Trump Administration fired Voice of America director after legal wrangling over cuts

The U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) fired the director of its Voice of America (VOA) outside broadcaster, Michael Abramowitz, months after he took different types of legal action to reverse several initiatives by the president's administration Donald Trump, whose aims were to eliminate the media's funding and slash his personal. In a statement issued Monday, Abramowitz's legal team detailed that Abramowitz had been formally removed last Aug. 1, after refusing a demotion in which, while he would have remained in his position as Director of Administrative Management, he would have had to relocate from his residence in Washington, D. C., to a new office in North Carolina.

"Your failure to accept a directed geographic reassignment directly relates to your job duties and responsibilities as the Director of VOA," USAGM senior advisor John Zadrozny explained in a memo, who added that, having declined the offer, Abramowitz was unable to "meet the Core Executive Qualification of Leading Change." Zadrozny also explained in the memo that the latter is one of the main criteria for evaluating senior government officials and determining their suitability not only for retention in office, but also for promotion to more senior positions.

Trump v. VOA

The move by USAGM represents the Trump Administration's latest blow to VOA to deprive the broadcaster of its operational capabilities, after the president signed an executive order in March requiring both USAGM and six other federal agencies to eliminate all unnecessary spending and even lay off employees, as part of his goal to drastically reduce public spending, which was one of Trump's main promises during his presidential campaign by assuring that wasteful spending had to be stopped at any cost.

Shortly after the order signed by Trump, USAGM deprived both VOA and other outside broadcasters of the funding they needed in order to continue operations. Shortly thereafter, hundreds of employees were formally laid off and many others were also furloughed in June.