Trump wants to bulldoze Sesame Street

The White House is preparing to ask Congress to strip nearly all federal funding from public broadcasting companies—namely, NPR and PBS—according to multiple outlets, including The New York Times.

The Trump administration is expected to request that Congress rescind more than $1 billion in federal support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the taxpayer-funded nonprofit that underwrites local newsrooms, NPR, and PBS programming across the country. That figure amounts to roughly two years of CPB’s funding, almost all of which flows directly to public media. 

One White House official told The Hill that the proposal—part of a broader $9.3 billion rescission package—will be sent to Congress after lawmakers return on April 28 from their Easter recess. With Republicans in control and largely compliant with Trump’s demands, the request could sail through both chambers with a simple majority.

Republicans have ramped up calls in recent months to defund public media, accusing it of liberal bias. In a March hearing, GOP lawmakers grilled executives from NPR and PBS over perceived slights, while Democrats pushed back, accusing Trump of using federal power to punish journalists he doesn’t like.

In truth, the only media outlets that seem safe from Trump’s wrath are those that report favorably on him, or offer sweetheart deals to his family for TV shows or documentaries. 

According to the Times, local media stations will be hardest hit if the cuts go through. These stations rely heavily on federal support for newsroom operations and programming.

The rescission package would also target other Trump bugaboos, like foreign aid. The U.S. Institute of Peace and the U.S. Agency for International Development—both longtime targets of Trump—as well as various State Department programs would also lose billions in funding.

This move is the latest salvo in Trump’s war on the press. On Monday night, the White House blasted out a screed against NPR and PBS, claiming they’ve “ripped us off for too long.”

“For years, American taxpayers have been on the hook for subsidizing National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news,’” the statement read.

It cited examples like NPR’s Valentine’s Day story on “queer animals” and a PBS documentary exploring reparations for slavery—clear signs that the real issue here is public media covering topics Trump doesn’t like. The White House also complained that both outlets have “zero tolerance for non-leftist viewpoints” and didn’t sufficiently cover Hunter Biden’s laptop scandal, which NPR CEO Katherine Maher has since called a mistake. (Notice how Trump has laid off attacking The Washington Post ever since owner Jeff Bezos has turned it into a MAGA haven.)

Related | Why Republicans keep trying to murder Big Bird

Trump has repeatedly called for the defunding of public media. 

“NPR and PBS, two horrible and completely biased platforms (Networks!), should be DEFUNDED by Congress, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump ranted in March. “Republicans, don’t miss this opportunity to rid our Country of this giant SCAM, both being arms of the Radical Left Democrat Party. JUST SAY NO AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!”

The White House is also clashing with other newsrooms. It’s fighting an order to reinstate credentials to reporters from the Associated Press over its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” and Trump is suing CBS News and the Des Moines Register, among other news outlets. 

Public media executives, meanwhile, are bracing for impact. A planning document obtained by the Times warns that if Congress approves the cuts, the fallout would be “akin to an asteroid striking without warning.”

“It is the highest risk scenario,” the memo read, “especially in a time in which the media ecosystem is rapidly changing.”

So far, no major Republican figures have voiced opposition to the move. And without public pressure, Trump may get what he wants: a media landscape where the only news that survives is the kind that flatters him.