President Trump Orders End to Federal Funding for Public Broadcasters

President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Thursday aimed at halting federal funding to the nation’s largest public broadcasters. This move follows a series of criticisms from the White House and Republican lawmakers accusing these media outlets of biased reporting.

The directive instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to cease providing direct financial support to National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) “to the fullest extent allowed by law” and refrain from any future funding commitments. Further, it mandates the CPB’s board to devise strategies to “minimize or eliminate” any indirect financial assistance to these organizations.

Additionally, the order tasks Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. with conducting an investigation into NPR and PBS for potential employment discrimination. It also calls upon the heads of all federal agencies to “identify and terminate” any financial support, whether direct or indirect, provided to these media entities, in compliance with legal provisions.

This decision is in line with former critiques by the Trump administration and key Republican figures targeting public broadcasters.

Annually, the CPB allocates $535 million in taxpayer money to public radio and TV stations across the country. These stations deliver free, universal access to educational programming, emergency alerts, and a diverse array of news and cultural material.

The affected stations include those affiliated with PBS and NPR, among other public media channels. The White House has announced plans to seek congressional assistance to retract funds already slated for the CPB over the next two years.

The withdrawal of federal funding could force some local stations, particularly in rural Republican strongholds, to shut down. As Ed Ulman, the CEO of Alaska Public Media, noted last month on CNN, “these are often the last locally owned broadcasters in these communities.”

Earlier this week, the CPB initiated legal proceedings against the Trump administration following the abrupt dismissal of three of its five board members via email. The dismissed members — Laura G. Ross, Thomas E. Rothman, and Diane Kaplan — were appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2022, after Ross’s reappointment; she had been initially appointed by Trump in 2018.

According to a 1967 law, Congress established the corporation as a private entity “to provide maximum protection from outside interference and control.” This legislation explicitly prohibits governmental “direction, supervision, or control over educational television or radio broadcasting.”