The fight over defunding Stars and Stripes, explained
The Trump administration moved to close Stars and Stripes, a popular state-supported newspaper serving US military members, and was criticized for the plan Friday. Shortly afterward, President Donald Trump reversed the Pentagon decision and said the federal government won’t cut funding to the paper.
Trump’s announcement came as he faced fierce blowback over reports that he’d called slain American soldiers “losers” and “suckers.” But it also renewed a longstanding debate over whether the Pentagon should be funding its own newspaper — while raising new concerns about the Trump administration’s approach toward taxpayer-funded news outlets.
Pentagon officials sent an order to Stars and Stripes in August requiring the paper to present a plan for shutting down by September 15, and for stopping publication by September 30, according to a report by Kathy Kiely for USA Today. The military leaders claimed authority to shut down the paper under Trump’s 2021 defense department budget request, which sought to eliminate its $15.5 million annual budget.
But Congress has yet to approve the president’s budget request; an appropriations bill that passed the House of Representatives in July reversed Trump’s proposal and restored Stars and Stripes’s funding. The Senate version of the bill did not include funding for the paper; however, as the Military Times notes, the issue of funding the paper is expected to be taken up later by both chambers later this year.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-fight-over-defunding-stars-and-stripes-explained/ar-BB18Kahq?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=DELLDHP
= new reply since forum marked as read
but no mention of suckers and losers.
