WASHINGTON — Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has made $1.1 billion in cuts to public broadcasting, including PBS and NPR, and has further attacked the free press by filing a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, according to an article by the ACLU.
With these cuts, the ACLU says the Trump administration is “mounting a historic assault on independent journalism and press freedom.”
The ACLU writes that it filed an amicus brief in NPR v. Trump, which challenges the constitutionality of Trump’s executive order banning the use of congressionally appropriated funding to support NPR and PBS. In his order, Trump alleges that the networks failed to report in a “fair, accurate, or unbiased” manner—an executive order the ACLU argues clearly violates the First Amendment.
“Government officials should not be able to withhold taxpayer dollars, designated by Congress to promote private speech, from news outlets whose coverage they disapprove,” writes the ACLU.
The ACLU also warns that defunding NPR and PBS could leave many communities across the U.S. without access to news or educational content.
In its article, the ACLU maintains that while these kinds of attacks on the press are unprecedented, they are not unexpected from Trump, who has been hostile toward the press since he first took office in 2016.
“From banning The Associated Press from the White House press pool to suing media companies over their reporting, Trump’s personal and official track record with the media has proven that his administration is willing to dismantle our free press and violate the Constitution,” the ACLU says.
In addition to attacking public media like NPR and PBS, Trump has targeted other media outlets that cover federal affairs at the White House and the Pentagon, according to the ACLU. In February, the ACLU writes, Trump banned The Associated Press from the White House press pool following the outlet’s refusal to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
According to the ACLU, a federal judge declared Trump’s banning of The Associated Press an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment and ordered the administration to restore access to the outlet. However, the ACLU emphasizes, the federal judge’s decision was delayed by the D.C. Circuit Court.
The ACLU argues that the administration “has broken from centuries of precedent by restricting press coverage,” stripping the White House Correspondents’ Association of its more than a century-long management of the White House’s press pool. This means the White House has full control over which outlets and reporters reside in its press pool, says the ACLU.
The ACLU reports that the administration has also restricted media presence at the Pentagon, where the “longstanding” offices of legacy outlets like The New York Times, Politico and NPR were removed in favor of more conservative-leaning outlets.
Trump has also levied attacks against independent journalism like The Wall Street Journal, filing a lawsuit against the outlet after it published a story concerning a 2003 letter Trump had sent to Jeffrey Epstein on his birthday, the ACLU writes. Trump denied writing the letter, calling The Wall Street Journal report “false, malicious, defamatory, FAKE NEWS” on Truth Social, according to the ACLU.
In addition to The Wall Street Journal, the ACLU says Trump has sued a variety of other outlets, including Paramount and CBS over “60 Minutes” coverage of former Vice President Kamala Harris for the 2024 presidential election. He also reached a $15 million settlement with ABC News over a misquotation by George Stephanopoulos and threatened to sue The New York Times and CNN for their coverage of the U.S. airstrike on Iran, writes the ACLU.
According to the ACLU, Trump’s lawsuits did not stop at major media outlets, but spread to smaller, local organizations. In December 2024, he sued the Des Moines Register and Ann Selzer, an Iowa pollster, over a poll that predicted former Vice President Harris would win the 2024 election, says the ACLU. Trump accused the poll of being a “fraud” and “brazen election interference.”
“For smaller outlets with fewer resources, these actions raise concerns about the president’s willingness to sue over any unflattering news coverage,” warns the ACLU.
The ACLU argues the Trump administration has “weaponized” the FCC and its investigative powers. This comes as Trump appointed Project 2025 author Brendan Carr as head of the FCC, which regulates communications nationwide.
“Since Carr became chair, the FCC has opened baseless investigations into several media outlets that the president and his administration don’t like, including ABC, NBC, CBS, and local news outlets,” reports the ACLU.
The ACLU says various outlets under investigation by the FCC have made “troubling concessions” in their content and reporting in order to “obtain favorable business outcomes.”
According to the ACLU, “it’s no coincidence” that the FCC opened an investigation into CBS’ “60 Minutes” after Trump had already sued the program. In order to obtain FCC approval for a merger, the ACLU writes that CBS’ parent company, Paramount, made multiple concessions to the Trump administration, including its $16 million settlement with Trump and an announcement that the company would “pull back” on efforts for diversity, equity and inclusion.
After Paramount made these concessions to the administration, the ACLU says the FCC approved the merger and forced more concessions, like hiring a bias monitor at CBS. Verizon and T-Mobile made similar concessions in exchange for FCC approval for their mergers, the ACLU reports.
The ACLU emphasizes the role of press protections, like the right to report without fear of government interference, as integral to the First Amendment.
Regarding pending cases, the ACLU maintains its support for the free press, concluding, “The ACLU is committed to fighting for reporters’ right to hold those in power accountable.”
The federal government should not be funding news and stations that cater solely to Democrats.