Fri May 02 18:02:44 UTC 2025: ## Trump Cuts Funding for NPR and PBS, Citing Bias

**Washington, May 2, 2025** – In a significant escalation of his ongoing conflict with the media, U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order Thursday cutting federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). The White House cited bias in the outlets’ reporting as justification for the action.

The order directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and all relevant agencies to cease federal funding for NPR and PBS, despite the CPB budget already being approved by Congress through 2027. The White House released a fact sheet claiming that the networks have used taxpayer dollars to promote partisanship and left-wing propaganda, citing examples such as disproportionate use of the term “far-right” versus “far-left,” coverage deemed negative towards Republicans, and featuring content such as a segment on queer animals (NPR) and a drag queen appearance on a children’s program (PBS).

The move has been described by Politico magazine as the White House’s most aggressive assault on the media to date and is expected to face legal challenges. NPR and PBS have not yet commented on the executive order. The networks, which reach tens of millions of Americans weekly and monthly respectively, receive a relatively small percentage of their overall funding from the government.

This action follows other recent moves by the Trump administration to curtail press freedom, including stripping the White House Correspondents’ Association of its long-standing authority over press access to presidential events, banning reporters from the Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One, and dismantling publicly-funded international broadcasting services. Media rights groups have expressed alarm at the deteriorating press freedom situation in the United States.

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