Oh, buckle up—because if you thought the legal wrangling over media, executive power, and federal employment couldn’t get spicier, the D.C. Circuit Court just handed the Trump administration a judicial espresso shot.
In a 2-1 decision that has already been hailed as a monumental win for Team Trump, the U.S. Court of Appeals has granted a stay on a lower court ruling that would have forced the government to reinstate over a thousand Voice of America (VOA) employees and restart broadcasting operations across USAGM’s sprawling media empire.
Translation? The Trump administration’s sweeping effort to shut down, restructure, and rebrand VOA and its affiliates just got a big green light from the legal system.
Now, for those not keeping score at home, this all stems from President Trump’s March 14 executive order that pretty much steamrolled the existing USAGM structure. The EO led to mass administrative leaves—about 1,300 employees—and contract terminations, pausing operations for the first time in VOA’s 83-year history. It was bold. It was controversial. It was, in true Trump fashion, unapologetically direct.
BIG WIN in our legal cases at USAGM & Voice of America. Huge victory for President Trump and Article II.
Turns out the District Court judge will not be able to manage the agency as he seemed to want to. https://t.co/mp9z0Zi6wo
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) May 3, 2025
And then came the lawsuits. Critics called it lawfare, supporters called it reform, and the courts got to play referee. A federal district court judge initially hit pause on the EO with a preliminary injunction, citing potential jurisdictional overreach. But as of Saturday, the appeals court has said, “Not so fast.”
The majority opinion laid it out clearly: the judiciary should not be quick to interfere with executive authority—especially in areas of employment decisions and funding tied to non-federal media entities like Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. Essentially, the court reaffirmed that if the president wants to swing the restructuring axe, the Constitution has his back—at least for now.
Cue Kari Lake, former broadcaster turned Trump ally and USAGM senior advisor, who wasted zero time celebrating.
“This is a huge victory,” she told Fox News Digital, doubling down on the mission to “modernize” and “cut waste” at USAGM. According to her, this ruling clears the path for the administration to bring VOA “into the 21st century.” (Though what exactly that century looks like is a topic for another day.)