Trump orders to end government funding for NPR and PBS

President Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board of directors to "cease federal funding for NPR and PBS," the nation's primary public broadcasters. Trump contends that news coverage by NPR and PBS contains a left-wing bias. The federal funding for NPR and PBS is appropriated by Congress.

The executive order, like many that have been signed by the president, could be challenged in court. "Which viewpoints NPR and PBS promote does not matter," the executive order says. "What does matter is that neither entity presents a fair, accurate or unbiased portrayal of current events to tax-paying citizens."

On social media platforms, Trump recently blasted the two primary public broadcasting networks, posting in all caps: "REPUBLICANS MUST DEFUND AND TOTALLY DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM NPR & PBS, THE RADICAL LEFT 'MONSTERS' THAT SO BADLY HURT OUR COUNTRY!"

In the executive order, Trump instructs the CPB and executive branch departments and agencies to cease direct and indirect funding of NPR and PBS.

President Trump tried to fire three board members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting on Monday, including Tom Rothman, the chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Motion Picture Group. "The CPB Board shall cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law and shall decline to provide future funding," the order says.

NPR's President and CEO Katherine Maher defended coverage and addressed the need for funding in a recent interview on All Things Considered. "I think that it's important for public media to be able to continue to be relevant in a time where there is a lot of coverage of different issues and areas of interest," she said.

NPR did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the executive order. The leaders of NPR and PBS testified at a House oversight committee hearing in late March on allegations of ideological bias in public broadcasting.

Maher was assailed for her past political postings on social media and the network's news judgment almost entirely based on tweets and stories that preceded her March 2024 arrival at the network by years.

PBS' Paula Kerger found herself queried about a video involving a performer in drag singing a variation on a children's song for a young audience. (Kerger testified that the video was posted on the website of PBS' New York City member station and never aired on television.)

Federal funding for public media flows through the congressionally chartered Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Congress allocated $535 million for the CPB for the current fiscal year-an amount affirmed in a recent stop-gap bill passed by the Republican-controlled U.S. House and Senate.

The CPB's budget is approved by Congress on a two-year cycle in large part to insulate it from political pressures; according to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Congress has fully funded it through Sept 30, 2027.

At the hearing in late March, heads of both networks spoke of the mission to provide nonpartisan news and programming to the American public, without charge. President and CEO of National Public Radio Katherine Maher testified during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing at the U.S. Capitol on March 26, 2025 in Washington, DC.

NPR receives about 1% of its funding directly from the federal government, and a slightly greater amount indirectly; its 246 member institutions, operating more than 1,300 stations, receive on average 8% to 10% of their funds from CPB.

NPR has more than 900 employees, according to its website. The exact employee count at PBS was not immediately clear though a media report said it had over 550 staffers at the end of 2022.