Elon Musk Calls for Shutdown of US State Media

Billionaire Elon Musk sparks controversy by calling for the closure of US state-funded media, questioning their role and credibility.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who leads the newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), advocated on Sunday for closing US state-funded media outlets Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) and Voice of America (VOA). Musk argued that these organizations are an unnecessary drain on taxpayer funds and have lost their relevance.

RFE/RL was established in 1950 to promote pro-American and anti-Soviet messaging throughout Europe, originally under the operation of the CIA. Voice of America began its broadcasts in the 1940s with a mission to counteract Nazi propaganda, shifting focus towards addressing Soviet influences by 1947. It still receives funding from U.S. Congress and is managed directly by the United States government. Both VOA and RFE/RL fall under the oversight of The US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which functions as a U.S federal agency responsible for international media operations.

Musk was replying to remarks made by Richard Grenell, the special envoy for US President Donald Trump, who had criticized these media outlets on X this past Sunday.

Grenell stated, “Radio Free Europe and Voice of America are media outlets funded by American taxpayers. As state-owned entities, they host a number of far-left activists. Having worked with these reporters for decades, I consider them relics from the past that underscore our lack of need for government-funded media.”

Musk replied on X, suggesting to shut them down: “Europe is now free (excluding the cumbersome bureaucracy). No one listens to these anymore. It’s just radical leftists conversing among themselves while burning through $1 billion annually of U.S. taxpayer money.”

Initially, RFE/RL was called “Radio Liberation from Bolshevism.” In 1956, the station changed its name to Radio Liberation and eventually adopted its current name, Radio Liberty. This change reflected a policy shift that prioritized “liberalization” over “liberation.”

In 2020, Russia labeled RFE/RL as a “foreign agent” and subsequently banned the broadcaster in 2022, claiming it disseminated materials containing false information about the Ukraine conflict. By 2024, its subsidiary Current Time—a joint venture with Voice of America—was also blacklisted in Russia.

In recent years, Musk and Grenell have both expressed strong opposition to government funding for media organizations, asserting that taxpayer money should not be utilized to support these outlets.

Musk has been vocal about his disapproval of federal payments to media outlets such as Politico, the Associated Press, and The New York Times. He believes these payments are inefficient uses of taxpayer money and is working toward eliminating them. His team is actively pursuing the cancellation of these expenditures. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the government spent over $8 million on subscriptions for Politico alone.

In a similar vein, Grenell has openly criticized government expenditures on media subscriptions, aligning with Musk’s viewpoint that such funding should be halted right away. On X, Grenell stated: “The U.S. government must stop paying for media subscriptions. Now.”

In 2024, the Voice of America (VOA) operated on a budget of $267.5 million, whereas Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) had funding amounting to $142.2 million. For 2025, the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) requested total funding of $950 million. The agency asserts that its broadcasts reach a weekly audience of 427 million people in over 100 countries and are delivered in 64 different languages.

Trump appointed Musk as a “special government employee” to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a temporary office focused on cutting government expenses.