It’s also funded by the CIA. Although Signal is/was also indirectly funded by US Congress via OTF, and some claim that means the CIA is somehow involved too. Of course, computers, the internet and tor also had major US government funding, for what it’s worth.

That’s probably why it is recommended by the US government. They like things they have control over.

Because in most cases it isn’t encrypted, when it is it severely reduces functionality, and it doesn’t even use a crypto alg that’s widely approved of by trusted crypto experts?

I hope you are joking

Telegram has strong ties to the US government. It isn’t encrypted by default and has a closed source system.