NPR CEO rips Trump order to defund as ‘retaliation,’ insists media outlet is 'non-partisan'

NPR CEO Katherine Maher assured PBS on Wednesday that her outlet is "non-partisan" following President Donald Trump’s latest executive order seeking to defund the station. 

In an interview on "PBS NewsHour," the NPR boss trashed Trump’s executive order to "cease Federal funding for NPR," calling it "viewpoint discrimination" and saying that Trump is just taking it out on NPR because it goes against his views. 

"And so, it is a textbook example of viewpoint discrimination from a First Amendment standpoint," she said, adding, "Essentially, by blocking funding to NPR and PBS, it is a form of retaliation against our organizations for airing editorial programming that the president might disagree with."

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Trump signed the order earlier this month which mandated that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies stop funding NPR and other public media outlets like PBS. 

The text of the order read, "NPR and PBS have fueled partisanship and left-wing propaganda with taxpayer dollars, which is highly inappropriate and an improper use of taxpayers’ money, as President Trump has stated."

Maher’s outlet, joined by three public Colorado stations — Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio and KSUT — filed a lawsuit against the order in federal court on Tuesday. In a statement, the NPR CEO said, "The Executive Order is a clear violation of the Constitution and the First Amendment's protections for freedom of speech and association, and freedom of the press."

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During the PBS interview on Wednesday, Maher suggested that Trump’s executive order violated "safeguards" established by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 that keep "public media independent from government influence."

PBS has not joined NPR’s suit but said it is weighing legal options, among others. 

"PBS is considering every option, including taking legal action, to allow our organization to continue to provide essential programming and services to member stations and all Americans," PBS spokesman Jeremy Gaines said earlier this week.

PBS NewsHour anchor Geoff Bennett asked Maher about accusations that NPR promotes a liberal bias, bringing up Republicans’ claims, as well as those of former NPR editor Uri Berliner. 

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Berliner, who quit NPR in 2024, blew the whistle on the outlet in an essay for The Free Press that same year, slamming NPR for its "absence of viewpoint diversity."

Maher responded to the critiques, declaring, "Well, first of all, I respond by saying we’re a non-partisan news organization. We seek to be able to provide a range of different viewpoints in terms of who we bring on air, the stories that we tell."

"My view is that is a mischaracterization of our work. We do not seek to favor any political party at all. We seek to ensure that Americans have a wide range of perspectives available to them," she added. 

In response to Maher's comments, a White House spokesperson told Fox News Digital: 

"The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers’ dime. Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS. The President was elected with a mandate to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and he will continue to use his lawful authority to achieve that objective."