No Endorsement for Republicans Who Do Not Back Rescissions Bill, Trump Says

Last month, four Republicans had voted against the bill in the House.

President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House, on July 8, 2025. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump warned Republicans he would not endorse them if they vote against the $9.4 billion rescissions bill that is to be passed in the Senate, he said in a July 11 post on Truth Social.

“It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, defund the corporation for public broadcasting (PBS and NPR),” Trump said.

He criticized the two public broadcasters, saying they were worse than CNN and MSNBC.

“Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement,” he added.

Out of the $9.4 billion worth of rescissions in the bill, roughly $1.1 billion is spending cuts targeted at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a nonprofit established by Congress that distributes funds to more than 1,600 public television and radio stations such as PBS and NPR.

On June 12, the House of Representatives passed the bill by a narrow margin of 214–212. While all 208 Democrats who voted on the matter voted against the bill, four out of the 218 Republicans also voted against it—Reps. Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), and Michael Turner (R-Ohio). The Senate must now vote on the bill.

In a June 12 statement, Amodei said there needs to be more debate on the matter.

“Before we trigger major consequences for our local public broadcasting stations throughout the West and other rural areas, we need more discussion,” he said.

“If we do not have time to think about it, we sure as hell have time to talk about it before October 1st when the impacts of these rescinded funds would start to be felt.

“I agree we must make meaningful cuts to shrink our federal deficit; however, I would be doing a disservice to the thousands of rural constituents in my district if I did not fight to keep their access to the rest of the world and news on the air.”

Trump had accused NPR and PBS of being biased in a May 1 executive order in which he directed the CPB to end funding for these news outlets.

While the type of viewpoints propagated by PBS and NPR “does not matter,” it is an issue that neither entity presents a “fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal” of current events, Trump wrote in the order.

“At the very least, Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage. No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies, and the Government is entitled to determine which categories of activities to subsidize,” he said.

In May, NPR and PBS separately sued over the funding cuts. PBS argued in its lawsuit that the Constitution prohibits the president from acting as an arbiter of content on PBS, “including by attempting to defund” the organization.

A PBS spokesperson said earlier this year that the entity filed the complaint to “safeguard public television’s editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations.”

Trump’s warning to Republicans to back the rescissions bill comes as the Senate deadline to pass it is approaching fast.

The White House had asked Congress to approve the bill on June 3. According to the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, the Legislature has 45 days from the receipt of such a presidential request to approve the bill. The deadline for passing the bill falls on July 18.