Trump reduces the financing for us public broadcasters NPR and PBS – DW – 05/02/2025

The White House said on Thursday that the US President Donald Trump had signed an executive regulation with which the financing for public news channels NPR and PBS was reduced.

Both outlets have previously announced that Trump's efforts to reduce such funds have a “devastating influence” on US citizens who rely on them for reliable local and national messages – also in emergency situations.

What did the White House say about the broadcaster?

The order informs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes the financing to the stations in order to set the direct financing.

A statement by the White House for the order described the news agencies as partisans and biased.

“The CPB Board of Directors cancel the existing direct financing in the state, which is legally permissible, and rejects it to provide future funds,” the order says.

In an explanation of the White House, it states that the order ended all direct funds and indirect payments from other public media organizations.

“NPR and PBS have fueled party and left propaganda with taxpayers' dollars, which is very inappropriate and improper use of the money of taxpayers, as President Trump explained.”

The Trump administration has described numerous institutions in science and in the media of Harvard and Columbia universities to NPR and PBS as links and biased. As a result, it threatened financing cuts. Human rights representatives have expressed concerns about freedom of speech as well as academic and freedom of the press.

The Trump government has also tried to close Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and near East Broadcasting networks whose news programs are financed by the US government. At the end of April, a federal judge of the Trump government ordered these efforts to stop.

What did the channels say?

In a statement last month, Paula Kerger, President and Managing Director of PBS, said that the efforts of the Trump government to lift funding for public media would “disrupt the essential service for PBS and local member stations of the American people”.

“There is nothing more American than PBS, and our work is only possible because of the cross -party support that we have always received from the congress,” she said. “This public-private partnership enables us to prepare millions of children for success in school and in life and also support enriching and inspiring programs of the highest quality.”

The CPB sued the White House on Monday after Trump tried to relieve three of his five board members. The congress founded the non-profit company in 1967, which is financed for more than 1,500 locally managed public radio and television channels.

Published by Rana Taha