NPR sues Trump over executive order targeting funding

NPR sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, saying that a May 1 executive order violates the news organization’s First Amendment rights.

“The intent could not be more clear—the Executive Order aims to punish NPR for the content of news and other programming the President dislikes,” Katherine Maher, NPR’s CEO, wrote in a statement.

“This is not about politics—it is about principle,” the member stations wrote in a joint statement. “When the government tries to limit press freedom or control the flow of information, we have not only the right, but the obligation, to speak out and defend our rights that make independent journalism possible.”

In the lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Washington, NPR was joined by member stations Aspen Public Radio, Colorado Public Radio and KSUT, a public station based in Ignacio, Colorado.

The plaintiffs claim that President Donald Trump exceeded his executive authority and denied them due process rights under the Fifth Amendment, while violating their First Amendment rights in three ways: by retaliating for protected speech, by engaging in “viewpoint-based discrimination” and by interfering with the right of NPR and other member stations to associate with one another.

Trump’s executive order sought to end federal funding to both NPR and PBS because of “biased and partisan” news reports. The order instructed the congressionally chartered Corporation for Public Broadcasting to cut off funding to the public media giants.

Trump has separately attempted to fire three CPB board members and plans to ask that Congress claw back previously appropriated funds for the public broadcasters. CPB, which is an independent nonprofit funded by Congress, sued the government last month, saying that Trump does not have the authority to fire its board members.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit. It previously wrote in a “fact sheet” on its website that taxpayers should not fund “biased” media, citing an NPR report on “queer animals” and its support of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

“It’s outrageous that NPR believes it is entitled to your tax dollars,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) wrote on X. “NPR is a liberal propaganda network and it shouldn’t get a penny from taxpayers.”

While PBS has not yet sued, it is “considering every option, including taking legal action, to allow our organization to continue to provide essential programming and services to member stations and all Americans,” a PBS spokesperson told The Washington Post in an email Tuesday.

NPR and the member stations are represented by the prominent lawyers Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. and Miguel A. Estrada, of the firm Gibson Dunn, who have argued numerous cases in front of the Supreme Court. Boutrous represented former CNN correspondent Jim Acosta in his successful lawsuit against the first Trump administration when his permanent press pass was revoked in 2018.

In a statement to The Post, Boutrous called the executive order “blatantly unconstitutional” and asserted that both the First Amendment and the Public Broadcasting Act, which established CPB, protects NPR. “By seeking to halt federal funding to NPR, the Executive Order harms not only NPR and its Member stations, but also the tens of millions of Americans across the country who rely on them for news and cultural programming, and vital emergency information,” he said.