Kari Lake, senior adviser for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, told Newsmax on Monday that Elon Musk is far from the toxic personality that Democrats have portrayed him to be, and that she is encouraged by what she has seen from the Department of Government Efficiency.
"I find Elon Musk to be a really kindhearted, generous, charming person with great charisma," Lake told "Finnerty." "You know, you wouldn't expect that because he's so brilliant. You would think that having a conversation with him would be difficult. He's actually incredibly interesting.
"And more than that, the entire DOGE team that I'm working with — and we just brought an additional DOGE member on — are hardworking, not particularly political. Many of them don't really even care about the politics of it. They're just problem-solvers."
The U.S. Agency for Global Media is an independent organization overseeing two federal agencies — Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees Radio and TV Martí — and five nonprofit organizations, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, the Open Technology Fund, and the Frontline Media Fund that receive grants from the agency.
An executive order issued March 14 by President Donald Trump included the U.S. Agency for Global Media among the organizations to be "eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law, and such entities shall reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law."
Since then, Lake canceled a nearly $250 million lease for a Washington high-rise that had no broadcasting facilities to meet the agency's needs, and which included a $9 million commission to a private real estate agent with connections. She also severed Voice of America contracts with The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse news wire services.
The agency also put more than 1,000 employees on administrative leave and cut funding to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia, although a federal judge temporarily blocked those moves.
Lake said she is working with four people from DOGE and "they realize the problem is our country is out of control when it comes to spending."
"We cannot continue on," she said. "We're bankrupt. The government has gotten so big it's unmanageable. And if we do not scale it back, we will not exist. We got a victory in November, and we got President Trump in again. And thank God for that, because he wanted to help turn the corner and get America back on track.
"But if we do not cut spending and do so quickly, we will not have a republic, no matter how incredible President Trump is. We have to cut spending. We can't keep spending this way. DOGE is helping do that. They don't care. Republican, Democrat. They care about saving America, and that's what I've found from my experience.
"I work with four people on the DOGE team, and I'm thrilled to have them on my team because we are absolutely saving taxpayers tens of millions, eventually billions and then trillions of dollars."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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