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NPR has sued Donald Trump over his executive order to halt federal funding for public broadcasters, the latest move in a simmering conflict between the news media and the US president.
The public broadcaster claims Trump’s executive order violates the First Amendment’s press freedom guarantees and threatens a service that “millions of Americans rely on for vital news and information”.
Other radio networks, including Colorado Public Radio and Aspen Public Radio, joined the lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington on Tuesday.
NPR chief executive Katherine Maher said in a statement that Trump’s order was a “clear violation of the Constitution”.
“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers’ dime. Therefore, the president is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS,” said deputy White House press secretary Harrison Fields.
Trump has stepped up his battle with media groups during his second term as president, filing billion-dollar lawsuits and demanding investigations into broadcasters.
The president has blasted NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service television network as “RADICAL LEFT MONSTERS”.
“REPUBLICANS MUST DEFUND AND TOTALLY DISASSOCIATE THEMSELVES FROM NPR & PBS,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform last month.
Trump signed an executive order on May 1 directing the CPB — the non-profit body that distributes funding for public broadcasters in the US — to cease funding NPR and PBS “to the extent allowed by law”.
The move was intended “to ensure that Federal funding does not support biased and partisan news coverage”, the White House said.
The order claimed that government funding for news media was “corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence”. It said that CPB was violating its governing statute, which blocks it from supporting political parties or candidates, by funding NPR and PBS.
In the filing on Tuesday, NPR and other radio stations alleged Trump’s executive order sought to punish them for their news content.
“The order aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the president dislikes and chill the free exercise of First Amendment rights by NPR and individual public radio stations across the country,” said the filing, describing it as “textbook retaliation”.
Last month, the Federal Election Committee, the independent agency overseeing federal elections, unanimously rejected allegations of media bias brought against NPR.
NPR argues that Trump’s order violates due process, separation of powers and the constitution’s clause that governs congressional spending. The lawsuit also claims the order undermines the legislation that set up the CPB in order to shield independent broadcasters from political pressure.
NPR spent $11mn in grants from the CPB in 2024, according to the filing. The group makes most of its money through sponsorships, individual donations, memberships and licensing of content to other radio stations.
ABC News paid $15mn to Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit after anchor George Stephanopoulos falsely said on-air that Trump had been found “liable for rape”. Trump also sued CBS News for $20bn for what he claims was deceptive editing of an interview last year.
Trump has hit out at Comcast, the owner of NBC, saying the company “ought to be investigated” after a reporter questioned his decision to accept a $400mn gifted jet from Qatar.
