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Hi -- Last night, Donald Trump issued an executive order directing "all executive departments and agencies to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS."1
In addition, Congress is preparing to vote on a measure that would force the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to GIVE BACK $1.1 billion appropriated by Congress during the Biden administration.2
This is a red-alert emergency for public media, and Demand Progress is mobilizing grassroots support to help stop these attacks.
Will you make a donation to support our work, including our efforts to save public broadcasting?
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately.
For more information about the attacks on public media, please read the email we sent earlier this week, pasted below.
Hi,
Donald Trump is pushing to completely eliminate all federal funding for PBS and public radio — and the House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on a draconian measure that would force them to give back $1.1 billion in past funding.3
This is not a drill. This would be a crushing blow to PBS and public radio stations around the country.
Demand Progress has mobilized tens of thousands of people to contact Congress and help stop the defunding of public broadcasting. With this critical vote fast approaching, we need to turn up the pressure.
Will you make a donation to support our work, including our efforts to save public broadcasting?
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) represents a tiny fraction of the federal budget, but it is an essential source of funding for more than 1,500 local public television and radio stations around the country. Over 70% of the CPB's funding is passed through to locally owned public radio and television stations.4
That funding has made it possible for generations of kids to benefit from educational programming like Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. In addition, public broadcasting is a vital source of reliable news and information, especially in rural areas where local newspapers have disappeared.
That's why a majority of the American people support funding public broadcasting by a nearly 20 point margin.5
Yet Donald Trump has relentlessly attacked public broadcasting for years, calling it a "total scam" and a "liberal disinformation machine."6 In fact, news broke yesterday that he fired three of the five members of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board as part of his escalating attacks.
Trump's attempts to defund public broadcasting were stopped in his first term, and we're fighting even harder to stop him this time around.
With gratitude,
The team at Demand Progress Action
Sources:
1. The New York Times, "Trump Signs Executive Order Seeking to End Federal Funding for NPR and PBS," May 2, 2025.
2. Punchbowl News, "House Republican leaders eye rescissions vote in early May," April 21, 2025.
3. Punchbowl News, "House Republican leaders eye rescissions vote in early May," April 21, 2025.
4. WHYY, "‘Essential’ or ‘propaganda’: Pa. lawmakers differ on support for Trump’s call to eliminate funding of NPR and PBS," April 25, 2025.
5. Pew Research Center, "Americans more likely to support than oppose continuing federal funding for NPR and PBS," March 26, 2025.
6. Newsweek, "Donald Trump Demands NPR Lose Funding," April 10, 2025.
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