Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, has
retweeted a post by a far-right commentator who praised the dismantling of Voice of America and other U.S. government-funded news outlets.
Ian Miles Cheong, a contributor to the Russian state media outlet RT, claimed that Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and other outlets run by the U.S. Agency for Global Media "produced and disseminated far-left propaganda, including media hostile to conservatives in Central European countries such as Poland, Slovakia and Hungary" and perpetuated "pro-war narratives against Russia."
The U.S. Agency for Global Media, an independent U.S. government agency, was one of seven entities Trump designated for elimination in an executive order last Friday, in a move critics said was a win for authoritarian regimes such as China, where
state media cheered the decision to shut the outlets known for their reporting on issues such as human rights and religious freedom.
Speaking earlier today, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson declined to comment on Chinese state media reports or U.S. domestic policy, but said "it is not a secret that those U.S. media outlets make biased reporting on China."