President Trump signs executive order to gut ‘Voice of America’

(NBC, KYMA/KECY) - Voice of America (VOA) is on its way to being gutted as President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday to eliminate the U.S. backed media outlet and six other small federal agenices.

The order also targets agencies providing funding for museums, libraries and tackling homelessness, and calls for the agencies to reduce their operations to the bare minimum "consistent with applicable law."

Trump picked former news anchor Kari Lake to be VOA's director for his second term, and has often clashed with the media outlet.

VOA, overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media, operates in more than 40 languages on-line, as well as on radio and television.

The agency also funds Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia.