WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ordered an end to all federal funding allocated for NPR and PBS, setting the stage for possible legal battles over whether the broadcast stations are entitled to taxpayer funds.
Trump issued an executive order late Thursday evening titled “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,” directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to “cease all federal funds” that go toward NPR and PBS. The order is the latest escalation in a longstanding battle between the networks and Republicans, who argue the stations use taxpayer dollars to amplify misinformation about conservatives.
“The CPB Board shall cease direct funding to NPR and PBS, consistent with my Administration’s policy to ensure that Federal funding does not support biased and partisan news coverage,” the executive order reads. “The CPB Board shall cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law and shall decline to provide future funding.”
The order comes as Trump is expected to send a formal rescissions package to Congress in the coming weeks to approve the president’s proposed spending cuts and codify them into law.
Included in the rescissions package is a $1 billion cut in spending toward the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which oversees networks such as PBS and NPR, a senior administration official told the Deseret News.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee has already introduced legislation seeking to halt federal funds from going toward the broadcasting networks and to instead use the money to go toward paying off the national debt.
Both PBS and NPR are partially funded through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was authorized by Congress in 1967. Less than 1% of NPR’s total funding comes from the federal government, but local stations that receive those grants pay fees to NPR.
However, NPR has especially come under fire over personal comments CEO Katherine Maher made expressing her own political views, including social media posts in 2020 when she described President Donald Trump as a “racist” and a “sociopath.” At the time, Maher did not work at NPR but was the CEO and executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation.
NPR had $11.2 million in operating revenue provided by the CPB in 2024, Maher told lawmakers in March, arguing the funds ensured news and information was provided to all local public radio stations.
The matter is likely to play out in court, as it’s not entirely clear if Trump can withhold funding from the CPB that has been approved by Congress. Those legal questions are at the center of several of Trump’s executive orders — and it’s why Republicans are requesting an official rescissions package to pass the spending cuts into law.