President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a late-night Executive Order that directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to stop providing direct financial funding to NPR and PBS.
The order, called “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” said the CPB’s role in providing government funding to NPR and PBS was outdated because the media landscape is “filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options.”
“Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence,” Trump wrote in the order. “At the very least, Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage. No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize. ”
Trump argued that the CPB “fails to abide” by a federal law that prohibits it from providing federal funding to organizations that “contribute to or otherwise support any political party.” In cutting off funding for NPR and PBS, Trump suggests that both distributors of public broadcasting programs act as extensions of a particular political party.
“Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter,” Trump said. “What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.”
NPR provides public radio programs to more than 1,000 educational and non-profit radio stations across the country, while PBS is one of several public television programming distributors with hundreds of local TV stations serving as members.
Trump’s executive order is unlikely to impact public radio and TV stations in major cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. There, broadcasters rely on a mixture of underwriting and grants from estates to support their operations.
Instead, the outlets that are likely to be impacted the most are small, rural radio and TV stations that rely on federal subsidies provided through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for a significant portion of their revenue. Many of these stations operate in so-called “red states” that Trump won in the 2016, 2020 and 2024 elections.
Paula Kerger, the CEO of PBS, said last month that any government-imposed funding cuts would “disrupt the essential service PBS and local member stations provide to the American people.”
“There’s nothing more American than PBS, and our work is only possible because of the bipartisan support we have always received from Congress,” Kerger said. “This public-private partnership allows us to help prepare millions of children for success in school and in life, and also supports enriching and inspiring programs of the highest quality.”
Last month, officials at NPR said a reduction in funding would “have a devastating impact on American communities across the nation that rely on public radio for trusted local and national news, culture, lifesaving emergency alerts, and public safety information.”
“We serve the public interest,” NPR officials asserted. “It’s not just in our name, it’s our mission. Across the country, locally owned public media stations represent a proud American tradition of public-private partnership for our shared common good.”
The decision on Thursday was the latest to involve Trump using his perceived authority to target broadcasters that he has criticized in the past.
In March, a similar Executive Order directed several agencies, including the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), to lay off worker, eliminate contracts and reduce funding for non-essential operations. The outcome led to the closure of Voice of America (VOA), which is overseen by USAGM, and funding cuts that impacted Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and a number of other international broadcasters.
The cuts spurred several lawsuits against USAGM and two of its officials, Victor Morales and Kari Lake. In one lawsuit, a judge ordered USAGM to restart funding to Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty; in another, a judge issued an injunction that restored employment for hundreds of VOA workers and contractors.
