Trump Signs Executive Order Ending Federal Funding For NPR And PBS, Citing Public Broadcasters' Persistent Habit Of Broadcasting To The Public

The Filing

WASHINGTON. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cease all federal funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, ending nearly six decades of federal support for noncommercial American media and resolving a long-standing concern within the administration that the country's two oldest public broadcasters had been publicly broadcasting.

The order, titled "Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media," directs the CPB to terminate direct funding for NPR and PBS and to require local affiliates that accept federal money to certify they are not redirecting any of it to either organization. Critics noted the arrangement asks an independent nonprofit Congress created in 1967 specifically to insulate public broadcasting from White House direction to accept White House direction.

"NPR and PBS receive millions of taxpayer dollars to push biased and partisan news coverage," Trump told reporters following the signing. "It's a total waste of money. Nobody listens."

NPR and PBS together receive roughly $535 million annually in federal support, an amount that underwrites more than 1,500 local stations serving rural and tribal communities where public radio and television are often the sole sources of local news, emergency alerts, and children's programming. Station managers in Alaska, Appalachia, and the Mountain West, where federal grants account for as much as half of operating revenue, said they expected immediate reductions to local news staffing and Native-language programming.

A White House fact sheet accompanying the order described the cuts as a victory for American taxpayers, who, sources within the administration noted, will each recover approximately $1.60 per year, an amount the administration described as substantial.

At press time, the president was preparing a follow-up directive instructing the FCC to investigate any remaining broadcaster currently airing unfavorable footage of him.

Who Benefits

§Donald Trump, personally, who has spent decades attacking outlets that aired unfavorable coverage of him and now removes federal subsidy from two of the most persistent.
§Trump-aligned cable and streaming media (Fox News, Newsmax, OAN, Truth Social), who benefit from reduced noncommercial competition in rural markets where public broadcasting has been the dominant alternative.
§Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, which placed defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting among its first-year priorities and now sees it executed via executive order.
§FCC Chair Brendan Carr, who gains leverage over local stations newly dependent on commercial sponsors and federal goodwill.
§Commercial broadcasters and cable operators, who recover audience share, advertiser attention, and spectrum previously claimed by public alternatives.
§State and local officials in rural red states, who lose the in-state public radio newsrooms most likely to investigate them.
§Foreign state media (RT, CGTN, others), who gain relative ground in global media influence as the U.S. dismantles the same domestic-news infrastructure it has long touted abroad.

Sourced to the public record · presented without editorial embellishment