Headed to his Florida resort on Air Force One Thursday evening, President Trump signed an executive order that seeks to end federal funding for PBS and NPR, broadcasters that rely in part on financial assistance from the government.
Accusing the broadcasters of being unfair, inaccurate and biased, Trump ordered the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to halt any direct funding provided to them. CPB received $535 million from Congress in fiscal year 2025, most of which is dispersed as direct grants to local public TV and radio stations.
In April, Trump attacked the pair of broadcasters, saying, “REPUBLICANS MUST DEFUND AND TOTALLY DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM NPR & PBS, THE RADICAL LEFT ‘MONSTERS’ THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!”
In a statement Friday, the White House claimed that the broadcasters use taxpayer money to spread “radical, woke propaganda disguised as 'news'.”
According to NPR, the network receives about 1% of its funding from the federal government directly, with a bit more coming from member stations around the country that also receive some federal funding and pay NPR for programming. PBS receives more, with about 15% of its funding coming from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
NPR said it would challenge the executive order on both constitutional and budgetary grounds. "The appropriation for public broadcasting, including NPR and PBS, represents less than 0.0001% of the federal budget,” said NPR President Katherine Maher. “The President’s order is an affront to the First Amendment rights of NPR and locally owned and operated stations throughout America to produce and air programming that meets the needs of their communities.”