USA: Trump Cuts Public Media, Uses Taxpayer Funds for Propaganda Instead

The executive order also stipulated that local affiliate radio and television stations that receive grants from the CPB could no longer purchase programming from NPR or PBS, an attempt to control the content these stations can air.

The order likely exceeds the president’s authority, given that the CPB is a private nonprofit which, by statute, receives federal funding but remains editorially independent. It is not a government agency that reports to the president.

Local, independent affiliate stations’ ability to make their own programming decisions is protected by the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

Earlier the same week, Trump tried to fire three CPB board members, prompting the CPB to sue in response, arguing the president has “no power to remove or terminate CPB’s Board members.”

“Donald Trump is celebrating World Press Freedom Day by expanding his war on the press, trying to eliminate the funding for independent, reliable public media while using taxpayer dollars to fund his propaganda narrative on a government website. This one-two punch makes it clear that Trump’s main motivation here is to control the press. He has shown a longstanding pattern of punishing independent outlets that cover his administration objectively, while rewarding the voices that parrot his talking points. Copying the aesthetics of the news media to disguise state propaganda is a common tactic of authoritarian regimes. If Congress values the American people’s First Amendment right to a free press, it will not stand for the president’s despotic tactics.

Clayton Weimers

Executive Director, RSF USA

In March, Trump said he “would love to” cut funding for NPR and PBS. His budget director later confirmed the administration’s intention to request a rescission of the funds Congress appropriated to the CPB this year.

Trump is also trying to eliminate the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM),  the government entity that distributes funding to international public broadcasters with a global weekly audience of 427 million.

RSF has brought a lawsuitagainst the US government to save the USAGM-funded outlet Voice of America (VOA), which is one of the only reliable sources of information reporting from countries under strict authoritarian regimes.

The United States ranks 57th out of 180 countries and territories in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index.

*SOURCE: Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Go to ORIGINAL: https://rsf.org/en/usa-trump-cuts-public-media-uses-taxpayer-funds-propaganda-instead 2025 Human Wrongs Watch