Trump Slashes Funding for NPR & PBS

M.A. Dworkin

Washington, D.C. - The House has followed the Senate in approving a Trump Administration plan to rescind $9 billion in previously allocated funds, including $1.1billion for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting (CPB), one of President Danald Trump’s longstanding media nemesis, in a move that cuts all federal funding for NPR (National Public Radio) and PBS (Public Broadcasting System) and their member stations. The total amount also includes roughly $7 billion in foreign aid funding. 

The vote along party lines, 216-213 included all but two Republicans in favor of the cuts. The bill now goes to President Trump’s desk to be signed into law. 

“This is an irreversible loss to the public radio and public broadcasting system.” said NPR CEO Katherine Maher, who has long-been in the crosshairs of President Trump’s budget slashing agenda. “The effect will be an unwarranted dismantling of our beloved local civic institutions, and an act of Congress that disregards the public will.”

Ms. Maher came to regret tweets that she published calling Donald Trump a “fascist and a deranged racist sociopath” back in 2020. 

“I regret those tweets,” she told Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) at a House committee considering yanking NPR’s federal funding. “I would not tweet them again today. They represented a time where I was reflecting on something that I believe the President said, rather than who he is. I don’t presume that anyone is a racist.”

In more recent days Ms. Maher challenged critics to show her a story that would prove the radio network is biased in its news coverage. 

“As far as the accusations that we’re biased, I would stand up and say, ‘Please show me a story the concerns you’ because we want to know and we want to bring the conversation back to our newsroom.”

Ms. Maher admitted that many stations would wind up going dark, particularly those serving rural communities who operate on thin profit margins. 

The bill, formerly known as the Recissions Act of 2025, will pinch the local WTJX to the tune of $1.3 million. WTJX CEO Tanya Marie-Singh is quoted as saying the “cuts will have a catastrophic effect on public media nationwide.” 

Supporters of the bill claim that elite media corporations should not be guaranteed perpetual funding from the American taxpayer.     

Advocacy groups are already launching aggressive campaigns to urge State legislatures and private donors to step up and replace the federal dollars.

At this time of publication, the St. Croix Times knows of no efforts by the VI Legislature or local advocacy groups to pick up the slack and restore WTJX vanishing funds.