Trump’s adviser suggests closing Voice of America, but has not commented on the Martí group
14ymedio, Havana, 11 February 2025 — The tycoon Elon Musk, head of the US Department of Efficiency – a sort of ministry created to suit him by Donald Trump – and Richard Grenell, the president’s envoy for special missions, insist on the need to close media outlets financed by Washington. Among the ones in their sights is the international broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) and the Office of Broadcasting to Cuba (OCB) managed by the Martí group, with its radio, television and a news website focused on the Island.
Although Musk has taken a very belligerent position on this matter, an internal source from the Martí group assures 14ymedio that for the moment they do not fear that the South African businessman could carry out his threat if he also had the intention of closing the Martí group (radio, television and website for Cuba).
“Elon Musk is walking around like a child with a torch in his hand, burning things left and right, causing concern among federal employees, a group of people who thought they had secure jobs. In the case of Martí, we are in one of the best moments in its history, with numbers that show how the work is being done: we have more than a million followers on Facebook, we have millions of views on our social networks from Cuba, and we are expanding our audiences on the Island,” says the source.
In the case of Martí, we are in one of the best moments in its history
He continued: “No one can really be sure what the future of federal agencies might be at this point, but I think that in the case of Martí, it is in a good position to sustain its mission.”
Musk, for his part, leaves no room for doubt about what he wants to do with Washington-owned media outlets focused on foreign markets: “They have to be shut down.”
With this phrase the businessman responded to a post by Richard Grenell criticizing the stations Radio Free Europe and Voice of America for spending “American taxpayers’ money.”
“These are state media outlets. These outlets are full of far-left activists. I have worked with these journalists for decades. They are a relic of the past. We do not need government-funded media outlets,” Grenell said, announcing that “it is time to shut them down.”
According to Musk, these media outlets “are not listened to anymore” and are made up of “radical left-wing people who talk to themselves while burning a billion dollars a year of American taxpayer money.”
“Europe is free now,” the businessman added, referring to Prague-based Radio Free Europe.
“Europe is free now,” the businessman added, referring to Radio Free Europe, a broadcasting organization based in Prague, Czech Republic, and run by an autonomous entity, the United States Agency for Global Media. Founded in 1950, during the Cold War it was responsible for transmitting news to countries in Eastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East to counter Soviet propaganda, although since then its broadcasts have been reduced and updated to reflect the new geopolitical situation.
A similar role was played by the even older Voice of America (1942), which remains the largest government-funded international broadcaster. Focused on foreign audiences, VOA has a digital, television and radio presence in more than 40 languages around the world.
For the owner of X, these stations are part of what he considers legacy media, traditional media that in his opinion have been displaced by social networks and that are dedicated to media manipulation. On several occasions, Musk has denounced that traditional channels are “pure propaganda” and that it is on the networks where true “freedom of expression” is found. However, thousands of left-wing users have abandoned X since the social network came into his hands and criticize the new algorithm that favors conservative content.
Until now, the tycoon had only relied on his own social network and his influence to combat these media that he considers obsolete.
Until now, the tycoon had only relied on his own social network and his influence to combat these media that he considers obsolete, but since January he has also had the support of the White House. Right at the beginning of his term, Donald Trump suspended cooperation through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with non-governmental organizations that it sponsored, to a greater or lesser extent, around the world.
In the Cuban case, according to the report prepared by Musk at the request of the president, the expenditure to “rebuild the Cuban media ecosystem” was one and a half million dollars last year, although another figure circulating is around two and a half million. It is a tiny part of the total USAID budget, of some 60 billion dollars annually, but substantial for the work of several independent media.
The cuts not only affect small organizations and independent media that constitute an oasis of plural information in the face of propaganda and information control that exists in countries like Cuba, but also giants like the British BBC, whose NGO in charge of supporting press freedom in the world – BBC Media Action – told its beneficiaries that the US Government financed part of its budget.
Neither Musk nor Washington have so far made reference to other media owned by the US government such as PBS (public television) or NPR (public radio), among others, but the line followed during the new Republican mandate leaves little doubt about the future of these channels.
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