Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) says that it has run out of funds because of Donald Trump’s executive order
The US state-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) began furloughing staff at its Prague headquarters on Tuesday, citing the lack of congressional grants for April.
RFE/RL was originally created to spread pro-Western propaganda in the Soviet bloc during the Cold War. The network was initially funded by the CIA and currently receives grants from the US Congress.
On March 14, President Donald Trump signed an executive order drastically reducing the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees RFE/RL and the Voice of America. On March 25, a DC judge temporarily blocked the USAGM from defunding RFE/RL.
The news organization said on Tuesday that, despite the ruling, it has not received new money from the government.
“Although USAGM rescinded its letter terminating RFE/RL’s grant agreement on March 26, RFE/RL has not received any of its congressionally appropriated funds since that date – and USAGM has not approved RFE/RL’s financial plan for April,” the news outlet wrote on its website.
RFE/RL added that it has asked the judge to grant a temporary restraining order guaranteeing its funding in April and an injunction to ensure it will have the money “for the remainder of the current fiscal year.”
“Our staff and their families are now paying the price as RFE/RL continues to wait for USAGM to provide our congressionally appropriated funds,” RFE/RL President and CEO Stephen Capus said in a statement.
The White House has argued that the defunding of RFE/RL was part of Trump’s campaign to cut public spending and eliminate “unnecessary” bureaucracy.
Tech billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk, who leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has urged to “shut down” RFE/RL. “Nobody listens to them anymore,” he wrote on X in February.
