WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aiming to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR as he alleged “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting.

The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies “to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS” and further requires that that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations. The White House, in a social media posting announcing the signing, said the outlets “receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as ‘news.’”

It’s the latest move by Trump and his administration to utilize federal powers to control or hamstring institutions whose actions or viewpoints he disagrees with. Since taking office, Trump has ousted leaders, placed staff on administrative leave and cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to artists, libraries, museums, theaters and others, through takeovers of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Trump has also pushed to withhold federal research and education funds from universities and punish law firms unless they agreed to eliminate diversity programs and other measures Trump has found objectionable.

The broadcasters get roughly half a billion dollars in public money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and have been preparing for the possibility of stiff cuts since Trump’s election, as Republicans have long complained about them.

Paula Kerger, PBS’ CEO and president, said in a statement last month that the Trump administration’s effort to rescind funding for public media would “disrupt the essential service PBS and local member stations provide to the American people.”

“There’s nothing more American than PBS, and our work is only possible because of the bipartisan support we have always received from Congress,” she said. “This public-private partnership allows us to help prepare millions of children for success in school and in life and also supports enriching and inspiring programs of the highest quality.”

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting sued Trump earlier this week over his move to fire three members of its five-person board, contending that the president was exceeding his authority and that the move would deprive the board of a quorum needed to conduct business.

Just two weeks ago, the White House said it would be asking Congress to rescind funding for the CPB as part of a $9.1 billion package of cuts. That package, however, which budget director Russell Vought said would likely be the first of several, has not yet been sent to Capitol Hill.

The move against PBS and NPR comes as his administration has been working to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which were designed to model independent news gathering globally in societies that restrict the press. Those efforts have faced pushback from federal courts, who have ruled in some cases that the Trump administration may have overstepped its authority in holding back funds appropriated to the outlets by Congress.

—Reporting by AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked an order for the Trump administration to return to work thousands of federal employees who were let go in mass firings aimed at dramatically downsizing the federal government.

The justices acted in the administration’s emergency appeal of a ruling by a federal judge in California ordering that 16,000 probationary employees be reinstated while a lawsuit plays out because their firings didn’t follow federal law.

The effect of the high court’s order will keep employees in six federal agencies on paid administrative leave for now. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson said they would have kept the judge’s order in place.

It’s the third time in less than a week that the justices have sided with the administration in its fight against federal judges whose orders have slowed President Donald Trump’s agenda. The court also paused an order restoring grants for teacher training and lifted an order that froze deportations under an 18th century wartime law.

But as with the earlier orders, the reach of Tuesday’s order may be limited. A second lawsuit, filed in Maryland, also resulted in an order blocking the firings at those same six agencies, plus roughly a dozen more. But that order only applies in the 19 states and the District of Columbia that sued the administration.

The Justice Department is separately appealing the Maryland order.

At least 24,000 probationary employees have been terminated since Trump took office, the lawsuits claim, though the government has not confirmed that number.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco ruled that the terminations were improperly directed by the Office of Personnel Management and its acting director. He ordered rehiring at the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury.

His order came in a lawsuit filed by a coalition of labor unions and nonprofit organizations that argued they’d be affected by the reduced manpower.

Alsup, who was nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton, expressed frustration with what he called the government’s attempt to sidestep laws and regulations by firing probationary workers with fewer legal protections.

He said he was appalled that employees were told they were being fired for poor performance despite receiving glowing evaluations just months earlier.

The administration has insisted that the agencies themselves directed the firings and they “have since decided to stand by those terminations,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court.

–Reporting by Mark Sherman, Associated Press.

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Huge numbers of Americans took to the streets over the weekend for so-called “Hands Off” protests. People were condemning the Trump administration and many of its policies, including cuts to the National Park Service and other public lands. 

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has reduced staff that oversees public lands by hundreds of people. A judge ordered those positions to be reinstated, but it’s unclear how many people have actually returned to work. The White House has vowed to fight those rulings. 

Advocates, meanwhile, are bracing for additional cuts. This upheaval has raised concerns about the health and survival of America’s public lands, from popular national parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone to national lakeshores like Michigan’s Sleeping Bear Dunes. 

Tom Ulrich was the deputy superintendent for Sleeping Bear Dunes for more than two decades before retiring in 2023. Ulrich joined The Metro to discuss the current challenges facing America’s public lands. 

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued an order last week, directing national parks to “remain open and accessible.” Burgum says that means there will be proper staffing, but not everyone is convinced this will happen. 

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

More stories from The Metro on Monday, April 7:

• Mallory McMorrow wants to bring a new generation to the US Senate
• Curbing the impulse to buy more stuff
• Political pressure is ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

President Donald Trump is attacking unions at the federal level in a way not seen since the Reagan administration.

Claiming it was in the interest of national security, Trump banned collective bargaining for employees at 18 federal agencies in an executive order issued last week. The move comes as Trump has cut pro-worker members of the National Labor Relations Board and replaced them with pro-business, anti-union lobbyists.

So what does all this mean for workers in the state of Michigan?

Ron Bieber is the president of the Michigan AFL-CIO. He told WDET that he’s seen this anti-union playbook before.

“If you remember, after 2010 the Republicans took total control of state government. They went after seniors and instituted a pension tax. They went after kids and attacked public education. They went after the working poor and gutted the Earned Income Tax Credit; went after workers and unions and passed Right to Work; and they did all that so they could give business and corporations and their wealthy friends a huge tax cut,” he said. “Working folks organized. We had each other’s back. We stood together and fought back together. We clawed our way back together, and then finally, in the last legislative session, we restored those workers rights.”

However, all that took time. Michigan Democrats didn’t have full control over the state legislature until after the 2022 election. So fighting back can take a while.

On whether Democrats are doing enough to push back against the Trump agenda:

“They’re pushing back. I mean, they’re in the minority,” he said. “…There’s only so many tools you can use when you’re in the minority.”

On whether he agrees with the United Auto Workers that tariffs on the auto industry are a good thing:

“(UAW President Shawn Fain) is fighting to bring back manufacturing and auto manufacturing back into the U.S. And I think that he’s on a good path, and that he’s going to push this through the end, and wherever he goes, trust me, we will have his back, and we will follow his lead, and we’ll support the way he wants to support, auto manufacturing.”

Bieber says the AFL-CIO has been out to several anti-Trump protests already — including a recent one at the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs medical center.

More protests are planned for this Saturday, April 5 and on May 1.

A few hundred people rallied outside a veterans hospital in Ann Arbor this weekend to protest federal cuts to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

President Donald Trump has announced plans to lay off staff, tried to void some federal union contracts, and is calling telehealth workers back into offices that may not have space for them.

State Representative Joe Tate (D-Detroit), a marine corps veteran, said he attended Saturday’s protest as someone who has relied on the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System himself. Tate said it makes him “sick” to see resources scaled back, warning that could bring dire consequences.

“You have these effects where you’re going to put people in the ground, veterans in the ground, if some of these veterans don’t get the services they need,” Tate said.

Read more: 10 year Marine Corps veteran terminated from Veterans Affairs in Ann Arbor

Tate and others at the protest frequently brought up threats to funding for the 2022 PACT Act, which aims to help veterans exposed to toxic chemicals via risks like burn pits or Agent Orange, as a top concern.

Earlier this month, Trump signed a spending bill that cuts money for the Act as part of a plan to avoid a government shutdown that some Senate Democrats also eventually backed.

Army veteran Justin Coates attended Saturday’s rally carrying an American flag and a megaphone. He said he slept next to a burn pit during his first tour of duty.

“We used to throw like lithium batteries into it and trash and human waste and stuff like that. I slept next to it night, and we used to joke about how we were all going to die of cancer in a few years. So, when the PACT Act was passed, that was great. We were all excited about that. I was able to get on the registry. I told all my friends about it, all the guys in my squad,” Coates said.

He worries what he and his fellow veterans went through will be forgotten. He said he’s lost more friends to suicide than combat.

“Hearing about the cuts to the veteran crisis line, hearing about veteran crisis-line operators having to operate from their cars or in open air cubicles or what have you, just seeing the absolute lack of care for veterans under the guise of increasing efficiency, it’s frankly insulting to everyone’s intelligence,” Coates said.

Read more: How will cuts to the VA and its services impact veterans?

Leadership at the VA, however, has vehemently denied the changes made will translate to cuts to veterans services. In a video response to concerns posted on February 13, VA Secretary Doug Collins dismissed stories about veterans benefits being cut as “hypotheticals” being circulated in the media.

“Reality is, veterans benefits aren’t getting cut,” Collins said. “In fact, we’re actually giving and improving services.”

Collins said the department is running more efficiently and clearing cases sooner.

Since posting that video, Collins has defended reported plans to let go 80,000 staff from the VA. That’s as the department works with billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Governmental Efficiency, or D.O.G.E.

A handful of union leaders and elected officials, including Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist, and U.S. Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-MI 12) and Debbie Dingell (D-MI 6) criticized the Trump Administrations’ decisions at Saturday’s rally.

Dingell said she fears veterans are getting caught up in a “meat cleaver” being taken to several departments. She said she worried about losing progress, noting both Democratic and Republican administrations have struggled to take care of soldiers after they serve.

“We have to honor our commitment and keep working to go forward. And when you see this many people understanding that we’ve got a moral responsibility (to those) who fought to keep us free, that’s what they’re out here for, fighting for those veterans,” Dingell said.

Michigan has around 479,000 veterans, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.