Unpacking claims that ‘Sesame Street’ characters parodying Trump caused him to target PBS’ federal funding

A rumor that circulated on-line in Could 2025 claimed mean-spirited “Sesame Road” characters parodying Donald Trump in previous many years had been what prompted the U.S. president to eradicate federal funding for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which broadcasts the youngsters’s instructional TV program. Trump has sought to finish the Company for Public Broadcasting’s (CPB) federal funding for PBS since 2017, throughout his first time period in workplace.

As one among many examples, on Could 7, an X consumer posted (archived) a video of Oscar-winning actor Joe Pesci portraying an actual property tycoon named Ronald Grump — one among 4 “Sesame Road” characters parodying Trump through the years. The publish displayed over 1.5 million views. 

The clip, displaying a watermark from a TikTok post (archived), depicted Grump informing Elmo and a few of the human solid members of his plans to switch 123 Sesame Road with a tall constructing named Grump Tower, a reputation parodying the real-life Trump Tower. The publish learn, “This episode of ‘Sesame Road’ again in 1988 is why Trump is concentrating on PBS and Sesame Road a lot! The episode was Ronald Grump intends to raze Sesame Road and redevelop it! Does this sound acquainted as a result of that is what he does all over the place!”

Different customers made related claims about Trump holding a “grudge” over parodic portrayals, for instance on Facebook, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube.

Nevertheless, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo and Google, in addition to newspaper archives hosted by Newspapers.com, turned up no proof to substantiate the rumor that Trump focused PBS funding cuts particularly, or partially, because of the parodic portrayals. Preliminary searches additionally failed to provide any data of Trump ever publicly acknowledging the character’s existence.

The White Home did not reply by press time to an electronic mail inquiring whether or not Trump was conscious of the parodic portrayals, whether or not he had ever made public statements about it and whether or not there was any foundation to the declare he focused PBS because of the Grump character. The CPB declined to remark and Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit that produces “Sesame Road,” didn’t return emailed requests asking if it wished to touch upon the rumor.

Snopes beforehand reported in regards to the 4 “Sesame Road” characters parodying Trump in many years previous. Pesci’s Ronald Grump appeared not in 1988 as claimed within the above X publish however moderately through the Could 18, 1994, ABC prime-time special, “Sesame Road’s All-Star twenty fifth Birthday: Stars and Road Endlessly.” Based on Fandom.com’s Muppet Wiki, the story ends with Grump abandoning his constructing plans upon realizing Oscar the Grouch’s trash can resides on metropolis property. The opposite three parodic characters, all Muppets, had been named Donald Trump Muppet, Ronald Grump and Donald Grump.

One of many extra outstanding posts selling the rumor, a Could 3 Fb reel (archived) mentioning the Grump character, acquired over 3.2 million views and featured a music about Grump being a grouch, very similar to Oscar the Grouch, and evaluating his property to rubbish. The video caption displayed a laughing emoji and skim, “For this reason Tr*mp hates ‘Sesame Road.'” The consumer posting the clip added, “Is that this why he needs to finish PBS?”

Background on the Trump/’Sesame Road’ rumor

Customers shared and mentioned this rumor within the days after Trump signed an executive order on Could 1 aiming to slash federal funding for Nationwide Public Radio (NPR) and PBS. The order directed the CPB to “stop direct funding to NPR and PBS,” particularly claiming the 2 organizations produced “biased” programming.

A fact sheet (archived) accompanying Trump’s order claimed NPR and PBS “fueled partisanship and left-wing propaganda with taxpayer {dollars},” for instance accusing PBS of favoring each the Democratic Celebration and transgender points. The very fact sheet additionally made particular point out of a June 2020 CNN/”Sesame Road” racism town hall — produced days following the Could 2020 killing of George Floyd — claiming this system introduced a “one-sided narrative to ‘deal with racism’ amid the Black Lives Matter riots.”

The Associated Press reported that federal courts pushed again towards related strikes by Trump’s administration to dismantle different organizations, with these courts asserting the White Home could have overstepped its bounds in holding again funds appropriated by Congress.

Days after Trump’s govt order, on Could 6, CPB announced the Division of Training’s choice to terminate the Able to Be taught grant, which traditionally helped to fund “Sesame Road,” “Studying Rainbow” and different well-known reveals. The New York Times reported the cancellation of the grant program resulted in a lack of $23 million for youngsters’s instructional reveals and video games. The article additionally famous the primary Trump administration awarded the preliminary installment of the grant in 2020.

As for monetary specifics, a PBS fact sheet (archived) featured knowledge displaying federal funding represented about 15% of its annual income. A CPB document (archived) additionally added, “PBS is funded principally by member station dues, distribution income and underwriting assist. CPB supplies funding to PBS for a few of the nationwide programming it distributes and for the infrastructure that distributes content material and emergency alerts from PBS to public tv stations.”

The financials page (archived) on Sesame Workshop’s web site stated 50% of its income derived from distribution charges and royalties, with out providing additional particulars.

For additional studying, a earlier reality verify examined the time when Mississippi officers refused to broadcast “Sesame Road” in 1970 attributable to its multiracial human solid members.

Sources