Trump Sued By PBS To Stop $500M Funding Cut

First it was NPR and now PBS is punching back legally at Donald Trump’s desire to slash funding to public broadcasters.

In a document seeking “injunctive and other expedited relief”just filed in federal court in the District of Columbia, the Public Broadcast Service and Northern Minnesota Public TV (Lakeland PBS) are declaring Trump’s Executive Order of May 1, 2025 to be illegal and unconstitutional.

Inked with much fanfare, Trump’s executive order earlier this month directed federal agencies and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to halt federal funding for NPR and PBS, as the president has alleged that the entities trafficked in “left-wing propaganda.”

Sorry Mr. President, but that’s not the point says PBS, in so many words.

“A recent survey of a politically representative sample of U.S. adults (conducted by YouGov) showed that PBS is the number one most trusted institution in the United States, as compared to video streaming services, commercial cable television, news publications, commercial broadcast television, the federal government, Congress, courts of law, and social media platforms,” today’s generally understated complaint asserts. “The same survey found that PBS is the most trusted news network.”

That’s the tone, then there’s the law.

“Regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS’s programming, including by attempting to defund PBS,” reads the 51-page complaint filed by DC law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to hit home with its point.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting gets around $500 million a year from the feds, which is about 15% of its operating budget. A thick of swath of that money goes to PBS, who also (as anyone who has watched an episode of American Masters knows) has support from corporate and private donors.

Reading very much like the suit NPR hit the MAGA White House with three days ago, the former home of Big Bird and Downton Abbey goes on to say in their own suit that “if allowed to stand, the EO would override Congress’s decision to remove the administration of federal funding for public television from the government’s editorial purview.”

Framing the matter as a clear attack on the freedom of speech as well the American system of checks and balances, the complaint adds:  “And it would have profound impacts on the ability of PBS and PBS Member Stations to provide a rich tapestry of programming to all Americans. PBS and Lakeland PBS bring suit to preserve their ability to serve their viewers and communities without political interference, as both Congress and the First Amendment mandate.”

Deadline reached out to the White House for comment on the new suit.

Just like the NPR complaint, the PBS action named Trump, Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget; Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. Additionally, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noam and DHS itself are named here, as are the soon to shuttered Department of Education and Sec. Linda McMahon, acting FEMA boss David Richardson and that agency.

A line-up that makes one think of one of the great lines from Dame Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Granthamon on Downton: “It always happens when you give these little people power, it goes to their heads like strong drink.”