continue to fund #media orgs countering the #misinformation disseminated by Iran & other countries, such as #NorthKorea.
Rep Michael McCaul, #Republican of #Texas, said there were “systemic problems” in the agency, but that it remained necessary around the world.
“We need America’s voice in #Iran right now,” he said. “We need to ensure the Iranian people hear the truth that we do not intend to harm them.”
“#Congress should ask Ms. Lake to provide proof for the mystifying allegations,” Mike Abramowitz, the director of #VoiceOfAmerica, said in a statement. “If #VOA is controlled by the #CCP, then why are they rejoicing at its being shut down?”
#Democrats & some #Republicans voiced concern that in moving to dismantle the global media agency, #Trump was abandoning a useful tool of #SoftPower.
Noncitizens cannot obtain security clearances for viewing #classified info, & NO reporters at the global media agency have such security clearances, said Kate Neeper, a director of strategy who received a layoff notice last week. Some executives may have security clearances to receive #intelligence that would help them protect #reporters who work in war-zones or in countries w/repressive governments, Neeper said.
#law #FreePress #SoftPower #journalism #independence #censorship #AmericanAutocracy
On Wednesday, Lake asked members of #Congress to amend the #laws requiring the existence of #VoiceOfAmerica & its aligned newsrooms, which have sought to fight the #Trump admin’s push to shutter them. She argued that her agency was “unsalvageable” & “a threat to America’s national security,”[?] asserting falsely that its reporters, including foreign nationals, had obtained security clearances, & that it had ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Lake, the fmr *news*caster #Trump put in charge of the dept that includes the international broadcast network, sent layoff notices last week to all but around 200 reporters & support staff at #VoiceOfAmerica & the parent agency she leads. She has also withheld #funding from other #news orgs that are separate nonprofits but receive federal dollars, such as #RadioFreeEurope / #RadioLiberty & #RadioFreeAsia.
“What is going out on #VOA airwaves—it’s outrageous, & it has to stop,” Lake told the #House #ForeignAffairs Cmte. She called #independent reporting from international #news agencies funded by the govt “corrupt” & “biased,” & made clear that Trump’s goal was not to overhaul but to shut down the global media agency, which she called “a rotten piece of fish.”
#Trump himself chimed in with a social media post, urging #Congress to “kill” the #VoiceOfAmerica.
#Trump Urges #Congress to ‘Kill’ #VoiceOfAmerica as Its *Leader* Defends Gutting It
In a heated hearing, #KariLake, the Trump [crackpot] ally in charge of the federally funded international broadcasting network, called the #media agency “a rotten piece of fish” that should be defunded.
#law #democracy #FreePress #SoftPower #journalism #independence #censorship #authoritarianism #dictatorship #tyranny #AmericanAutocracy
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/25/us/politics/trump-lake-voice-of-america.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
…Shuttering #USAID so quickly “likely violated the United States #Constitution in multiple ways,” a federal judge ruled less than two months into the new admin. (That ruling is on hold while an appeals court completes a review.)
By that point, it didn’t matter. The agency was effectively gone.
Few #Republicans had been as vocal in their support for #USAID as #MarcoRubio, who, as a senator, once said that “in every region of the world, we should always search for ways to use USAID & #humanitarian assistance to strengthen our #influence.” But as the agency collapsed, its remnants placed under his control as Secretary of #State, Rubio was largely a bystander while #Musk & others shaped decisions on foreign #aid.
The result was a real-time decision to take down an institution created almost 65 years ago as a linchpin of US #ForeignPolicy, intended to advance the country’s #NationalSecurity interests by establishing new markets for American goods, reducing conflicts that risked entangling US #troops, & countering efforts by communist & autocratic regimes to expand their power.