Topline
The Trump administration must restore funding for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, the latest legal blow to its attempts to punish news organizations the president doesn’t like.
President Donald Trump speaks with members of the media onboard Air Force One on March 29, 2026 while en route to Joint Base Andrews, Maryland from West Palm Beach Florida. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
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Key Facts
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss, an Obama appointee, ruled Tuesday that the executive order Trump signed last year to cut federal funding for PBS and NPR equates to “viewpoint discrimination and retaliation” not tolerated by the First Amendment.
The order directed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes funding to NPR and PBS, to withdraw the funding, and Congress subsequently passed legislation to rescind billions of dollars in funding for the CPB, a non-profit created by Congress.
The White House said in a statement at the time that PBS and NPR spread “radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news,’” and Trump said he would “love to” defund NPR, alleging it favors Democrats.
Moss, calling Trump’s order “unlawful and unenforceable,” wrote that “it is difficult to conceive of clearer evidence that a government action is targeted at viewpoints that the President does not like and seeks to squelch.”
Tangent
Trump’s Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr recently threatened not to renew news outlets’ licenses over their coverage of the Iran war, as the Trump administration has repeatedly claimed it’s being unfairly cast in a negative light. Trump lauded Carr’s threat, writing on Truth Social he was “so thrilled to see Brendan Carr . . . looking at the licenses of some of these Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic ‘News’ Organizations.”
Key Background
Courts have shot down multiple attempts by Trump personally and his administration to punish the media for coverage he views unfavorably. A federal judge ordered the Trump administration last year to restore the Associated Press’ White House credentials after it attempted to ban the outlet for refusing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, as Trump has demanded. Other media companies, including Paramount, have settled with Trump. Paramount agreed last year to pay Trump $16 million for his presidential library and his legal fees to settle a lawsuit he filed claiming CBS deceptively edited an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential campaign to cast her in a more positive light.
Further Reading
Trump’s War With The Media: Paramount Settles With Trump Over Kamala Harris Interview (Forbes)
Judge blocks Trump’s executive order to end federal funding for PBS and NPR (PBS)
Trump’s Executive Order on NPR and PBS Is Unconstitutional, Judge Rules (New York Times)
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