Trump's Plan to Defund Public Broadcasting To Face Opposition from Americans Who Overwhelmingly Support NPR and PBS

Contact: Timothy Karr, 201-533-8838

WASHINGTON — According to Politico and The New York Times, the White House will send Congress a request to claw back nearly $1.1 billion in already-approved federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the entity that provides federal support for NPR and PBS affiliates across the country. The proposed cuts will make good on earlier pledges from far-right figures, including President Donald Trump and House Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, to — in Greene’s words — bring about “the complete and total defunding and dismantling of the CPB.”

A bipartisan Congress had already approved $535 million a year in federal spending for CPB through the end of 2027. The White House’s “rescissions request” is expected to go before lawmakers when they return from their two-week recess later this month. According to Politico, both chambers of Congress will need to pass a simple-majority vote to approve Trump’s request to zero out both years of funding.

In public surveys, federal support for NPR and PBS routinely ranks as taxpayer money “well spent.” Recent polling finds PBS to be the most-trusted U.S. institution with 63 percent of respondents expressing “a great deal of trust” or “some trust” in the network. The same survey found PBS to be the most-trusted “news network” in the country.

Free Press Action Co-CEO Jessica J. González said:

“The Trump White House may not like public media — and that’s no surprise given the president’s frequent attacks on any journalism that holds his administration and its cabal of billionaires accountable. But Trump’s views are out of step with those of the majority of Americans, who overwhelmingly support federal funding for public media.

“Public polling shows that communities across the country rely on their local public radio and TV stations to provide trustworthy news reporting and a diversity of opinions. When asked, the American public indicates it wants more support for public and community media, not less.

“In a healthy democracy, where leadership is accountable to the people, we would be investing more and not less in our public-media system. Unfortunately, President Trump and his loyalists want to take another cherished public service away from the American people. When lawmakers have tried to do this in the past, millions of people protested. We will ensure that members of Congress will hear a similar outcry in the coming days and weeks, and encourage people to, in-person, tell their elected representatives and senators to support public broadcasting as they return home to face constituents over spring recess.”