NPR and public radio stations sue Trump White House over funding cuts

Stephen Battaglio, Los Angeles Times on May 27, 2025

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NPR and three of its member stations filed suit in federal court Tuesday against President Donald Trump's White House over the president's executive order to block funding for public media.

Trump's order called for an end to government dollars for the Corp. for Public Broadcasting, the taxpayer-backed entity that provides funding to NPR and PBS. He called the outlets "left wing propaganda."

The suit says the May 1 action by Trump violated the 1st Amendment.

"The Order targets NPR and PBS expressly because, in the President's view, their news and other content is not 'fair, accurate, or unbiased,'" the legal brief said, according to an NPR report.

The suit also says that the funding — currently at around $500 million annually — is appropriated by Congress. The allocation is made two years in advance.

"Congress directly authorized and funded CPB to be a private nonprofit corporation wholly independent of the federal government," Corp. for Public Broadcasting chief Patricia Harrison told NPR in a statement.

Harrison said that the Corp. for Public Broadcasting is not a federal agency subject to the president's authority.

"The Executive Order is a clear violation of the Constitution and the First Amendment's protections for freedom of speech and association, and freedom of the press," NPR President and Chief Executive Katherine Maher said in a statement.

The order is one of a number of attempts by Trump to limit or intimidate institutions he does not agree with. Targets included law firms, universities and media companies such as CBS, which is being sued for $20 billion over a "60 Minutes" interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential campaign.

NPR filed the suit with three public radio outlets, including Denver-based Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Pubic Radio and KSUT which serves the Four Corners region of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.

Both NPR and PBS have stressed that the bulk of the federal funding they receive goes to stations that provide local news and emergency alerts for their communities.