NPR Sues Trump Over Order Cutting Federal Funding

The order ‘violates due process, the Separation of Powers and the Spending Clause of the Constitution,’ the lawsuit says.

National Public Radio headquarters in Washington on March 26, 2025. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

President Donald Trump’s order cutting funding for media outlets violates the U.S. Constitution, National Public Radio (NPR) said in a lawsuit filed on May 27.

Trump’s May 1 order directed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a nonprofit established by Congress in 1967 to oversee taxpayer-funded broadcasters, to end direct funding for NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS.

The order violates the First Amendment’s protection of expression, the suit states.

“The Order also violates due process, the Separation of Powers and the Spending Clause of the Constitution,” it says.

The suit was filed in federal court in Washington.

“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,“ Harrison Fields, a White House spokesman, told The Epoch Times in an email. ”The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective.”

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

The order says that no outlets have a constitutional right to public money and that neither outlet “presents a fair, accurate, or unbiased portrayal of current events to taxpaying citizens.” That’s despite the law establishing the corporation saying the entity cannot “contribute to or otherwise support any political party,” Trump wrote.

The White House has pointed to NPR articles such as one about “genderqueer dinosaur enthusiasts,” its initial refusal to report on the laptop computer owned by former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and how its CEO, Katherine Maher, has called Trump a racist.

NPR and several local member stations, including Colorado Public Radio, said in the suit that the order improperly targets them because of the president’s view on their news.

“The Order’s objectives could not be clearer: 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,” they said in the lawsuit.

“The Order is textbook retaliation and viewpoint-based discrimination in violation of the First Amendment, and it interferes with NPR’s and the Local Member Stations’ freedom of expressive association and editorial discretion.”

Maher said in a statement, “We stand for constitutional rights, a free press, and an informed public, and we file today on their behalf.”

The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the order and all actions taken to implement it illegal and unconstitutional and to issue an order that permanently bars defendants from implementing the Trump order.

Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger defended their outlets during a March congressional hearing, telling lawmakers that they serve audiences across the political spectrum.

“Our stations pool resources to invest in programming that will benefit all Americans, ranging from history and science to art and music,” Kerger said at the time.