Sign the petition: Trump taking $1 billion buzzsaw to PBS and public radio

 

TELL CONGRESS: Trump is asking Congress to strip $1.1 billion from public media after calling PBS “Radical Left Monsters.” Trump, Musk and Marjorie Taylor Greene are trying to destroy reliable media sources and boost their extreme right-wing media ecosystem. Sign the petition: Save PBS and public radio from Trump’s devastating cuts!

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Trump is pushing Congress to strip $1.1 billion in funding from public media like PBS. He said Republicans must “defund” public media, calling PBS “radical left monsters.”¹

Trump is running a coordinated campaign to destroy PBS and public radio. His FCC chair launched a sham investigation targeting public media outlets, Elon Musk keeps spouting lies, and Marjorie Taylor Greene held phony DOGE (Delivering on Government Efficiency) committee hearings to attack PBS.

If Trump succeeds, his extreme allies will be able to further consolidate the flow of news through channels that spew right-wing disinformation. Public broadcasters are massively popular across partisan lines, so we have a chance to pressure Congress to stand by their constituents.

Sign the petition: Tell Congress to OPPOSE Trump’s call to defund PBS and public radio!

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The White House is not mincing words with its accusatory, inflammatory attacks on public media, spuriously calling PBS “radical, woke propaganda” and “trash that passes as ‘news.’”²

Trump’s loyalists in Congress are ready to support his proposal to strip funding from PBS and public radio. If it passes, the billion in funding cuts would effectively end America’s most valued news sources.

A large majority of Americans — including two-thirds of Trump voters — oppose the defunding of public radio and PBS.³ Now, we must let our lawmakers know that people across the country oppose Trump’s proposal.

Sign the petition: Stop Trump’s plan to destroy PBS and other public media.

Thanks for taking action,

Joey and the team at Demand Progress

Sources:

1. NPR, “Trump plans order to cut funding for NPR and PBS,” April 15, 2025.
2. Ibid.
3. Axios, “Exclusive: PBS poll finds broad Trump voter support amid GOP defunding push,” February 4, 2025.

 

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The moment of truth for PBS and public radio

 

The Trump administration announced last week that it will formally request that Congress claw back $1.1 billion that had been previously appropriated to PBS and public radio — and we've now learned that a vote in the House of Representatives is planned for the week of May 5.¹

The cuts "would devastate PBS member stations," according to PBS CEO Paula Kerger, and if just a simple majority in both the House and Senate vote yes, the money is gone.²

Demand Progress has already mobilized tens of thousands of people to speak out against these cuts, but this is the moment of truth.

Will you make a donation to support our work, including our efforts to save PBS?

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Cutting funding for public broadcasting would be bad enough, but Trump is requesting that Congress actually take back $1.1 billion, or about two years' worth of funding.

That would leave local PBS and public radio stations with the nearly impossible task of replacing a huge amount of money they'd been told they could count on.³

The stations that will suffer the most are those in rural and less wealthy areas, where in many cases the local public TV or radio station is the only reliable source of news and information.

That's exactly why Trump is so hell-bent on defunding public broadcasting. It's just one more step in his authoritarian attack on the free press so that he can control what Americans see and hear.

Thankfully, polls show that voters oppose cutting funding for PBS and public radio, and if we can flip just four Republicans to join the Democrats and oppose these cuts, then we win.⁴

That's why we're asking you today: Will you donate $20 to help save PBS, and push for other key reforms?

With gratitude,

The team at Demand Progress Action

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Sources:
1. Punchbowl News, "House Republican leaders eye rescissions vote in early May," April 21, 2025.
2. The Hill, "PBS president: Trump’s proposed funding cut would ‘devastate’ network," April 14, 2025.
3. PBS Newshour, "Trump administration plans to ask Congress to defund PBS, NPR," April 16, 2025.
4. Pew Research Center, "Americans more likely to support than oppose continuing federal funding for NPR and PBS," March 26, 2025. 

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Contributions to ActBlue Civics and Demand Progress Action are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. Join our online community on Instagram or Twitter.