On Tuesday during a White House press pool Q&A ahead of a meeting with prospective U.S. Ambassadors, President Donald Trump gave his support to the House Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Subcommittee as it prepares to hold a hearing Wednesday with the heads of taxpayer-funded National Public Radio (NPR) and PBS, adding “I’d be honored” if he were the president to finally defund the far-left media outlets.
Real America’s Voice White House correspondent Brian Glenn asked the question, first acknowledging “[t]he subcommittee on DOGE is going to review funding for NPR and PBS” and acknowledged it’s been a frequent Republican policy promise.
“[I]f they’re successful — I know Senator [John] Kennedy has backed it, Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress has backed it, would you be interested in defunding and taking away taxpayer dollars to NPR and PBS,” he wondered.
Trump didn’t hesitate in declaring he “would love to do that” as continuing to fund these “very biased” outlets has been “very unfair.”
The President used the swarm of journalists gathered in the Roosevelt Room to illustrate his point about how the thought behind funding NPR and PBS is from a bygone era: “[T]here’s plenty of — look at all the media you have right now. There’s plenty of coverage. I was from a different age, and they spent more money than any other network of its type ever conceived, so the kind of money that’s being wasted and it’s a very biased view. You know that better than anybody[.]”
Adding he would “be honored to see it end,” Trump doubled down on the sheer number of outlets at the White House as proof he’s “well covered.”
Thus, he argued, continuing to give tax dollars to the two is “a waste of money” and thus couldn’t “imagine” the DOGE Subcommittee would recommend against defunding NPR and PBS since DOGE itself has already “found so much waste, fraud and abuse — hundreds of billions of dollars and just waste, fraud, abuse.”
>>Sign the petition to help us defund PBS and NPR at DefundPBSNPR.org.<<
To see the relevant transcript from March 25, click “expand.”
White House pool footage [via Newsmax’s American Agenda]
March 25, 2025
2:56 p.m. EasternBRIAN GLENN: The subcommittee on DOGE is going to review funding for NPR and PBS Now, every Republican president has always promised to take away this money that’s going to these two public news outlets. If this — if they’re successful — I know Senator Kennedy has backed it, Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress has backed it, would you be interested in defunding and taking away taxpayer dollars to NPR and PBS?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, I would love to do that. I think it’s very unfair. It’s been very biased. The whole group, I mean, a whole group of them and frankly, there’s plenty of — look at all the media you have right now. There’s plenty of coverage. I was from a different age, and they spent more money than any other network of its type ever conceived, so the kind of money that’s being wasted and it’s a very biased view. You know that better than anybody and I’d be honored to see it end. We’re well covered. Look at all the people that we have here today. We’re well covered and we don’t need it and it’s a waste of money especially. I don’t even know what DOGE’s recommendation is. I assume their recommendation is to close them up.
GLENN: Well, after they hear all the testimony, I think they’re going to make a decision relatively sooner than later.
TRUMP: Yeah.
GLENN: But we’ll see what that turns out.
TRUMP: Yeah. I can’t imagine — I can’t imagine that they wouldn’t because they have found so much waste, fraud and abuse, hundreds of billions of dollars and just waste, fraud, abuse.
