Sesame Street Is ‘Grooming’ Kids with Your Tax Dollars

PBS may be soon lose its ability to groom children on American taxpayers’ dime through the love beloved children’s program, Sesame Street, thanks to an Executive Order (EO) signed by President Trump targeting “biased media.”

President Trump’s May 1st EO targets “biased media” which specifically benefits from federal funding and directs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to cut federal taxpayer funding for PBS and NPR.

Fast forward to May 6 and the Department of Education terminated a five-year “Ready to Learn” grant that, through the CPB, provided $23 million in funding for the production of various children’s TV shows including Sesame Street.

Claims spread on social media from both sides of the political spectrum that the cuts would lead to the cancellation of the beloved children’s show Sesame Street.

Congressional Democrats also raised warnings about the future of the show with Senator Ed Markey posting on X, “Do you love Sesame Street? The Trump administration just terminated the $23 million federal grant program that helped to fund them.” Democratic Representative Melanie Stansbury posted on the House floor, “In Donald Trump’s America, not even Elmo is safe.”

Why YOU Should Care About Funding

American tax dollars are a public trust, collected from hardworking citizens who expect their money to be used responsibly for the common good.

Stewarding these funds well means prioritizing essential services like infrastructure, healthcare, and education over divisive programs that promote controversial ideologies, including those tied to leftist agendas or niche sexual identities as Sesame Street, and PBS as a whole, has been promoting.

When taxpayer money is funneled into initiatives that lack moral consensus or directly stand in opposition to the principles which founded a nation, it erodes trust in governance whilst fueling division, this undermines the principles of fiscal responsibility and democratic accountability.

Funding programs that push specific ideological or cultural narratives—particularly those centered on contentious social issues—alienates large swaths of the population and misuses resources that could address urgent, universally agreed-upon needs.

So instead of bankrolling projects that reflect the priorities of a vocal minority, government should be more focused on transparent, ethical spending that upholds American values, ensuring that our tax dollars serve the nation’s stability and prosperity rather than divisive social experiments.

Behind The Scenes (aka Details)

Despite the White House’s budget cuts to public broadcasters, Sesame Street will be unaffected as it is Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind the show, which relies on government funding for only 4% of its revenue, with 50% from distribution fees and royalties, 20% from licensing, 13% from foundations, and 11% from corporations. Individual contributions make up just 2%.

Tax records show that federal grants constituted a mere 4.9% ($9.1M) of the $186.9M 2023 operations budget and only 2.6% ($6.6M) of $249.3M in 2022, and 1.4% ($2.8M) of $195.5M in 2021.

Additionally, PBS no longer produces new episodes, as HBO bought production rights in 2015 for $30M-$35M annually, though that deal ended last year. New episodes air on HBO first, then PBS, with the 55th season (started January 2025) being the last on HBO, which will pay $6M yearly to host past episodes through 2027.

Conclusion

Whilst the White House’s targeting of funds for public broadcasters doesn’t mean Sesame Street is going away, Trump’s EO serves as a wake up call to public broadcasters seeking to sow division through children’s programming.

So whether government funding be 2% or 50% of an organization’s operating revenue, if it is promoting sexualized ideologies and/or undermining American values, it is too much.

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