Trump sues to oust US public broadcasting board members
In a complaint filed in federal court in Washington, the US Justice Department said Trump lawfully fired the three board members - Laura Ross, Diane Kaplan and Tom Rothman — and requested a court order ousting them.
The lawsuit is the latest twist in a larger fight between the CPB, which spends more than $US500 million annually on organisations like the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio, and the Trump administration.
The White House and many Republicans have argued that the government should not provide funding to support programming that they consider too liberal.
The CPB did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment from the organisation and from the board members.
Created by the US Congress in 1967, the CPB provides financial support for PBS, NPR, and more than 1500 locally managed public radio and TV stations.
A Trump executive order from May aimed to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR, which have called the move blatantly unlawful.
The CPB's directors are nominated by the US president and confirmed by the Senate for six-year terms. The five current members of the board were all nominated by former president Joe Biden.
White House Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel Trent Morse sent emails to Rothman, Ross, and Kaplan in April saying they had been terminated from their posts.
The CPB responded by filing its own lawsuit, saying that "because the president has no authority over the CPB, he has no authority to terminate its board members as he has purported to do here."
US District Judge Randolph Moss, who is hearing that case, ruled last month that the three board members can keep their seats, even as he denied the CPB an injunction blocking Trump from removing them.
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ABC News
30 minutes ago
- ABC News
Can Trump sack his way to better jobs data?
Sam Hawley: Donald Trump didn't like the numbers, so he sacked the messenger. So what are the implications of the US President's decision to get rid of the nation's chief statistician who dared to release revised job figures? Today's staff writer at The Atlantic, Tom Nichols, on the sledgehammer Trump is taking to democracy. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Sam Hawley: Tom, we know that Donald Trump has trouble dealing with the facts, but wow, he really has gone a step further this time, hasn't he? Tom Nichols: Yeah, although I think that this is more of a warning to the next person rather than Trump really believing that the facts are wrong. I think he is lashing out because he's angry and by firing this person, he's trying to send up a flare that says, from now on, give me the numbers that I prefer. Sam Hawley: Oh, yes, all right. So last week, these new job figures came out and they weren't fantastic. Trump didn't obviously like them, so he sacks the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, because he says her numbers are wrong. Donald Trump, US President: I think her numbers were wrong, just like I thought her numbers were wrong before the election. Days before the election, she came out with these beautiful numbers for Kamala. Tom Nichols: Well, he was very happy with those numbers earlier in his term when they were reflecting job growth. What happened, of course, is that the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which does a lot of this work by reporting, by self-reporting from American companies, has to do revisions as they get more information coming in from those companies over time. And ever since the pandemic, those companies have been a bit slower about reporting and kind of getting that data together to get it to the Labor Department. So, of course, every so often, BLS comes out and says, OK, now we're going to revise the jobs report that we put out. And Trump decided that revising the jobs numbers downward, that this was some kind of act of political sabotage. Donald Trump, US President: We're doing so well. I believe the numbers were phony, just like they were before the election. And there were other times. So you know what I did? I fired her. And you know what? I did the right thing. Tom Nichols: Now, again, whether he really believes that after glorifying the good numbers that he got is, I think, questionable. And so he's doing the thing that he likes to do as a former business owner, which is firing people who annoy him. And the quickest way to annoy him is to give him bad news. Sam Hawley: And others in the White House are also now trying to explain this sacking, aren't they? Like Kevin Hassett, who's Trump's economic adviser. He was on Fox News echoing Trump's doubts about the job figures. Kevin Hassett, Director of the National Economic Council: If I were running the BLS and I had the biggest downward revision in 50 years, I would have a really, really detailed report explaining why it happened so that everybody really trusted the data. And so I think what we need is a fresh set of eyes at the BLS. Somebody who can clean this thing up. Sam Hawley: Alright, well, Trump's accusing her of being a Biden stooge. Tom Nichols: Yeah. Sam Hawley: I mean, she's not, obviously. Tom Nichols: Yeah. I mean, these are career, you know, civil servants in the American system. At a certain level of seniority, you have to be nominated by the president, who is the head of the executive branch, and then confirmed by the Senate. And this woman was confirmed overwhelmingly in the Senate, including by two US senators whose names happen to be Marco Rubio and JD Vance, who, of course, are now the secretary of state and the vice president. So there was no issue with her being some sort of political stooge. It's pretty hard to find lifelong statisticians who are also political stooges hiding in the American bureaucracy. Sam Hawley: Wow. OK. Because these revised figures, which showed that job growth wasn't what Donald Trump wanted it to be, it doesn't fit with his narrative, I assume, especially as he rolls out these global tariffs. Tom Nichols: Right. You know, Trump creates his own reality. When reality collides with his promises, he says that the reality is fake. The numbers are fake. The reports are fake. The news is fake. People are out to get me. Everything is rigged. And there's a real danger here, because it's not just the president, you know, being annoyed by these numbers. If you undermine the stability and trustworthiness of BLS, of the statistical organisation, businesses across America count on these numbers, as do foreign governments. So basically, Donald Trump is saying, I don't like bad news, so I'm going to basically blind us about what's actually going on at any given moment in the American economy, which suits him just fine, because he will tell his own story about it. But for the rest of us, it's quite dangerous. Sam Hawley: All right, so Tom, let's look further then into what else Donald Trump has been doing when it comes to the American bureaucracy and, of course, truth and facts. We always knew he wanted to get rid of anyone who was critical of his thinking, right? That was part of so-called Project 2025. Just remind me about that. Tom Nichols: Well, Project 2025, it never mentions Donald Trump. It was meant to be a handbook for the next Republican president. Now, of course, they knew that the next Republican president would be Donald Trump. And so this was a document produced at the Heritage Foundation that had an overarching scheme for essentially destroying entire pieces of the American government and its bureaucratic infrastructure. Of course, people always think that sounds good, because who likes the word bureaucracy, right? I mean, you think of bureaucracy and you think about the Department of Motor Vehicles or trying to get your license renewed or something. But here in the United States, as in every developed country, bureaucracy is how the mail gets delivered. It's how labour statistics get compiled and so on. What they really wanted to do, and this is at the heart of a lot of Project 2025, is to get rid of the apolitical servants in the bureaucracy and replace them with Republican conservative political loyalists. And specifically people, of course, by extension, who are going to be loyal to Donald Trump, which then makes the idea of an apolitical administration of a gigantic country of 350 million people impossible, because it's a return to cronyism and political hackery. But that's exactly what the project aims for in what they would call reforming the bureaucracy. Sam Hawley: So tell me, who else has the president deemed to be standing in his way? Who else has he been after? I know, Tom, the list is long, so you might just want to mention the highlights. Tom Nichols: The Department of Justice, which he is hollowing out and destroying piece by piece. The Department of Defense, which is now in the hands of a talk show host. Those are the two big ones that really could have been a problem. That along with, again, an apolitical civil service that says, well, we can't actually break the law. You know, we can't actually engage in politics in the office. But Trump is pushing to destroy all of those regulations. And he's mostly there. I mean, he has the Department of Justice. What he doesn't have are America's judges, who he's trying, of course, to replace through appointments. But even some of his own appointees are fighting him. And so now the Trump administration is really encouraging threats against American judges. I mean, we are really, you know, in the American judiciary is in the fight of its life here to maintain its independence. Unfortunately, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court has decided that Donald Trump is a king and can do whatever he wants. You know, we're in a pretty dicey situation here in the United States. Sam Hawley: And federal scientists too, right? That's really concerning. Tom Nichols: Oh, absolutely. I mean, climate scientists, you know, virologists, epidemiologists. If you had said to me five years ago that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would be running the Department of Health and Human Services, I would have said that it's a comedy skit on Saturday Night Live. And I wouldn't have believed you. Authoritarian leaders don't like experts. Experts are the people who say, look, you can yell at me and threaten me all day long, but, you know, water is still wet and the sky is still blue. And, you know, people are going to die because of this. I mean, there is going to be real harm to the health and well-being of a lot of Americans because of this kookery that's infested the government now. And again, firing all those civil servants, firing all those government scientists and replacing them with people who want, you know, jobs and nice offices is an important step in that. Sam Hawley: Yeah. And not only sacking people, Tom, I also read that he's trying to change history, rewriting historical documents. Tom Nichols: Well, he was very upset that the Smithsonian Institution had an exhibit about impeachment that included him. And that was taken out. Now, apparently, because of the outcry around that, that he is going to be put back in there, whether he likes it or not, which tells you that if people get angry enough and they make enough noise that, you know, you can have some effect here. Yeah, Trump simply reorders reality whenever he speaks to his liking. And again, he may well know, I mean, at this point, it's so difficult to know what Trump believes and what he imagines or what he confabulates. But he knows that he's speaking to his loyal base. And that base right now is pretty angry with him about the whole Jeffrey Epstein business, which is a whole other drama here in America. So he's trying to throw them all kinds of red meat as fast as he can to try and get their minds off the fact that he didn't fulfill his promise to release all these files about one of his best friends. Sam Hawley: All right, well, Tom, Donald Trump, he's restructuring the bureaucracy to suit his view of the world. Project 2025 was, in essence, a wish list of ways to expand presidential power, if you like. So is that happening in your view? Is Trump becoming more powerful? Tom Nichols: It's hard to say. The best barometer of whether the Republicans and Donald Trump are stronger or weaker is this obvious panic that has overtaken them about losing the House next year. Is he personally more powerful? I don't think so. I think he was probably at the height of his power when he came into office and in those first few months. But there have been so many screw ups and misfires and stumbles that I think, you know, if there was any kind of second term honeymoon, he's mostly squandered that away. And so I think he's still the president of the United States and he is still a force to be reckoned with. But I don't think he's looking quite as powerful as he was even, you know, two or three months ago. Which is not to underestimate him. Because he will do things that other presidents would not. Strangely enough, this Epstein business is the thing that's probably hurt him more than anything. I think he's really worried about his base turning on him. And the only time they've even threatened to turn on him has been over this Epstein business. Sam Hawley: Yeah, interesting. All right. Well, the concern for a long time, of course, has been that Trump will chip away at democracy and democratic norms over his four year term, which is rather long. How much damage could he actually do in that time? Tom Nichols: Oh, he's not chipping away at it. He's jackhammering away at it. The chipping away was in his first term, but that was held in check by people around him who would say things like, Mr. President, you can't do that. Or even more importantly, they would say, Mr. President, I'm not doing that. He learned from that. He has come into office with a bunch of careerists and opportunists and sycophants who are going to do whatever he tells them to do. He's calling for an investigation, for example, into Jack Smith, the special counsel who was looking into his various misdeeds in his first term. And the lawyer who will be the head of that office is a 30 year old guy who got his law degree last year. And he'll do whatever Trump wants him to do. Sam Hawley: Well, Tom, I don't want to be overdramatic, but could he actually succeed then in destroying or at least deeply wounding American democracy? Tom Nichols: Destroying, probably not. One of the strengths of the United States is that we are a sprawling, vast federal system. Donald Trump can say a lot of things, but, you know, New York and California and Illinois and Massachusetts all have their own governors and legislatures. What he can do is encourage the collapse of democracy in pockets. It's one thing to live in Boston. It's another thing to live in Alabama or Louisiana or Mississippi or Texas, where the governor and the legislature are straight up aligned with the president and have decided that if he doesn't like the way the Constitution is written, then they don't like it either. And so I've said in the past, I don't think American democracy collapses from coast to coast. I think it evaporates in pockets. That's where I think the real threats are going to come, is in this kind of cooperation with individual states and governors and legislatures. Sam Hawley: Tom Nichols is a staff writer at The Atlantic. This episode was produced by Sydney Pead. Audio production by Sam Dunn. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley. ABC News Daily will be back again on Monday. Thanks for listening.
News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
Trump demands new US census as redistricting war spreads
US President Donald Trump on Thursday ordered officials to work on a new census excluding undocumented immigrants, as the White House presses Republican states to draw more favorable voter maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Trump called for a "new and highly accurate" census that he wanted based on unspecified "modern day facts and figures" gleaned from the 2024 election. "People who are in our Country illegally WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS," he said in the social media post. The US Constitution since 1790 has required a census every 10 years that counts the "whole number of persons in each state" -- including people in the country illegally. The next one is not due until 2030, although preparations for the enormous task are already underway. Trump did not make clear if he was referring to the regularly scheduled population count or a special survey undertaken earlier. The census is used to determine how many members of Congress are elected from each state, and the Pew Research Center estimates that ignoring unauthorized migrants in 2020 would have deprived California, Florida and Texas of one House seat each. It is also used for apportioning votes in the state-by-state "electoral college" that decides presidential elections and for allocating trillions of dollars in federal funding. Trump attempted similar moves in his first term, including the addition of a citizenship question to the census, but was blocked by the Supreme Court. The court declined to rule on whether the millions of people in the country without legal status should be excluded. Trump's call for a new census comes with state-level lawmakers and officials in Texas locking horns over a new electoral map that would likely net Republicans up to five extra House seats in 2026. - Threats to lawmakers - More than 50 Texas Democratic lawmakers have fled to multiple Democratic states in an effort to block the passage of the proposed blueprint during a special legislative session. Texas Republicans have threatened to arrest them, and US Senator John Cornyn announced he had successfully petitioned the FBI to help state and local law enforcement locate them. Republican governors in several other states are exploring new maps in a bid to protect the party's razor-thin majority in the House, which would flip next year with three Democratic gains. Vice President JD Vance was scheduled to visit Indiana on Thursday to discuss redistricting with Governor Mike Braun and press local Republicans to eke out another seat for the party. Politico reported that Republicans could draw as many as 10 new seats ahead of the midterms and are targeting Ohio, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. But some Republicans have warned that opening a Pandora's box of mid-cycle partisan redistricting -- known as "gerrymandering" -- risks making conservative lawmakers an endangered species in liberal states Republican congressman Kevin Kiley, whose seat would likely disappear under a retaliatory gerrymandering in California, has introduced a bill to block all mid-decade redistricting. In Indiana, Braun said any redistricting conversation would be "exploratory," as the state's maps were drawn fairly in 2021, Indianapolis public broadcaster WFYI reported. "We tried to adhere to township lines and the configurations don't look like an octopus," Braun said, according to the TV and radio network. Democrats have vowed to retaliate with their own proposals, possibly in New York and California, the country's largest states. Texas legislators were evacuated from their suburban Chicago hotel on Wednesday morning following an unspecified threat. State representative John Bucy told NBC News the group had spent two hours outside the building but had not been diverted from pursuing their "fight for voting rights." Democratic Illinois Governor JB Pritzker authorized state police to guard the group.
9 News
3 hours ago
- 9 News
Former Superman actor says he's joining ICE, backs Trump's immigration crackdown
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here The comic book hero that Cain portrayed in the 1990s television show Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman might have been an immigrant himself, but it seems the actor has a more hardline view on foreign arrivals to the United States . In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Cain revealed that he decided to join the agency after sharing one of ICE's recruitment videos on social media the day before. Dean Cain revealed in an interview with Fox News that he decided to join ICE after sharing one of their recruitment videos on social media. (Fox News) "I'm actually … a sworn deputy sheriff and a reserve police officer – I wasn't part of ICE, but once I put that (the recruitment video) out there and you put a little blurb on your show, it went crazy," Cain told Fox News host Jesse Watters. "So now I've spoken with some officials over at ICE and I will be sworn in as an ICE agent ASAP." Asked what motivated the move, Cain, who is a well known conservative in Hollywood, said: "This country was built on patriots stepping up, whether it was popular or not, and doing the right thing. I truly believe this is the right thing." Cain described the US's immigration system as "broken," saying, "Congress needs to fix it, but in the interim, President Trump ran on this. He is delivering on this. This is what people voted for. It's what I voted for and he's going to see it through, and I'll do my part and help make sure it happens." Cain's public pledge to join ICE comes amid a significant acceleration in immigration enforcement, as the Trump administration is apprehending hundreds of immigrants every day across the country. Dean Cain portrayed in the 1990s television show "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman." (Warner Bros Tv/Kobal/Shutterstock) Cain has revealed that he's joining the ranks of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. (Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images) But a CNN analysis of agency data revealed a stark split in where ICE makes those arrests in blue states and red states. In states that voted for Trump, ICE agents are most likely to arrest immigrants directly from prisons and jails. By contract, in Democratic-leaning states ICE is frequently arresting immigrants from worksites, streets and mass roundups that have sparked protests and intense backlash in cities such as Los Angeles. Most of those arrested don't have a criminal record. Overall, ICE is making more arrests in red states than blue states – both in the community and, especially, in prisons and jails – the ICE data shows. World USA Donald Trump celebrity Politics immigration CONTACT US
