Why Trump Hates Public Media - Part 3/3

May 18, 2025

Trump’s crusade to dismantle public media has drawn sharp reactions—hailed by supporters as strategic brilliance, condemned by critics as a constitutional assault. But what exactly is driving him?

This is the final episode of our three-part series. In Parts 1 and 2, we looked at how Trump abruptly shut down the Voice of America and launched a sweeping campaign to purge the entire public broadcasting system. He claims it’s all justified. In this episode, we unpack why Trump hates public media so much—and why he seems hell-bent on wiping it out.

Previously – Part 1: Why Trump Silences the Voice of America - Part 1/3
Previously – Part 2: Why Trump Dismantles Public Broadcasting - Part 2/3
Video: 7 Reasons Trump Hates Public Media

Our questions today:
What are Trump and his allies actually saying? Do their arguments hold up? What deeper motives are hiding behind the rhetoric?
How close is he to pulling it off?

Let’s begin by breaking down the “justifications” for Trump’s war on public media.

Dark Comedy: Trump’s “Justifications”

The White House claims Trump’s move to dismantle public broadcasting is about saving money, limiting government overreach, and reducing bureaucracy. Once you lay out all their talking points—no matter how you rearrange or reword them—they boil down to the same few notions: cost-cutting, bias correction, media freedom, bureaucratic waste, outdated redundancy, conservative values, and public demand. Each one falls apart under scrutiny. Let’s take them one by one.

1. “Saving Money”

Cutting public broadcasting to “save money” is one of the weakest arguments.

In fiscal year 2024, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) had a budget of roughly $800 million. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) received about $485 million. Combined, they cost under $1.3 billion—less than two-hundredths of one percent of the $6.4 trillion federal budget. That’s two pennies out of every hundred dollars. Less than a rounding error in the Pentagon’s budget.

Yet the public value is enormous: internationally, it promotes American ideals; domestically, it provides free educational content for families, and rare, nonpartisan, ad-free journalism—especially vital in underserved regions.

Employees in public media earn less than their counterparts in commercial outlets. Like many civil servants, they’re motivated less by money than by job stability, mission, and integrity.

Trump pushed massive tax cuts and blew up the deficit and national debt. Now he wants credit for slashing Sesame Street as some symbol of frugality? Who’s buying that?

2. “Correcting Bias”

The idea of cutting public media to eliminate “political bias” doesn’t hold water. Public broadcasting exists precisely to minimize partisan distortion. It’s designed to be calm, balanced, factual, and free of emotional spin or commercial pressure.

VOA, NPR, and PBS adhere to high journalistic standards and consistently rank at the top of trust and quality surveys—far above private media. Their core audiences tend to be middle-aged, college-educated, and politically moderate, including many conservatives.

You can disagree with them, but that doesn’t make them biased.

When Trump talks about “bias,” he just means unfavorable reporting about and criticism of himself. In a democracy, opposing voices are normal. They don’t need to be “corrected,” and certainly not silenced. In fact, public broadcasters go out of their way to report real events and present opposing views. Their job is to lay out unfiltered facts and let the public decide. That’s the gold standard of journalism.

Defunding public media isn’t about eliminating bias. It’s about eliminating dissent. When a president calls it “correcting bias” while gutting any outlet that critiques him, that’s not fighting prejudice—that’s manufacturing it, amplifying it, and silencing all but the flattering voices.

3. “Protecting Press Freedom”

This excuse is so absurd it crosses into dark comedy. Trump claims he’s protecting press freedom—by destroying a cornerstone of it. Public media is press freedom in action: it’s independent, ad-free, and brave enough to say what power doesn’t want to hear. True press freedom means pluralism—not wiping out critical voices to leave only state-aligned praise machines.

Going after independent media is straight out of the authoritarian playbook. We’ve seen it in Russia. We’ve seen it in Hungary. And now, we’re seeing it in the U.S. Who does Trump think VOA and Radio Free Europe are working for—our enemies?

Even private giants like The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have bowed to Trump-era pressure, tampering with editorial independence. That leaves public broadcasting as one of the last untouched zones. And now Trump wants to bulldoze that too.

He hides behind the word “freedom”:

Criticize him? You’re “fake news.”
Don’t echo him? You’re “suppressing free speech.”
Shut down public media? That’s “freedom” “liberation”.

This isn’t freedom. It’s dictatorship wearing freedom’s clothes.

The Real Motive: Not About Budget—It’s About Silencing Voices

Why is Trump so obsessed with dismantling public broadcasting? He gives a hundred excuses, but it all comes down to one thing: public broadcasting refuses to bow to him.

Of course, he’s entitled to think that way—and his loyal enforcers, the MAGA crowd, will always come up with some noble-sounding pretense. That’s what Project 2025 is full of: high-minded excuses for low-minded power grabs.

Project 2025 is not only reactionary—it’s outright absurd. So absurd that Trump had to distance himself from it during the election. But once he returns to the White House, he implements it line by line.

Why? Because Trump has no real agenda of his own. He plagiarizes, freeloads, and improvises. He recycles slogans from others, swipes ready-made old policies, and makes up the rest on the fly. That’s not just deception—it’s intellectual bankruptcy. His only original talent is off-the-cuff nonsense. We’ll cover that in a future episode.

Now, let’s examine the MAGA excuses for gutting public broadcasting—and see what they reveal about Trump’s real intentions.

4. “Obsolete and Redundant”

Calling public broadcasting “obsolete” is like saying libraries should close because we have smartphones. Or AI makes human thinking unnecessary.

Public broadcasting is not redundant—it’s irreplaceable. Commercial media chases ad revenue. Social media spreads rumors. Only public broadcasting upholds news ethics, educational missions, and a commitment to the public good over profit.

In many parts of the world without press freedom, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Asia are the only reliable sources of information. In rural and low-income areas across the U.S., PBS and NPR are the only sources for education and news.

The real redundancy is not media with different voices — it’s media in the same echo chamber. You can say right-wing media are plentiful and repetitive. But calling an independent outlet “redundant” just because it doesn’t speak your language? That’s authoritarian logic.

And what’s truly obsolete is not PBS or NPR—they’ve long gone digital, launched podcasts, and embraced YouTube. They’re way ahead of Trump’s Truth Social circus.

What’s obsolete is the anti-intellectual excuse that any institution not under direct political control is “past its prime.” Public broadcasting isn’t outdated—it’s inconvenient for autocrats.

Saying it’s “obsolete” is really just saying it’s “disobedient.” It dares to report the facts and criticize. It refuses to be controlled. That’s not reform—that’s censorship. That’s not cost-cutting—it’s voice-cutting.

And one more thing: when our enemies call something “enemy propaganda,” and you agree with them, what does that make you?

5. “Corrupt and Chaotic”

Alleging corruption requires evidence and due process, not Twitter rants.

If there were management issues, reform should be gradual and procedural. But that’s not what Trump does. His first term, he purged the VOA leadership. Now he shuts it down and inserts his own propaganda. That’s not cleaning the house—that’s political cleansing.

Trump treats professional appointments like reality TV casting. If someone he picked—Fed chair, FEMA chief, State or Defense officials—doesn’t toe the line, he smears them, fires them, and that’s it. No respect for governance, law, or stability.

He talks about "fixing chaos," but he is the chaos.

He hides his desire for total control behind petty accusations and bureaucratic complaints. But the aim is clear: to erase dissent, monopolize speech, and fill every channel with nothing but his own voice.

That’s the real fight between Trump and public broadcasting: not about money, tech, or management. It’s about values. Independence vs. control. Ethics vs. obedience. Democracy vs. the cult of personality. One man’s control of public narrative versus an institution rooted in facts and law.

So here’s the question:

Will the Republican Party—and its voters—continue following a man whose only real policy is to silence anyone who won’t sing his tune?

Moral Isolation: Trump vs. the Conservative Tradition

To gut all public broadcasting—domestic and international—Trump has to bulldoze through multiple Republican firewalls: the party’s founding ideals, its institutional heritage, the GOP majorities in Congress, the courts (including the MAGA-stacked Supreme Court), and most critically—public opinion. Not just his own polling numbers, but how voters respond to GOP policies as a whole. A reckless power grab could cost him the midterms, the presidency, or even land him in court or prison.

Trump acts like he fears nothing—but his heart is full of fear, rage, and hatred. His PUA-style manipulation works only because it amplifies the fear, rage, and hatred inside his followers. It’s not leadership—it’s toxic resonance.

Now let’s dissect the real motives behind his talking points.

6. “Conservatism”

Trump is not a conservative—he’s just hijacking the conservative label.

Within the GOP, he fights the far-right one day and the Reagan old guard the next. His only consistent goal is to build a MAGA cult by wiping out traditional Republicans.

He is anti-progress, anti-tradition, anti-institution, and anti-culture—an ideological orphan who’s turned grievance into an identity. He has no stable beliefs. Everything is transactional—politics, business, the courts, the media—just tools for personal gain.

That includes public broadcasting. For him, it’s not a civic institution—it’s a bargaining chip.

True conservatism defends constitutional norms, protects national interests, and values institutional stability. Eisenhower supported public media. So did Reagan. Real conservatives never tried to destroy it—they saw it as part of the democratic system, not an enemy organ.

Trump’s crusade to kill PBS, NPR, VOA, and RFE is not conservative—it’s destructive.

In fact, these public broadcasters are more conservative than Trump. They report facts, respect ethics, and steer clear of clickbait and conspiracy. They don’t stoke chaos for ratings. That’s more than you can say for certain right-wing media darlings.

Federalism means small government, not no government. Conservative philosophy favors “limited government,” not no government or privatized government. Smart investments in education, culture, and public information are not ideological threats—they’re signs of a functioning society.

Trump cloaks his purge in “conservative” rhetoric, but it’s a radical purge dressed in traditional garb. He labels every dissenting voice “anti-Trump,” “corrupt,” “rotten”—as if disagreement itself were treason.

Through the lens of extreme narcissism, everything makes sense:

First destroy, then dominate.
What isn’t useful must be broken.
What isn’t obedient must be silenced.

He used to rely on Twitter and Fox News. Now he thinks he can seize public broadcasting too. This is the grand delusion of Trumpism: the idea that all public goods must become his personal assets.

But public broadcasting isn’t state media. It doesn’t do propaganda. And it sure as hell won’t become Trump TV.

If it loses independence, all media do. If it becomes a political tool, all others become mere commercial mouthpieces.

Who’s left to do real journalism?

7. “Public Support”

Trump’s blitzkrieg against public broadcasting didn’t ask Congress, didn’t ask the public. Like all populist strongmen, he wraps extreme selfishness in the banner of “the people.” But his first hundred days have already sparked widespread backlash.

With help from Musk and his “Department of Government Efficiency” (yes, DOGE), Trump launched a global tariff war, gutted university research budgets, and dismantled key federal programs. The public response? Furious. The polls? Cratering.

Just this week:

56% of Americans oppose university funding cuts;
60% support federal research grants — AP-NORC
64% reject Trump’s tariff policy as inflationary — WaPo/ABC
In Tennessee: 94% oppose Social Security cuts, 97% oppose Medicare cuts — Axios
In Georgia: 55% oppose Trump’s executive orders, including tariffs, immigration, Musk, DOGE, DEI, and NATO withdrawals — Atlanta Journal.

Trump’s policy support is collapsing—even among voters who voted for him. They see through it. They’ve run out of patience.

Public broadcasting won’t be a stealth kill. Just like Social Security and Medicare, if Trump dares to slash it, voters will roar back—and the GOP will be forced to speak up.

The only question is: How far will this collision go?

Public Broadcasting? Or Trump’s Propaganda Machine?

Slashing and burning everything in sight was never part of the traditional Republican agenda. Classic conservatism valued balanced budgets and reducing national debt. The problem is: every Republican president in recent decades has expanded both deficits and debt. It’s the Democrats who have historically brought in revenue, cut deficits, created jobs, and driven growth.

President Johnson balanced the budget once, Clinton three times — and at one point, the U.S. was even on track to pay off the entire national debt.

Trump, by contrast, has had the worst fiscal record of any modern president. Twice he inherited a healthy economy — and twice he drove it into fiscal chaos. His attacks on federal agencies weren’t about saving money, but dismantling basic functions. It wasn’t about streamlining — it was sabotage.

Previous Republicans have indeed cut spending, including funds for public broadcasting. Reagan, Bush, even Gingrich made austerity part of their pitch. But there’s a difference. Their cuts were policy. Trump’s cuts are personal. As the Godfather quote goes: “It’s business — but he takes it personally.” When Trump’s offended, everyone pays: the FBI, CIA, military, NASA, science foundations, private and public media. He doesn’t care about results — he just wants fire.

Look at the budget numbers for CPB and USAGM across the 21st century: while absolute dollars have ticked up slightly, public media’s share of the total federal budget has steadily declined (See figures in video). This tells us three things:

Maintaining public broadcasting has bipartisan support.
Across 25 years of every political configuration imaginable, no coalition has succeeded in defunding it.
Funding levels remain stable, share in total budgets drastically coming down — there's no evidence of runaway spending.

Polls consistently show that most Americans oppose cuts to public services, especially in education, broadcasting, research, and healthcare. People want reform, not ideological purges. This kind of scorched-earth agenda is unpopular and dangerous.

So why does Trump still push it?

Simple: Trump can’t stand what he can’t control. And what he can’t control, he tries to destroy. His hostility toward public broadcasting is rooted in his inability to co-opt it. If it won’t praise him, he wants to kill it. It’s not governance — it’s a tantrum. His mindset resembles the “scorched-earth” deeds of a collapsing dictator: if I can’t have it, burn it all.

He has no new ideas. Only recycled rage. He’s unlikely to succeed, for obvious reasons:

His excuses are flimsy — “outdated,” “biased,” “wasteful” — they don’t hold up to scrutiny;
He lacks the authority — public broadcasting is funded by Congress, not the White House.
There are constitutional risks — silencing the press violates the First Amendment.
Even Republicans will balk — many GOP lawmakers come from rural areas where PBS and NPR are lifelines. Cut them off, and voters revolt.

It’s the same pattern we saw with Biden’s infrastructure bill: Republicans complained about spending, then raced to claim credit when the money rolled in. And Obamacare.

At the end of the day, this has nothing to do with making media better — it’s about making media shut up. Like his plan to eliminate the Department of Education or slash university research funding, it’s petty, reckless, and ultimately self-destructive.

Trump doesn’t just want to defund PBS or VOA — he wants to replace them. Turn VOA into “VOT” — Voice of Trump. Turn PBS into “TBS” — Trump Broadcasting Service. This isn’t reform. It’s hijacking. It’s political extortion. It’s a desperate power grab.

Only by silencing real journalism — and real integrity — can Trump feel secure.

So: Are his arguments logical? Are his motives noble?

If you have a take, speak up. If this made sense to you, share it — help others see the bigger picture. Till next time.

XindomUSA’s Substack

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