With Kari Lake as Voice of America head, Trump now has his MAGA propaganda arm | Opinion

Objective reality had a good run here in America, but it’s largely out the window now. President-elect Donald Trump has picked serial liar and sycophant-on-steroids Kari Lake to be the next director of Voice of America, the nation’s largest and oldest international broadcaster.

Lake is best known for losing the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race more times than anyone thought possible. She lost, claimed without evidence the election was rigged and then appealed her loss multiple times at every level of state court, losing each time. It’s possible she’s still out there losing that election, or she may be finding a way to continue losing the 2024 U.S. Senate race she recently lost but did not concede.

This all begs the question: How will she find the time and the lies necessary to turn VOA into the propaganda arm of the Trump administration?

Kari Lake heading VOA? She's the literal opposite of accurate and unbiased.

Per its federal charter, “VOA news will be accurate, objective, and comprehensive.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAAA!! Might as well toss that in the nearest Trump-brand toilet. The next time Lake is accurate or objective will be the first, and putting her in charge of this American institution is like putting … well, it’s like putting Kari Lake in charge of VOA. There’s no hypothetical more ridiculous-sounding than that.

And that, of course, is exactly what Trump and his Republican apple polishers want. By accepting Trump as a legitimate candidate for president, they abandoned all belief in facts and leaned hard into the power of ruthless and unfettered B.S. Once they take full control of the government in January, they're going to need a trumpet – perhaps a TRUMPet? – that blares their "Everything we do is right and perfect!" propaganda.

Lake is the perfect TRUMPet.

When she hasn’t had her lips attached to Trump’s tuchus, she has been parroting his nonsense and spinning imaginary tales of election fraud. Her campaign for governor featured all manner of “Trump actually won!” blah-blah, she claimed President Joe Biden didn’t get the number of votes he very much did get when he won, she promoted zany election conspiracy theories, she called herself “the lawful governor” of Arizona in a 2023 book and she has advocated locking up journalists.

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VOA was built to counter propaganda. Now it's MAGA's propaganda arm.

And now – get ready for this, you might fall off your chair – Trump wants her in charge of the journalists at a venerable news organization that was launched in 1942 to act as a counter to … wait for it … Nazi propaganda.

Ain’t that a kick in the jackboots.

Imagine the kind of pro-Trump rhetoric VOA will now spew

So what exactly might we expect a Lake-run VOA to report the first time Trump bungles something? Maybe a headline like: “Glorious leader Trump wrongly criticized by media vermin for genius action!”

Or perhaps: “Fearless Donald Trump dazzles world with brilliant decision only he has the mental prowess to understand.”

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Face it, Trump could spit on Lake’s shoes and her response would be to compliment his aim and praise his robust and vibrant expectoration. He has the saliva of a man half his age!

Kari Lake and honesty are like oil and water

Lake was a longtime news anchor in Arizona before she decided to become bad at trying be a politician. But like so many in Trump’s orbit, including Trump himself, she has managed to fail upward.

And now, tragically and pathetically, this obsequious, dishonest lackey will be America’s voice.

Well, she’ll be Trump’s voice, that’s for sure. She sure as hell won’t be mine.

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump taps liar Lake to run VOA. So long, reality. | Opinion