(The Daily Signal)—President Donald Trump said National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service are a “waste of money” and that he would “be honored” to defund the taxpayer-funded networks.
Trump made the comments in response to a reporter’s question Tuesday, one day before the CEOs of the two networks are set to take questions from a House panel investigating government waste.
“It’s been very biased,” Trump said of NPR and PBS.
“They spend more money than any other network of its type ever conceived,” the president continued. “So the kind of money that’s being wasted, and it’s a very biased view. You know that better than anybody. I’d be honored to see it end.”
Trump pointed to all the media outlets in the room, and said: “We are well covered. Look at all the people that we have here today. We are well covered. We don’t need it. It’s a waste of money.”
REPORTER: Would you be interested in defunding and taking away taxpayer dollars to NPR and PBS?@POTUS: "I would love to do that. I think it's very unfair, it's been very biased — the whole group… the kind of money that's being wasted, and it's a very biased view." pic.twitter.com/hegd05Zxr8
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) March 25, 2025
NPR CEO Katherine Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger will answer questions from the House Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency, or the DOGE subcommittee. The hearing is titled “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the heads of NPR and PBS Accountable.”
Supporters of networks have contended public broadcasting is a minimal cost to taxpayers, and provides quality and educational programing that commercial for-profit networks would not support.
The House DOGE subcommittee was established to assist the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, led by entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow for national security and foreign policy at The Heritage Foundation, will also testify to the subcommittee. Ed Ulman, CEO of Alaska Public Media, is the Democrat witness.
“I want to hear why NPR and PBS think they should ever again receive a single cent from the American taxpayer,” Subcommittee Chair Marjorie Taylor Greene said in a public statement.
“These partisan, so-called ‘media’ stations dropped the ball on Hunter Biden’s laptop, down-played COVID-19 origins, and failed to properly report the Russian collusion hoax,” Greene continued.
“Now, it is time for their CEOs to publicly explain this biased coverage. Federal taxpayers should not be forced to pay for one-sided reporting, which attacks over half the country to protect and promote its own political interests. I look forward to working with the Trump Administration to stop allowing the blatant misuse of taxpayer funds for partisan ends.”
Independent Journalism Is Dying
Ever since President Trump’s miraculous victory, we’ve heard an incessant drumbeat about how legacy media is dying. This is true. The people have awakened to the reality that they’re being lied to by the self-proclaimed “Arbiters of Truth” for the sake of political expediency, corporate self-protection, and globalist ambitions.
But even as independent journalism rises to fill the void left by legacy media, there is still a huge challenge. Those at the top of independent media like Joe Rogan, Dan Bongino, and Tucker Carlson are thriving and rightly so. They have earned their audience and the financial rewards that come from it. They’ve taken risks and worked hard to get to where they are.
For “the rest of us,” legacy media and their proxies are making it exceptionally difficult to survive, let alone thrive. They still have a stranglehold over the “fact checkers” who have a dramatic impact on readership and viewership. YouTube, Facebook, and Google still stifle us. The freer speech platforms like Rumble and 𝕏 can only reward so many of their popular content creators. For independent journalists on the outside looking in, our only recourse is to rely on affiliates and sponsors.
But even as it seems nearly impossible to make a living, there are blessings that should not be disregarded. By highlighting strong sponsors who share our America First worldview, we have been able to make lifelong connections and even a bit of revenue to help us along. This is why we enjoy symbiotic relationships with companies like MyPillow, Jase Medical, and Promised Grounds. We help them with our recommendations and they reward us with money when our audience buys from them.
The same can be said about our preparedness sponsor, Prepper All-Naturals. Their long-term storage beef has a 25-year shelf life and is made with one ingredient: All-American Beef.
Even our faith-driven precious metals sponsor helps us tremendously while also helping Americans protect their life’s savings. We are blessed to work with them.
Independent media is the future. In many ways, that future is already here. While the phrase, “the more the merrier,” does not apply to this business because there are still some bad actors in the independent media field, there are many great ones that do not get nearly enough attention. We hope to change that one content creator at a time.
Thank you and God Bless,
JD Rucker
