Dumber Every Day: Trump’s War on PBS, NPR, and the Educated Enemy

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By Justin Jest, Woyjo.com
Where Objectivity Yields to Journalistic Ornamentation

If knowledge is power, then Donald Trump just declared war on the Enlightenment. On May 1, 2025 — a date which shall reek of stupidity for decades — President Trump signed an executive order gutting federal funding to PBS and NPR. His reasoning? “Woke propaganda.” His goal? The Idiocracy at last.

In the grand tradition of fascist cosplay, he’s now waging battle against Big Bird, Ken Burns, and the last remaining bastions of journalistic sanity with the precision of a man launching nukes at a library.

Let’s not sugarcoat it: Trump isn’t trying to balance the budget — he’s trying to lobotomize the country.

Murdering Mister Rogers in Cold Blood

Through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS and NPR have received about half a billion dollars a year — chump change in Pentagon terms — to educate kids, inform voters, and occasionally remind Americans that facts exist.

But facts are dangerous in Trump’s America. They contradict him. They persist. They refuse to bend a knee and chant “U-S-A” while whitewashing history and jailing journalists. So, naturally, they had to go.

His executive order tells CPB and other agencies to cut off the spigot — not just direct funding, but even the indirect veins and capillaries of fiscal support. If Elmo’s retirement fund is linked to a 401(k) with a federal grant match? Torch it.

Because nothing says “Make America Great Again” like dragging Sesame Street into a back alley and leaving it bleeding next to NPR’s tote bags.

Public Media: Too Trusted to Survive

PBS isn’t just “media.” It’s the thing your grandma watches to learn about the Dust Bowl. It’s the network that gave us Frontline, NOVA, and The Civil War — actual, award-winning journalism and science coverage that doesn’t come with a side of brain worms.

But to Trump, it’s all enemy territory. Education, facts, reason — these are insurgents. The mind is the final battlefield.

And who needs Sesame Street when you’ve got Truth Social?

Waging War on Culture, Art, and Literacy

This PBS/NPR decapitation is just the latest skull on the spike. Trump has:

  • Fired board members at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, leaving it paralyzed
  • Declared jihad on the Kennedy Center, museums, libraries, and any place you might accidentally learn something
  • Pulled funding from universities that won’t kiss his gold-plated ring and dismantle diversity programs
  • Threatened law firms that hire too many women or brown people
  • Tried to defund international journalism agencies like Voice of America because they didn’t praise him enough

It’s not politics. It’s a slow-motion coup against consciousness.

Paula Kerger Tried to Warn Us

PBS President Paula Kerger — probably too polite to say “this is fascism with a spray tan” — instead issued a statement like the grown-up in a room full of drunken arsonists:

“There’s nothing more American than PBS.”

Except now, being American means believing that funding Elmo is a communist plot, and literacy is treason.

The Lawsuit Heard Round the Puppet Theater

CPB is suing Trump for firing board members without authority, claiming — shocker — that this was unconstitutional. Meanwhile, courts are still mopping up his other executive tantrums, where he yanked funding from agencies that Congress had already appropriated.

Because what is separation of powers, really, when you can just scream “witch hunt” and sign something in Sharpie?

So What’s the Real Endgame Here?

It’s not just about PBS. It’s about controlling reality.

Cutting off NPR means fewer people hear real news. Defunding PBS means fewer kids learn critical thinking. Crushing Voice of America means authoritarian regimes get to say, “See? Even America kills independent press.”

In short, Trump’s endgame is simple: A dumber, quieter, more obedient America.

If you’re not mad, you’re not paying attention.
If you think this is normal, you’re the frog and this is the boiling pot.

First they came for Big Bird.
Then they came for you.

Want to stop it?
Donate to your local PBS station.
Support real journalism.
And for God’s sake, turn off the propaganda factory and read a book.

Gonzo Journalist, Reluctant Realist, Connoisseur of Chaos

Journalism’s Last Wild Card

In a world of press releases masquerading as news and algorithm-fed mediocrity, Justin Jest is the last outlaw of journalism—a writer who trades in truth, chaos, and the kind of gut-punch revelations that leave the reader dazed, enraged, and somehow hungover. Jest doesn’t just report the news; he detonates it, scattering the wreckage across the minds of his readers like shrapnel from a well-placed truth bomb.

A Degree in Madness, Earned the Hard Way

Jest’s education isn’t stitched on a diploma—it’s carved into the pavement of back alleys, campaign trails, and economic war zones. His Ph.D.? A lifetime spent navigating the absurd, the infuriating, and the outright dystopian. His alma mater? The School of Hard Knocks, where the syllabus is written in protest signs, corporate greed, and political hypocrisy.

Journalism, Unfiltered and Unhinged

While others craft palatable narratives for mass consumption, Jest serves up raw, undistilled reality. He doesn’t write; he rants, he howls, he exorcises the corruption and deceit infecting the system. His work is a fistfight between facts and power, and he never pulls his punches. If corporate news is a sedative, Jest is a Molotov cocktail lobbed through the newsroom window.

The Jest Doctrine: No Gods, No Masters, No Sugarcoating

In the arena of media sellouts and sanitized outrage, Jest is the defector, the insurgent, the voice that refuses to be bought or silenced. His stories are a baptism by fire for anyone still naïve enough to believe that truth and power can coexist peacefully. Every article is a mind-bending trip through the dystopian circus we call reality, narrated with the brutal honesty of someone who’s seen too much and refuses to look away.

Vital Stats:

Caffeine Intake: Beyond measurable limits; bloodstream classified as a hazardous material.

Life Mantra: "If you’re not pissing off the powerful, you’re not doing it right."

Unofficial Ban: Persona non grata in multiple institutions, including several boardrooms, press briefings, and at least one foreign embassy.

The Jest Experience: Read at Your Own Risk

Prepare yourself. This isn’t journalism for the faint of heart. Jest doesn’t hold your hand—he drags you kicking and screaming through the underbelly of power, money, and corruption. His words don’t just inform; they ignite. If you’re looking for comfort, close the tab. If you’re ready for the ride, buckle up.

This is Justin Jest, and this is the news before it’s been cleaned up for public consumption.

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