The head of DOGE has said Radio Free Europe and Voice of America are essentially ‘radical left crazy people talking to themselves’
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), called for shutting down US-state funded media outlets Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VOA) on Sunday. Musk said the outlets just burn through taxpayer money and are no longer relevant.
RFE/RL was set up in 1950 to spread pro-American and anti-Soviet propaganda in Europe and was initially operated by the CIA. Voice of America was established in the 1940s to counter Nazi propaganda and shifted its focus to the Soviet Union in 1947. It continues to be funded by the US Congress and its management is directly controlled by the US government. The US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees both VOA and RFE/RL, is a US federal agency.
Musk was responding to comments by Richard Grenell, special envoy for US President Donald Trump, who criticized these outlets on Sunday on X.
“Radio Free Europe and Voice of America are media outlets paid for by the American taxpayers. It is state-owned media. These outlets are filled with far-left activists. I’ve worked with these reporters for decades. It’s a relic of the past. We don’t need government-paid media outlets,” Grenell stated.
Musk responded on X: “Yes, shut them down. Europe is free now (not counting stifling bureaucracy). Nobody listens to them anymore. It’s just radical left crazy people talking to themselves while torching $1B/year of US taxpayer money.”
Originally, RFE/RL was named “Radio Liberation from Bolshevism.” The station was renamed Radio Liberation in 1956, and later adopted its current name, Radio Liberty, following a policy shift that emphasized “liberalization” over “liberation.”
Russia designated RFE/RL a ‘foreign agent’ in 2020 and banned the broadcaster in 2022, citing “the publication of materials that contain false information” about the Ukraine conflict. Its subsidiary, Current Time – a joint venture with Voice of America – was blacklisted in Russia in 2024.
In recent years, both Musk and Grenell have voiced strong opposition to government funding of media organizations, arguing that taxpayer money should not be used to support such outlets.
Musk has criticized federal payments to media organizations like Politico, the Associated Press, and The New York Times, deeming them inefficient uses of taxpayer funds and moving to eliminate them. Musk’s team is working on canceling these payments. According to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the government paid more than $8 million for Politico subscriptions.
Similarly, Grenell has publicly condemned government spending on media subscriptions, echoing Musk’s stance that such funding should be terminated immediately. Grenell posted on X: “The U.S. government must stop paying for media subscriptions. Now.”
VOA had a budget of $267.5mn for 2024, while RFE/RL operated with $142.2mn. The USAGM requested $950 million in total funding for 2025. It claims it reaches a weekly audience of 427 million people in 64 languages across more than 100 countries.
