NPR

The interview that carried the removal call

On September 24, 2026, NPR’s video program Newsmakers carried the interview that made Tucker Carlson the week’s most discussed former Trump ally. Host Steve Inskeep sat down with Carlson at his studio in Maine for a long conversation about the war in Iran, the president, and what Carlson called the spread of tribalism. The transcript describes Carlson as a one-time Trump ally who broke with the president over the war while remaining close to Vice President Vance — a journalist turned TV pundit who became a star on Fox News, took his show to the internet after Fox fired him, and spoke at the 2024 Republican convention. (NPR)

Asked whether Trump should be removed from office for going to war with Iran, Carlson first dismissed impeachment as toothless — “He’s not going to be removed for this because both parties agree with it” — then said plainly: “He should have been removed from office immediately when he threatened nuclear war.” Carlson was referring to Trump’s threats to destroy Iran. Multiple outlets characterized the remark as a call for the 25th Amendment; NPR’s own transcript as published does not show the words “25th Amendment” in that exchange, but the removal demand is on the record in NPR’s own text. (NPR)

Carlson went further, recounting a private Oval Office exchange he said happened two days after he flew back from Tel Aviv: he told Trump the war was being pushed by Israel, “And he looked at me and said, yes, you’re right. But in the end, we all die anyway. So it doesn’t matter.” Inskeep noted that NPR asked the White House about the claim; officials did not answer specifically but referred the network to a Trump social media post calling Carlson and others “stupid people.” Carlson also used the interview to argue that both parties were effectively controlled by Israel, a claim he insisted was “not an antisemitic conspiracy theory,” and to say he had come to see much of the US political debate as a distraction from economic realities like the tax code. (NPR)

What NPR actually is

The interview illustrated what NPR has become: a national news organization that produces its own content and airs it through a network of local member stations, while also acquiring and distributing programs it does not produce. The distinction matters because listeners routinely hear all of it as “NPR.” As member station KHSU explained, stations often call themselves “NPR” overall even though some of their content has no connection to the network; they carry their own local news and talk, plus programs from other producers such as Fresh Air (WHYY), On Point (WBUR), and 1A (WAMU). Stations are independent broadcast entities, licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to program for their individual communities, and not every station carries every show. (KHSU)

NPR began in 1970, when approximately 90 public radio stations came together to form NPR, Inc. National programming followed: All Things Considered in 1971, the network’s first Spanish-language newsmagazine Enfoque Nacional in 1979 (later discontinued), and Morning Edition, debuting later that same year. The top-of-hour several-minute newscasts became another key offering from the NPR newsroom. NPR launched NPR.org in 1994 and has since added the NPR News app, smart speakers, and the NPR One app; by 2018 its website and podcast content alone reached 57 million users a month. (KHSU)

The defunding crisis

The Carlson interview aired in the middle of the worst financial crisis in NPR’s history. After Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025, efforts to defund public media intensified. CEO Katherine Maher — in the job since March 2024 — testified before Congress in April 2025 to defend federal funding and answer allegations of editorial bias from Republican lawmakers. NPR later sued the Trump administration over an executive order that sought to bar Congressionally appropriated funding for NPR and PBS; the litigation became largely symbolic once Congress voted to strip funding it had already approved. NPR separately sued the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, alleging it caved to political pressure when it reneged on a $36 million contract to run satellite distribution for public radio stations. (NPR Illinois)

The rescissions package clawed back $1.1 billion meant for the CPB. One month after stations lost that funding, Maher visited WGLT in Illinois and warned that 60 to 70 stations — about one-fourth of NPR-member stations nationwide — might go off the air. Federal money made up a sizable share of smaller stations’ budgets (about 10% of WGLT’s annual funding). Maher noted that one in five Americans live in communities without local news coverage except from public media. (NPR Illinois)

The CPB itself dissolved in January 2026. NPR responded with philanthropy: former NPR Foundation board member Connie Ballmer donated $80 million for technology, and an anonymous donor gave $33 million — $113 million total. “NPR’s mission is unwavering, but our means must evolve,” Maher said, while cautioning that the gifts “do not replace federal funding” and that local member organizations, particularly in rural and remote areas, still needed support. A federal judge later ruled Trump’s May 2025 executive order defunding NPR and PBS “unlawful and unenforceable,” though by then much of the damage to smaller local broadcasters was done. By late 2025, more than half of NPR’s weekly audience of 46 million came from digital platforms — streaming and podcasts — rather than terrestrial radio, a shift Maher said would force the network to redefine itself. (TheWrap; NPR Illinois)

What this profile does not claim

This profile does not assert that NPR’s own transcript contains the words “25th Amendment” — the removal demand is quoted from the transcript, while the 25th-Amendment characterization comes from secondary outlets. It does not give NPR’s headquarters address beyond Washington, D.C. as the newsroom’s location, does not claim an outcome for the December 2025 CPB satellite-contract hearing, and does not assert post-October-2025 audience numbers. It also does not repeat aggregator-level claims about Maher’s past social media posts or about the internal Uri Berliner dispute, neither of which was verified from a fully read source.