National Public Radio (NPR) announced Tuesday that it is suing President Donald Trump over a recent executive order that cuts its federal funding through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
NPR and other radio stations claim that Trump’s May 1 executive order cutting federal funds to both NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is unconstitutional, and that it violates the First Amendment’s protection of free speech. Trump’s executive order maintains that NPR and PBS are biased news companies that taxpayers have no duty to fund.
Trump’s May 1 executive order, Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media, says that “No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies,” and that “Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.”
Russ Vought, White House budget director named as a co-defendant in the suit alongside Trump, said in a Fox News interview in April that while “we’ve known for decades that [NPR and PBS] put out liberal information,” it is only now coming to light the extent to which the news networks are “pioneering the cultural indoctrination of our kids.” Other defendants named in the case include Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts Maria Rosario Jackson.
In a Tuesday press release, Katherine Maher, president and CEO of NPR, called the executive order “a clear violation of the Constitution and the First Amendment’s protections for freedom of speech and association, and freedom of the press,” adding that “NPR will never agree to this infringement of our constitutional rights.”
Conversely, Donald Trump Jr. said in an X post Tuesday that taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to fund NPR’s “leftwing propaganda.”
The executive order terminates funding for NPR and PBS via the CPB which manages taxpayer funds for broadcast services. The CPB has already filed a complaint against Trump for an executive order removing members of its board of directors, stating “the President has no power to remove or terminate CPB’s Board members.”
CPB “is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers’ dime,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS. The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.”
The suit from NPR against Trump says that the order threatens the radio system “that millions of Americans across the country rely on for vital news and information.”
However, according to the Executive Order, “Unlike in 1967, when the CPB was established, today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse, and innovative news options.” The order implies that the current diversity of independent news coverage eliminates the previous need for federal funding of news and broadcast services.
Other radio stations named as plaintiffs in the suit are Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio, and KSUT, a broadcast to federally recognized Native American tribes.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include the statement from the White House spokesman.
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