“If we lose PBS, we lose a place where dreams are not commodified, where history is never a market calculation. We lose the spirit of a country that might yet learn from its scars.” Yes, absolutely. Thank you for sharing. ❤️
Defunding PBS is the first step in this march towards forced ignorance. Losing access to local libraries (or having their circulation heavily censored) feels like the inevitable next step...
I was a sheltered suburban white kid watching Sesame Street in the early 70s, and was absolutely shaped by these seemingly exotic scenes of urban people of all races being good to each other. No way I was going to be exposed to that idea anywhere else at that age, the idea that people who didn't look just like me could live in different sorts of neighborhoods than I did, and this was just as valid, just as GOOD as my own experience. To 5-year-old me, it was mindblowing, and deeply cool. Those images alone made me a better man than I would have been, I'm certain of that.
Donald Trump has yanked all federal funding from PBS. The excuse? “Woke programming.” The real reason? A 30-year vendetta against Sesame Street—because the Muppets made fun of him, and they got it right.
Since the late ’80s, Sesame Street has skewered Trump with a series of Grouch parodies that now feel less like satire and more like early reporting. Grump was a trash-hoarding con man in a cheap suit, obsessed with building pointless towers, scamming communities, and inflating his self-worth. He barked orders, fired the competent, and always—always—got thrown out when Sesame Street denizens saw through the act.
Sound familiar?
That’s the storyline Trump never forgave. Because unlike his voters, the puppets didn’t fall for it.
These weren’t just puppet skits. They were damning character studies. And Trump never got over the felt-based humiliation.
So here we are. The President of the United States, in the midst of economic collapse and civil unrest, has prioritized a petty revenge mission against a children’s television network. Not because it’s dangerous. But because it told the truth—louder, earlier, and with more moral clarity than any news anchor ever dared.
This is what authoritarian fragility looks like: a president wielding state power to silence a show that hurt his feelings. Because Sesame Street committed the gravest MAGA sin—telling the truth in public.
Such a powerful tribute to the power and gift of PBS. Thank you.
And while I am sure that Trump intends to erode and demolish all values and expressions of kindness, honesty, decency, integrity, connectedness, listening, learning, etc., I also feel unsurprised to learn that this attack on PBS is also probably just part of his vendetta-like approach to life and his backlash on anyone or anything that he perceives has made fun of him or not allowed him to have his way (aka, Sesame Street's character - Donald Grump, who tries to hoard and steal and build his condo of trash over Oscar and other characters' land). Let's not forget that the man has the emotional maturity of a spoiled toddler.
I’m in 🇨🇦 and send a yearly donation to PBS because I believe in it so strongly (for all of the reasons you so beautifully wrote about). The leader of our federal opposition party — right wing Pierre Poilievre — wants to do the same thing with our beloved CBC. We must do all we can to make sure that this does not happen!
Once again, it’s a step to oppression. By giving kids a weaker foundation and basic learning from early stages they can be oppressed later in life. Sure pbs can start getting advertisements and subsidizing their own station, but so many of us learned the abcs from watching Sesame Street.
With his newest peccadillo (impeaching judges) the 47th president is now revealing the true third rail of our system of government- the judicial branch itself. He wants a one branch government: the Trump branch. You might say his revelation of his true intentions for America is a branch too far. Congress has comparatively rolled over - with few notable exceptions. Trump will have a far harder time trying to promote his vision of a regal and usurping administration. PBS has long been (in Trump’s view) a black mark (pun very much intended) to his warped autocratic tendencies bearing fruit. The same “strange fruit” that he seemed to promote by insisting on the execution of the Central Park Five.
“If we lose PBS, we lose a place where dreams are not commodified, where history is never a market calculation. We lose the spirit of a country that might yet learn from its scars.” Yes, absolutely. Thank you for sharing. ❤️
Beautifully stated!
Defunding PBS is the first step in this march towards forced ignorance. Losing access to local libraries (or having their circulation heavily censored) feels like the inevitable next step...
Yes. Nice piece PBS gets close to real journalism, neutral balanced and civil. It's PBS or Fox.
I was a sheltered suburban white kid watching Sesame Street in the early 70s, and was absolutely shaped by these seemingly exotic scenes of urban people of all races being good to each other. No way I was going to be exposed to that idea anywhere else at that age, the idea that people who didn't look just like me could live in different sorts of neighborhoods than I did, and this was just as valid, just as GOOD as my own experience. To 5-year-old me, it was mindblowing, and deeply cool. Those images alone made me a better man than I would have been, I'm certain of that.
TRUMP GETS REVENGE ON PUPPETS WHO EXPOSED HIM
Donald Trump has yanked all federal funding from PBS. The excuse? “Woke programming.” The real reason? A 30-year vendetta against Sesame Street—because the Muppets made fun of him, and they got it right.
Since the late ’80s, Sesame Street has skewered Trump with a series of Grouch parodies that now feel less like satire and more like early reporting. Grump was a trash-hoarding con man in a cheap suit, obsessed with building pointless towers, scamming communities, and inflating his self-worth. He barked orders, fired the competent, and always—always—got thrown out when Sesame Street denizens saw through the act.
Sound familiar?
That’s the storyline Trump never forgave. Because unlike his voters, the puppets didn’t fall for it.
These weren’t just puppet skits. They were damning character studies. And Trump never got over the felt-based humiliation.
So here we are. The President of the United States, in the midst of economic collapse and civil unrest, has prioritized a petty revenge mission against a children’s television network. Not because it’s dangerous. But because it told the truth—louder, earlier, and with more moral clarity than any news anchor ever dared.
This is what authoritarian fragility looks like: a president wielding state power to silence a show that hurt his feelings. Because Sesame Street committed the gravest MAGA sin—telling the truth in public.
👁️🗨️ Read or listen to my article, “An Open Letter from Elmo to MAGA.” https://open.substack.com/pub/patricemersault/p/an-open-letter-from-elmo-to-maga?r=4d7sow&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
📺 Donald Grump video (one of many): https://youtu.be/5FeyDm4vrFo?si=fi_C4BGYnNC0AAP_
“improvisation as survival, creativity as defiance, jazz itself as a cry and a call to acknowledgment” 🙌🏼 thank you for sharing!
Such a powerful tribute to the power and gift of PBS. Thank you.
And while I am sure that Trump intends to erode and demolish all values and expressions of kindness, honesty, decency, integrity, connectedness, listening, learning, etc., I also feel unsurprised to learn that this attack on PBS is also probably just part of his vendetta-like approach to life and his backlash on anyone or anything that he perceives has made fun of him or not allowed him to have his way (aka, Sesame Street's character - Donald Grump, who tries to hoard and steal and build his condo of trash over Oscar and other characters' land). Let's not forget that the man has the emotional maturity of a spoiled toddler.
I’m in 🇨🇦 and send a yearly donation to PBS because I believe in it so strongly (for all of the reasons you so beautifully wrote about). The leader of our federal opposition party — right wing Pierre Poilievre — wants to do the same thing with our beloved CBC. We must do all we can to make sure that this does not happen!
Once again, it’s a step to oppression. By giving kids a weaker foundation and basic learning from early stages they can be oppressed later in life. Sure pbs can start getting advertisements and subsidizing their own station, but so many of us learned the abcs from watching Sesame Street.
With his newest peccadillo (impeaching judges) the 47th president is now revealing the true third rail of our system of government- the judicial branch itself. He wants a one branch government: the Trump branch. You might say his revelation of his true intentions for America is a branch too far. Congress has comparatively rolled over - with few notable exceptions. Trump will have a far harder time trying to promote his vision of a regal and usurping administration. PBS has long been (in Trump’s view) a black mark (pun very much intended) to his warped autocratic tendencies bearing fruit. The same “strange fruit” that he seemed to promote by insisting on the execution of the Central Park Five.