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About two months ago a US district court judge ruled that Kari Lake, the MAGA firebrand and election truther, had been illegally appointed to run the US Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America. Lake insisted in a statement at the time that she would be staying on at the agency, but the ruling raised questions about what power, if any, she now holds at a department President Donald Trump has sought to gut since he stormed back into the White House last year.<\/p>\n
Now, a source close to Lake says she\u2019s planning to leave USAGM and has another role lined up. Over White House Correspondents\u2019 Dinner weekend, Lake was heard boasting about a new position in the Trump administration. One rumor that\u2019s been floating around is that she\u2019s being appointed to a job at the Shield of the Americas, an alliance of Latin American and Caribbean nations that Trump formed as part of his focus on reestablishing the dominance of the Western Hemisphere in geopolitics.<\/p>\n
When reached for comment, Lake declined to say whether she was taking on a new role. \u201cI\u2019m still at the Agency for Global Media,\u201d she told Vanity Fair.<\/em> \u201cI am still currently employed there.\u201d When asked if she would be joining the Shield of the Americas, she offered a terse reply: \u201cI won\u2019t be answering any questions about my future to Vanity Fair.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n The alliance has all the hallmarks of a Trumpian scheme. Its name sounds like it was conjured up by a child who plays too much Call of Duty. Its most prominent members are hard-line Trump allies Javier Milei<\/strong> of Argentina and Nayib Bukele<\/strong> of El Salvador. Its inaugural \u201csummit\u201d was an event held at Trump\u2019s golf resort in Doral, Florida. The left-wing leaders of Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, though their nations represent more than half of the region\u2019s GDP<\/a>, were not present.<\/p>\n The purported mandate of the alliance is to combat \u201cforeign interference in our hemisphere, criminal and narco-terrorist gangs and cartels, and illegal and mass immigration,\u201d but regional experts I spoke with questioned whether the Shield serves as anything other than a promotional vehicle for its members.<\/p>\n The new gig won\u2019t bring Lake to Washington\u2014she\u2019s already here. Around town, Lake has cut an abrasive figure. She\u2019s a regular at The Ned, the members club perched on the top floors of an Art Deco building that\u2019s a stone\u2019s throw from the White House and serves as a canteen for Cabinet members. Lake has often been seen working the room with Caroline Wren,<\/strong> a Republican fundraiser who organized the 2021 rally that preceded the riot at the US Capitol.<\/p>\n One Ned regular recalled an incident in which Lake got into a heated argument with Senator Ruben Gallego,<\/strong> the Democrat who defeated her in 2024, after he extended his hand for a cordial greeting when they ran into each other at the club last year. \u201cHow does it feel to be bought and paid for by the cartels?\u201d Lake asked Gallego, referencing a baseless<\/a> conspiracy theory she peddled about her opponent during the campaign. (Lake did not respond to a request for comment about the interaction.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n