President Donald Trump is flexing his power and his party to force through nearly $9.4 billion in spending cuts — targeting public broadcasting and foreign aid — just as the Senate races against a Friday deadline.
The House has already greenlit the package by a razor-thin 214-212 vote. Now the Senate is under pressure. Trump is using a rarely tapped tool called a rescission request, which freezes funding for 45 days unless Congress acts.
At stake is $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, jeopardizing more than 1,500 local stations, many of them tribal and rural; and $8.3 billion in humanitarian aid — slashing programs like the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), credited with saving 26 million lives from HIV/AIDS.
Even Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mike Rounds of South Dakota are raising alarms over what this could mean for their Native and rural communities.
But Trump’s message to GOP lawmakers is blunt: Defund PBS and NPR or lose my endorsement.
