Can Big Bird survive President Trump?

President Donald Trump overcame more than a dozen Republican opponents, Hillary Clinton, an array of scandals and daunting electoral math to land in the Oval Office. But now, he may have finally met an opponent he cannot slay: Big Bird.

Republicans argue that they do not want to see the demise of the stations, only the demise of taxpayer funding for them. “The idea is that it can be privately financed,” said Paul Winfree, the White House’s director of budget policy and a Heritage Foundation alum. However, wealthy metropolitan areas would likely be able to continue to support their public stations, while poorer rural areas — places that lack access to quality news programming to begin with — would lose out. That could give pause to a number of Republican representatives. The universality of public broadcasting that supporters argue make it so crucial also make it tougher to eliminate for purely political reasons. There are many federal programs with far fewer fans — and far smaller budgets — whose elimination would be more politically palatable.