Trump chooses Kari Lake to direct Voice of America

President-elect Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he has tapped Kari Lake as director of the government-funded Voice of America, the country’s largest international broadcaster.

The move comes after 55-year-old Lake lost her run for Arizona Senate with Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego in November.

“She will be appointed by and will work closely with our next head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which I will announce soon,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Lake, a former longtime TV news anchor in Phoenix, is an ardent Trump supporter who also lost her 2022 campaign for governor of Arizona. During her campaigns, she often repeated Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election.

According to its website, Voice of America, part of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, broadcasts news internationally in 49 languages ​​on radio, television and online to an audience of an estimated 354 million people per week.

Broadcasting began in 1942. The company employs about 2,000 people and has an annual budget of about $260 million. USAGM is considered an independent federal agency.

In a social media post Wednesday evening, Lake said wrote that she was “honored” to be nominated for the role, adding that “under my leadership, VOA will excel in its mission: chronicling America’s achievements around the world.”

Lake’s appointment still needs to be confirmed by the Senate.

During Trump’s first term in 2020, USAGM gained editorial independence came into question after Trump appointed Michael Pack — a conservative filmmaker and close ally of former Trump adviser Steve Bannon — as CEO.

pack afterward has decided not to renew the visas of 10 VOA journalists and dozens of others working on networks under USAGM, heightening concerns among members of Congress and the international community alike about the possibility of limited editorial independence for the VOA news channel.

John Lippman is currently acting director of VOA, a position he has held since October 2023, while Amanda Bennett is CEO of USAGM.

Margaret Brennan contributed to this report.