When President Donald Trump asked Voice of America’s White House bureau chief, Patsy Widakuswara, “Who are you with?” last March, her heart sank.
The question could mean trouble, and for a VOA journalist, the stakes felt especially high. The Heritage Foundation devoted a chapter of Project 2025 — the conservative think tank’s road map for the second Trump administration — to dismantling the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA. Widakuswara had just cautioned her team of reporters against asking questions that would draw attention to their outlet.
