At Trump’s wish: US Congress decides to delete state money for media

President Donald Trump has been given another victory in the US Congress. The House of Representatives passed a law that previously approved foreign aids and federal funds for public broadcasters. Trump had proposed the cuts.

There were 216 yes and 213 no votes in the representative of the Republicans. Previously, the law had already passed the Senate in the early morning on Thursday (local time). The Trump now has to sign it so that it comes into force.

The law provides for output cuts of around nine billion US dollars (around 7.7 billion euros)-including agreed funds for the authority Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) of $ 1.1 billion.

The authority is responsible for the distribution of state media money to the public broadcasters National Public Radio (NPR) and public broadcasting service (PBS) and their member institutions. According to CPB, CPB supports the operation of more than 1,500 locally managed and operated public television and radio stations in the USA.

Democrats: “Dark day for America”

Trump’s spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt argued that it was about restoring the “fiscal reason” in the country. NPR and PBS had used federal funds for years to drive “a partisan left agenda”, she claimed. The Democrats, on the other hand, warned that the deletion of the funds in particular will hit local channels in rural regions and could possibly destroy.

Her minority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, criticized before the final farewell through the House of Representatives: “This is a dark day for America, a dark day for the rural population of America, a dark day for every American who relies on public broadcasting during floods, hurricanes, tornados and other disasters.”

Local channels in particular are dependent on federal funds

While NPR generally receives about one percent of its funds directly from the government and indirectly a slightly higher amount, the 246 member institutions from NPR receive an average of eight to ten percent of their funds from CPB. They operate more than 1,000 radio stations in the country.

With PBS and its television channels, the proportion of financing from federal funds of CPB is therefore higher: around 15 percent. Local channels, especially TV channels, are more dependent on the federal funds. In addition, the public broadcasters support themselves on donations and funds from federal and local level.

Trump and party colleagues create a mood against the media

Last week Trump himself practiced in a post on his online platform Truth Social Druck on his Republican party colleagues to say goodbye to the law. He explicitly justified this with the need to withdraw the funding to the public broadcasters: “Any Republican who agrees that it is still possible to send this monster will not have my support or support.”

The Republican Senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, wrote on the platform X, he hoped that this was “only the first round of Doge cuts”.

With the so-called Doge committee, Trump wants to enforce savings. At the same time, however, he had also promoted the law known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill”, which provides for higher government spending in some areas. According to an estimate, the US budget deficit will increase by around 3.3 trillion dollars within the next ten years.