A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to fire hundreds of employees working for the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth blocked Acting USAGM CEO Kari Lake’s plan to lay off 532 employees while litigation over the case proceeds. Most of the employees who were set to be terminated on September 30 worked for Voice of America, a taxpayer-funded international media outlet that Lake has described as “rotten to the core” and “anti-American.”
“The Reduction in Force announced by Defendant Lake on or about August 29, 2025, is SUSPENDED and may NOT be implemented, effectuated, or completed in any way,” Lamberth wrote.
Lake said that the firings were necessary to “help reduce the federal bureaucracy, improve agency service, and save the American people more of their hard-earned money.”
USAGM operates other networks, such as Radio Free Europe and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
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Lamberth said that the Trump administration did not defend the firings on their merits.
“Rather than providing a rationale for the [reduction in force] on its merits, the defendants instead offer an array of other reasons not to grant relief. But even a cursory examination of the relevant law and key facts reveal these objections are all bark and no bite,” he wrote.
The judge stated that a recent Supreme Court ruling, which allowed the Trump administration to fire hundreds of Department of Education employees, did not apply to this case. He also said that Lake had ignored previous directives from the court.
“The Court must offer an observation on the concerning disrespect the defendants have shown toward the Court’s orders since the entry of the preliminary injunction. It is the Court’s view that the defendants’ disregard for its earlier orders to produce information would more than support a trial on civil contempt,” he wrote.
In a statement to the Washington Post, Lake said that she has “seen a huge ‘disrespect’ from the district courts toward the Executive Branch and the American people who have voted overwhelmingly to support President Donald J. Trump.”
In March, Trump signed an executive order that directed the USAGM to be “eliminated to the maximum extent possible consistent with federal law.”
The Trump administration has argued that agency-run outlets like Voice of America have become increasingly partisan and pushed radical leftist ideologies. In a fact sheet, the White House pointed to reports on transgender-identifying migrants wanting asylum in the United States and “white privilege.”
